MAJOR GENERAL ANATOLIY V. FILIPCHENKO - COMMEMORATIVE ENVELOPE SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: MAJOR GENERAL PAVEL POPOVICH, VITALY ZHOLOBOV, COLONEL PYOTR KLIMUK - HFSID 258960

Anatoly Vasilyevich Filipchenko was born February 26, 1928 in Davydovka, Voronezh Oblast, RSFSR. He was a Soviet cosmonaut of Ukrainian descent. He flew on the Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 16 missions.
 
After leaving the space programme in 1982 Filipchenko became the Deputy Director of the OKB in Kharkiv.
 
He was awarded:
 Hero of the Soviet Union
 Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
 Order of Lenin
 Order of the Red Banner of Labour
 Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration"
 State Prize of the USSR
 Order of the Banner of the Bulgarian People's Republic
 Medal "For the Strengthening Military Cooperation" (Czechoslovakia)
 Medal "Brotherhood in Arms" (GDR)

Vitaly Mikhaylovich Zholobov was born June 18, 1937 in Zburyivka, Kherson Oblast Ukrainian SSR. He was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on Soyuz 21 space flight as the flight engineer.

Zholobov joined the space programme from the Soviet Air Force where he held the rank of Colonel-engineer.
 
His only trip to space involved a two-month stay on the Salyut 5 space station (Soyuz 21 mission). The flight was scheduled to last for 60 days but lasted for only 49. The reason for the cancellation was the detection of a noxious odor on board. Vitaly Zsholobow reported to the Mission Control Center that the smell was similar to that of a propellant which was known to be toxic. The Control Center decided to abort the mission to avoid exposing the crew to further risk and because the research and technology programs were already successfully finished. He was in orbit from June 6, 1976 to August 24, 1976.
 
Although he never flew again, Zholobov stayed in the space programme until 1981 when he resigned to become director of a geological science research group.
 
He was awarded:
 Hero of the Soviet Union
 Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
 Order of Merit 3rd class (Ukraine)
 Order of Lenin
 Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (Russian Federation)
 Medal "For the Development of Virgin Lands"
 Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"

Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk was born July 10, 1942 in Kamarouka, Brest Voblast, Byelorussian SSR, is a former Soviet cosmonaut and the first Belarusian to perform space travel. Klimuk made three flights into space.
 
Klimuk attended the Leninski Komsomol Chernigov High Aviation School and entered the Soviet Air Force in 1964. The following year, he was selected to join the space programme.
 
His first flight was a long test flight on Soyuz 13 in 1973. This was followed by a mission to the Salyut 4 space station on Soyuz 18 in 1975.
 
From 1976 he became involved in the Intercosmos and made his third and final spaceflight on an Intercosmos flight with Polish cosmonaut Miroslaw Hermaszewski on Soyuz 30.
 
He resigned from the cosmonaut team in 1978 to take up a position as the Assistant to the Chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1991 he was promoted to Chief of that facility and remained in that post until retirement in 2003.
 
Klimuk is a graduate of the Gagarin Air Force Academy and the Lenin Military Political Academy.
 
He is the author of two books on human spaceflight: Beside the Stars, and Attack on Weightlessness.

Pavel Romanovich Popovich was the 4th cosmonaut in space, the 6th person in orbit, and the 8th person in space.

He was born in Uzyn, Kiev Oblast of Soviet Union (now Ukraine) to Roman Porfirievich Popovich (a fireman in a sugar factory) and Theodosia Kasyanovna Semyonov. He had two sisters (one older, one younger) and two brothers (both younger).
 
During World War II, the Germans occupied Uzyn, and burned documents including Popovich's birth certificate. After the war, these were restored through witness testimony, and although his mother knew that he was born in 1929, two witnesses insisted that Popovich was born in 1930, and so this became his official year of birth.
 
In 1947, he left vocational school in Bila Tserkva with qualifications as a carpenter. In 1951, Popovich graduated as a construction engineer from a technical school in Magnitogorsk, as well as receiving a pilot's degree.
 
In 1954, he joined the Young Communist League.
 
He was married to Marina Popovich, a retired Soviet Air Force colonel, engineer, and legendary Soviet test pilot who has been outspoken about UFO reality. They had two daughters. They later divorced, and Popovich married Alevtina Oshegova.
 
Popovich was also a keen weight lifter:
 "Service in the Air Force made us strong, both physically and morally. All of us cosmonauts took up sports and PT seriously when we served in the Air Force. I know that Yuri Gagarin was fond of ice hockey. He liked to play goal keeper. Gherman Titov was a gymnastics enthusiast, Andriyan Nikolayev liked skiing, Pavel Popovich went in for weight lifting. I don't think I am wrong when I say that sports became a fixture in the life of the cosmonauts."
He was also a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic 6th–11th convocations.
 
After his retirement in 1993, he lived in Moscow.
 
Popovich died in a hospital in Gurzuf where he had been taken following a stroke on 29 September 2009. Brain hemorrhage was cited as the cause of death. He is buried in Moscow.