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Article: Cosmonauts number zero. (includes related article on interviews with human subjects of Russian endurance testing)
- Article from:
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Article date:
- May 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Institute of Medical Biological Problems, a secret, semi-military branch of the Soviet scientific community, recruited "Cosmonauts Number Zero," a group of professional test subjects, in late 1967. The group consisted of young athletes in perfect health who had been through military training. In official documents they were called "mechanics," but in reality they made their living by taking part in medical experiments that tested the limits of human endurance. These experiments pushed their subjects far beyond anything Soviet cosmonauts experienced in training or in space.
I doubt that any other socialist country--even North Korea--would have subjected ...