Graduated from Air Force Radiotechnical Engineering School, Kiev, 1959, with an engineering diploma; he worked then in the missile force and later in the air force; candidate of technical sciences degree, 1974; Colonel, Soviet Air Forces, Res.; was selected as cosmonaut on 23.10.1965 (TsPK-3); OKP (cosmonaut basic training): 11/65 - 12/67; he was involved in the development of the Buran spacecraft; later on he trained for the Soyuz and Almaz space programmes; besides training, he was occupied with scientific research in the field of optimization of on-board systems maintainance and ergonomics both of different spacecraft and orbital stations; after he retired in 1992 he worked again for the TsPK; he likes football and tennis and his technical hobby is improvement and repair of automobiles, especially as Russian cars give a vast field for activities in this direction, as he wrote. In some documents his birthdate is the 17. April.