How did cosmonaut Kakalov become Ivanov?

Weekly “Argumenty i Fakty” # 33. What damage has been caused by the current fires? 08/18/2021

They say that the Soviet authorities have changed the names of cosmonauts from friendly countries. Why?

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& ndash; Implementation of the Interkosmos program (flights of citizens of socialist countries on Soviet spaceships) took place under the strict control of the ideological department of the CPSU Central Committee, & ndash; explained historian of astronautics, writer Alexander Zheleznyakov . & ndash; Ideologues have noticed that in the Russian language the surnames of some of them can cause “ambiguous associations”. For example, it seemed to someone that the surname of the Pole Hermashevsky would be associated with certain details of the male body among the Soviet people. Therefore, we have replaced the letter “ X '' on “ G ''. The last name of the Bulgarian pilot Georgy Kakalov also sounded dissonant. But in his case, the entire last name was replaced: they used Kakalov's middle name & ndash; Ivanov (on behalf of his father Ivan Kakalov). Associations were also found in the Mongolian pilot's last name Maydarzhavin & shy; Gankhuyaga & ndash; he appeared before the Soviet public under the name of Ganzorig.

Georgy Ivanov (Kakalov). Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Источник aif.ru

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