Born: 1937 (Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia)
Biography:
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian: Валентина Владимировна Терешкова, IPA: [vɐlʲɪnˈtʲinə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə tʲɪrʲɪˈʂkovə] (listen); born 6 March 1937) is a Russian engineer, member of the State Duma, and former Soviet cosmonaut, being the first woman ever to fly in space. She is known for being the first and youngest woman in space, having flown a solo mission on the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space, and remains the only woman to have been on a solo space mission.
Before her selection for the Soviet space program, Tereshkova was a textile factory worker and an amateur skydiver. She joined the Air Force as part of the Cosmonaut Corps and was commissioned as an officer after completing her training. After the dissolution of the first group of female cosmonauts in 1969, Tereshkova remained in the space program as a cosmonaut instructor. She later graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and re-qualified for spaceflight, but never went to space again. She retired from the Air Force in 1997 having attained the rank of major general.
Tereshkova was a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices including being a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1974 to 1989. She remained politically active following the collapse of the Soviet Union but twice lost elections to the national State Duma in 1995 and 2003. Tereshkova was later elected in 2008 to her regional parliament, the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma. In 2011, she was elected to the national State Duma as a member of the ruling United Russia party and was re-elected in 2016 and 2021. She has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.
In 2022, she voted for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to numerous Western sanctions against her.
Early life
Valentina Tereshkova was born on 6 March 1937 in the Bolshoye Maslennikovo, a village on the Volga River 270 kilometres (170 mi) northeast of Moscow and part of the Yaroslavl Oblast in central Russia. Her parents had migrated from Belarus. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, was a former tractor driver and a sergeant in command of a tank in the Soviet Army. He died in the Finnish Winter War when Tereshkova was two years of age. He and her mother Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova had three children. After her father’s death, her mother moved the family to Yaroslavl, seeking better employment opportunity, and became employed at the Krasny Perekop cotton mill. Tereshkova was first enrolled in school at age 10 and graduated at 17. She began working at a tire factory, and later at a textile factory.
Awards:
– Order of Lenin
– Order of the October Revolution
– Hero of the Soviet Union
– Order of Friendship
– Order of Saint Andrew
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