Part 1: Viktor Ilyin, Would-Be Cosmonaut Assassin

Cosmonaut Boris Volynov almost died twice in one week in January 1969. The first was when his Soyuz-5 capsule nearly burned up on reentry. The second was when a Soviet Army defector ambushed the motorcade carrying him, seven other cosmonauts, and Premier Leonid Brezhnev with akimbo Makarovs.

This is Part 1 of our series into the weird story of an attempted assassination of the leader of the Soviet Union.

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SOURCES:
- Into the Cosmos, Asif Siddiqi and James Andrews
- The First Cosmonaut Team, Colin Burgess and Rex Hall
- Soyuz-4 and 5 crews perform docking, spacewalk between ships, Anatoly Zak

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