<description>&lt;p&gt;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. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is Part 1 of our series into the weird story of an attempted assassination of the leader of the Soviet Union. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://failuretolaunch.bigcartel.com/"&gt;&lt;u&gt;Find our new merch store here!&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch"&gt;&lt;u&gt;Support FTL on Patreon to unlock bonus content and join our Discord community!&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SOURCES:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;- &lt;em&gt;Into the Cosmos&lt;/em&gt;, Asif Siddiqi and James Andrews&lt;br&gt;- &lt;em&gt;The First Cosmonaut Team&lt;/em&gt;, Colin Burgess and Rex Hall&lt;br&gt;-&lt;a href="https://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz4-soyuz5.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"&gt; Soyuz-4 and 5 crews perform docking, spacewalk between ships&lt;/a&gt;, Anatoly Zak&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;FTL theme song by &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/@djdanarchy/featured"&gt;&lt;u&gt;DJ Danarchy&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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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. <a href="https://failuretolaunch.bigcartel.com/">Find our new merch store here!</a><a href="http://www.patreon.com/failuretolaunch">Support FTL on Patreon to unlock bonus content and join our Discord community!</a>SOURCES: - Into the Cosmos, Asif Siddiqi and James Andrews - The First Cosmonaut Team, Colin Burgess and Rex Hall -<a href="https://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz4-soyuz5.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> Soyuz-4 and 5 crews perform docking, spacewalk between ships</a>, Anatoly ZakFTL theme song by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@djdanarchy/featured">DJ Danarchy</a>

Failure To Launch

Part 1: Viktor Ilyin, Would-Be Cosmonaut Assassin

Part 1: Viktor Ilyin, Would-Be Cosmonaut Assassin

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