Alexey Leonov was born on May 30, 1934 in the village of Listvyanka of the Tsulsky district of the now Kemerovo region, and was a nine child in the family. Father, Arkhip Alekseevich (1893-1981), he worked as chairman of the village council, was repressed (1936), then rehabilitated (1939). Mother, Evdokia Minaevna (1895-1967), was a teacher. In 1948, together with his family, he moved to Kaliningrad (Regional Center).
Alexey Leonov graduated from high school number 21 Kaliningrad in 1953. In 1955 he graduated from the 10th Military Aviation School of Initial Training of pilots in Kremenchug, where he entered the Komsomolskaya set. In 1957 he graduated from the Chuguev military aviation school of pilots. Since 1957, he served as the 10th Guards Fighter Aviation Division of the 69th Army of the 194th Fighter Aviation Division of the 69th Army of the Kiev Military District, since 1959 – the senior pilot of the 294th separate intelligence aviation regiment of the 24th Air Army as part of a group of Soviet troops In Germany.
On March 7, 1960, the Order of the GSC commission was enrolled by a cosmonaut’s listener in the cosmonauts detachment of the Center for the preparation of the Cosmonauts of the Air Force, was among the first 20 pilots selected for flights into space. The first yield of man in the outer space Alexey Arkhipovich made on March 18, 1965 on the ship “Voskhod-2” on March 18, 1965, and the first who reported this event was the ship commander – Pavel Belyaev.
Alexey Arkhipovich was in the conditions of outer space 23 minutes 41 seconds, and outside the gateway in open space – 12 minutes and 9 seconds. At this time, he was removed from the ship to a distance of 5.35 meters. The total duration of Leonov and Belyaev flight amounted to 1 day 2 hours 2 minutes 17 seconds. For the successful completion of flight and the courage and the heroism of Lieutenant Colonel Leonov, Alexey Archupovich, on March 23, 1965, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Medal “Golden Star”.
In 1967-1970. Alexey Arkhipovich was part of the Soviet cosmonauts group who were preparing for the programs of the Luna’s departments and landing on her and was one of two candidates to become the first Soviet man who had to visit the surface of the Moon in a parallel lunar-landing program. Both programs were closed – in 1969, the Americans landed on the moon, and the so-called “lunar race” stopped.
July 15-21, 1975 Together with Valery Kubasov, he made a second flight into space as the commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft under the program “Union – Apollo”. Then the historical handshake of members of two crews – Alexey Leonov, Valery Kubasova, Vance Brand, Thomas Stafford, Donald Salaton took place in orbit. The duration of the flight was 5 days 22 hours 30 minutes 51 seconds. For the successful completion of the flight and the courage and heroism, the Aviation Major General on July 22, 1975 was awarded the second medal “Golden Star” and the Order of Lenin.