One of the most touching moments of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 was the flight of the Olympic symbol. On August 3, to the song performed by Lev Leshchenko and Tatyana Antsiferova, all Luzhniki and TV viewers saw off the departing Olympic Bear ...
The history of the creation of the mascot
The history of creating the image of the Olympic Bear began in 1977, when a population survey was conducted in the country through the program "In the World of Animals" and the editors of the newspaper "Soviet Sport", where the audience was asked to choose the symbol of the Olympics. Almost unanimously, preference was given to the bear cub Misha. After the image of the mascot was approved, an order was made to the best artists of the country. The final version was made by the illustrator of children's books - Viktor Aleksandrovich Chizhikov. Among the 60 cubs that made it to the final, his version was also liked by the IOC President of that time, Lord Kilanin. Organizing committee The Moscow Olympiad chose this animal as a symbol, since it has such qualities characteristic of an athlete as strength, perseverance and courage.
TO Olympic Games a six-meter rubber talisman was created - the balloon "Olympic Bear". Initially, it was planned to be made in Moscow at the Research Institute of the Rubber Industry, but due to the large dimensions of Mishka, the manufacturing process was transferred to the institute's branch located in Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad). For testing and in case of unforeseen circumstances, two duplicates were made.
Project "Bear"
According to the plan of the organizers, the Olympic Bear was supposed to fly high into the sky during the closing ceremony. In April 1979, in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow, work began on the Bear project at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). A group of scientists was tasked with ensuring the rise of the talisman into the air. The bear was not just supposed to fly vertically upwards over the stadium. Having reached a certain height (3.5 m from the top of the stands), he had to leave the stadium as soon as possible without hitting the bowl with the Olympic flame.
At first, engineer Alexander Trusov suggested abandoning the doll and dressing a person in a bear costume, tying him to balloons filled with helium. The test took place at the Kubinka-2 airfield near Moscow. Trusov himself went to the test and put on a suit (it was made at a fur toy factory in the Ukrainian city of Zhovti Vody) and took off. The first flight was successful, after which it was decided to conduct the next experiment under conditions as close as possible to the required ones: twilight, climb 30 meters (the height of the Luzhniki stands). But this time, at a height of one hundred meters, the Olympic Bear suddenly turned around, flew 50 meters, and then began to sharply go up, disappearing from sight.
After that, the engineers developed a system of so-called "carrying balls". Its essence was as follows: moving in a certain way, the balls contributed to the displacement of the center of gravity of the object (Bear), which, in turn, made it possible to control the direction of flight with a sufficient degree of accuracy. Moving in a certain way, the balloons shifted the center of gravity of the object in the right direction. The operator in the cockpit in the right hind leg had to control the direction of flight. But on testing this option, the doll lost control, flew over a burning Olympic torch and flared up. Engineer Igor Artamonov, who was sitting in the cockpit, died from his burns. Then it was decided to fix the balls only on the upper paws and ears so that the bear would not roll over.
It is still not known for certain what happened to the Olympic Bear after he left the Luzhniki arena on an August evening in 1980 and disappeared into the sky. Whether he was a manned craft or just a huge rubber doll with balloons - no one knows for sure.
"The Olympic Bear is a symbol of the Moscow Olympics. How much more charming and humane was he than the monotonously beautiful and purposeful poster "builders of communism"! soul to the song of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, even the most inveterate cynics had tears in their eyes. Two billion people around the world watched the most touching closing ceremony in the history of the Olympics. And almost no one knew what happened next to such a cute Mishka. And he landed on the outskirts of Moscow, knocked down a beer booth, frightening two local "uncles" to death. Then he was exhibited for some time at VDNKh, next to other achievements of the Soviet national economy (record-breaking cows, the monstrous tractor "Kirovets" and the Olympic Mishka - there something for the national economy to be proud of!) At that time, a West German firm offered to buy a rubber Mishka for 100 thousand marks. Naive Germans! The Soviets have their own pride, which is not sold for despicable Deutschmarks! A bear from VDNKh was sent to one of the basements Olympic Committee USSR, where he stood until he was... eaten by rats."
On August 3, 1980, the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games took place in Moscow, during which the mascot of the 1980 Olympics, the Olympic Bear, was launched into the sky. Muscovites and guests of the capital accompanied him with tears in his eyes to the song performed by Lev Leshchenko and Tatyana Antsiferova from the center of the Luzhniki stadium.
The history of the creation of the talisman.
The history of creating the image of the Olympic Bear began in 1977, when a population survey was conducted in the country through the program "In the World of Animals" and the editors of the newspaper "Soviet Sport", where the audience was asked to choose the symbol of the Olympics. Almost unanimously, preference was given to the bear cub Misha. After the image of the mascot was approved, an order was made to the best artists of the country. The final version was made by the illustrator of children's books - Viktor Aleksandrovich Chizhikov. Among the 60 cubs that made it to the final, his version was also liked by the IOC President of that time, Lord Kilanin. The Organizing Committee of the Moscow Olympiad chose this animal as a symbol, since it has such qualities characteristic of an athlete as strength, perseverance and courage.
For the Olympic Games, a six-meter rubber mascot was created - the balloon "Olympic Bear". Initially, it was planned to be made in Moscow at the Research Institute of the Rubber Industry, but due to the large dimensions of Mishka, the manufacturing process was transferred to the institute's branch located in Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad). For testing and in case of unforeseen circumstances, two duplicates were made.
Project Bear.
According to the plan of the organizers, the Olympic Bear was supposed to fly high into the sky during the closing ceremony. In April 1979, in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow, work began on the Bear project at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). A group of scientists was tasked with ensuring the rise of the talisman into the air. The bear was not just supposed to fly vertically upwards over the stadium. Having reached a certain height (3.5 m from the top of the stands), he had to leave the stadium as soon as possible without hitting the bowl with the Olympic flame.
At first, engineer Alexander Trusov suggested abandoning the doll and dressing a person in a bear costume, tying him to balloons filled with helium. The test took place at the Kubinka-2 airfield near Moscow. Trusov himself went to the test and put on a suit (it was made at a fur toy factory in the Ukrainian city of Zhovti Vody) and took off. The first flight was successful, after which it was decided to conduct the next experiment under conditions as close as possible to the required ones: twilight, climb 30 meters (the height of the Luzhniki stands). But this time, at a height of one hundred meters, the Olympic Bear suddenly turned around, flew 50 meters, and then began to sharply go up, disappearing from sight.
After that, the engineers developed a system of so-called "carrying balls". Its essence was as follows: moving in a certain way, the balls contributed to the displacement of the center of gravity of the object (Bear), which, in turn, made it possible to control the direction of flight with a sufficient degree of accuracy. Moving in a certain way, the balloons shifted the center of gravity of the object in the right direction. The operator in the cockpit in the right hind leg had to control the direction of flight. But on testing this option, the doll lost control, flew over the burning Olympic torch and flared up. Engineer Igor Artamonov, who was sitting in the cockpit, died from his burns. Then it was decided to fix the balls only on the upper paws and ears so that the bear would not roll over.
It is still not known for certain what happened to the Olympic Bear after he left the Luzhniki arena on an August evening in 1980 and disappeared into the sky. Whether he was a manned craft or just a huge rubber doll with balloons - no one knows for sure.
"The Olympic Bear is a symbol of the Moscow Olympics. How much more charming and humane was he than the monotonously beautiful and purposeful poster "builders of communism"! soul to the song of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, even the most inveterate cynics had tears in their eyes. Two billion people around the world watched the most touching closing ceremony in the history of the Olympics. And almost no one knew what happened next to such a cute Mishka. And he landed on the outskirts of Moscow, knocked down a beer booth, frightening two local "uncles" to death. Then he was exhibited for some time at VDNKh, next to other achievements of the Soviet national economy (record-breaking cows, the monstrous tractor "Kirovets" and the Olympic Mishka - there something for the national economy to be proud of!) At that time, a West German firm offered to buy a rubber Mishka for 100 thousand marks. Naive Germans! The Soviets have their own pride, which is not sold for despicable Deutschmarks! A bear from VDNKh was sent to one of the basements of the USSR Olympic Committee, where he stood until he was ... eaten by rats.
(A. Khoroshevsky. 100 famous symbols of the Soviet era.)
Here is the story of this version, briefly. For some reason, it doesn’t tell at all how the bear was later taken from the zone of this boarding house, and as for those vacationers who saw him, their allegedly published memories on the Internet also look somehow strange and everything is cut off. [Or did they all mysteriously disappear as well?! – K.R.]
As for the names mentioned (from Faber to Surov), there is no more information about these people on the Web, except for links to the same article that supposedly the bear flew just like that and was developed by these people. The circle, in short, closes every time.
[I recall the famous saying of Father Brown from Chesterton's stories: "It is paradoxical, but sometimes it is very difficult for a person to believe that zero plus zero plus zero plus zero actually equals zero." – K.R.]
If someone else is still serious about everything they read, then I can say that on a number of servers the article about the same event ends differently. That Surov did not die, but only lost consciousness from overload ... And when he woke up, he found himself lying on the snow, his bear was lying at a distance, and live bears from the taiga, which stretched right next to him, were already approaching the bear to sniff him.
Therefore, here, I think, we can put an end to the conversation about version number one.
Since, in fact, version number two (or, rather, it should be considered the first version) was just described in Soviet newspapers as a fact, and an electronic copy of this editorial is on the Internet.
The Soviet newspapers quite openly, in the front line, the day after the closing of the Olympiad, wrote that our dear bear, having left the stadium, flew over the Lenin Hills and fell behind them, not so far away, on the territory of Moscow. After that, he was picked up and handed over to the pavilion at VDNKh, where he stands as a memory of our glorious Olympiad. The bear flew the way balloons fly beautifully - it just rose up on balloons and its own pumping, and then - at the behest of the wind. Naturally, no pilot was sitting in it.
And by the way, several dozen athletes can also see footage of how the bear is quickly put on its feet and set off on its way, untying the ropes with which it was tied so as not to fly away ahead of time, on copies of filming of those years, in the “video” section .
So it’s not very clear what else is here and who had to come up with it? And for what?
True, one may wonder - what if the aerostat bear really flew somewhere strongly “in the wrong place”? Let's not seriously discuss the issue with foreign countries, but still could fall on what improper type of object for this?
Here, they say, it was like this - after all, a special helicopter with a sniper was raised into the sky, and the sniper shot several balls with well-aimed shots, thanks to which the bear descended quickly enough, “correctly” and safely.
Well, well, why not. This version is mentioned on a couple of forums - and nothing more. So - neither prove nor disprove; nevertheless, it's probably possible. If "grandmother said" - then still the grandmother is not the most stupid ...
One way or another, according to the version that was described in the Soviet newspapers, no casualties and special emergencies happened. Only, perhaps, the bear touched a beer stall and frightened two citizens who were drinking beer there nearby. For some reason, this moment repeatedly passes through forums on the internet. Again, who knows.
And again, as you know, there is "folklore" and "family traditions" that wind around any historical event. As mentioned in another note, almost a dozen people claimed that it was near their house, they say, that a touching bear fell. Is it really that amazing? Such are we, people, and sometimes we like to “pull” the story of a true event to one degree or another exactly in our own direction, as they say. Nothing really special.
And from one doctor I heard this: they say, the bear was shot down by air defense. To be honest, it was this “sensation” that made me curious and turn to the topic on the Internet.
Well, again, not so surprising - such is the law of gossip: someone will hear about the sniper on the helicopter, already mentioned by us, and they will tell their friends already about air defense. And friends - can and believe.
About the flight of the bear also came out recently documentary, in particular, the artist Viktor Chizhikov gave an interview there, who invented our bear that year and spoke in detail about the birth of this cute image and his “life” during the Olympiad. And also about how, in terms of royalty money and copyright, the Soviet leadership then showed its other side ...
The film said everything about the same thing: how a balloon-bear flew over the Sparrow (or rather, then - Lenin) mountains and fell behind them. They even roughly showed this "azimuth".
However, if anyway someone wants to think somehow differently in terms of his flight - well, as Kierkegaard said, freedom of thought is the great and primordial freedom of man ...
The bear was then stored at VDNKh for a long time, managed to “grow old” and be decommissioned. A replica copy, apparently, was not made. But even now in the pavilions of the All-Russian Exhibition Center there are many smaller and various copies of the Russian athlete Misha.
The touching closing of the 1980 Olympics, which took place in the Russian Union, is remembered by everyone who saw it. A flying bear accompanied by a symbolic song performed by Lev Leshchenko caused tears of emotion in hundreds of thousands of people. But not many of those who sat in the stadium or watched the closing of the Games on TV then thought about the future fate of this sign and about where the Olympic bear landed.
Excursion into history
More than 30 years have passed since the 1980 Olympics, which was held in the capital of Russia, and its sign - the Olympic bear, remains one of the beloved and most famous folk heroes to this day. It was created by Viktor Chizhikov, an illustrator of books. By the way, the creator specifically gave him the name Toptygin Misha Potapovich. This sketch was approved as a sign of the Olympics due to the fact that it felt athletic enthusiasm, strength, courage and perseverance. He was elected among over 40,000 options.
The 1980 Olympic bear received worldwide fame and recognition. The creator of this sign received letters from all over the world. Happy were those who could get an image of a bear, a pendant or a figurine. By the way, for the creation of such a sign, Chizhikov was supposed to become a millionaire. But the miracle did not work out in the Russian Union, he was paid 2000 rubles and forced to renounce the author's rights to his offspring.
Closing of the Games
The popularity of the symbol of the Olympics, of course, was added by the farewell ceremony. After all, until now it is believed that the closing of the Games was especially touching. Then, when the Bear rose into the sky, many tears of tenderness flowed, the stadium waved to the mascot of the 1980 Games. But not many people thought about where the Olympic bear landed. These questions came up a little later.
And at that moment everyone brushed away tears, listened to the heartfelt words of the song by Pakhmutova and Dobronravov with the title "Goodbye, our gentle Misha." By the way, very few people understood that the flight of the Olympic sign was first rejected by the chairman of the sports committee, Grammov. On the corresponding proposal, he wrote that bears do not fly, so the idea of flying was denied. But the chief director of the Olympics could not rest on this, he managed to realize this idea only thanks to his own courage and perseverance. He addressed directly to the Chairman of the Central Committee of the CPSU since then - Suslov. They approved and supported this idea.
Where is Mishka?
So, the six-meter sign of the 1980 Games soared over the stadium and, in fact, nothing is clear about its future fate. Even in current times, there are two versions of where the Olympic bear landed. So, the most common is the next option. The sign of the Olympics flew to the outskirts of Moscow, where it landed safely. True, according to the same version, he knocked down a beer booth and scared 2 local guys very much. On this, his adventures ended, and he was exhibited at VDNKh. By the way, they say that at one time the Germans offered 100,000 marks for it, but the government of the Union did not even consider such an option. After the exhibition, the talisman was sent to one of the cellars, where rats gnawed it over time.
But there is another version of how and where the Olympic bear landed. According to the second version, the talisman was blown away by wind currents in the Moscow region. To land him, test pilot Surov had to open special valves. He successfully coped with the task, after which Mishka fell to the ground on the Mozhaisk reservoir. But Zhestok died during this operation. The talisman itself also fell into disrepair and was burned. But at the current time it is no longer possible to find where the 1980 Olympic bear landed, because it was destroyed anyway.
How was the Bear created?
But many are interested not only in the future fate of the mascot of the Games. It is far from clear to many how in the distant 1980 it was possible to send a six-meter figure into a controlled flight. Indeed, coming up with an idea with a touching farewell to a bear was even easier than bringing it to life.
The bear was made at a special institute of the rubber industry. For him, rubberized fabric was first made. After that, the gluers of the balloon shop, together with the specialists of the institute, created the figure of a bear. In case of force majeure events, two similar dolls were immediately made.
flight training
But creating a bear turned out to be far from the most problematic step. It was even more difficult to train the talisman to fly. The fact is that this figure is not completely aerodynamic, it seemed virtually impossible to send it into a controlled flight. After all, according to the idea, he was supposed to rise above the last stands to a height of about 3.5 meters and fly away from the stadium. With all this, it was important not to touch the bowl of fire. At first, it was decided to abandon the idea of a rubber doll altogether and send a person flying. Such tests were carried out at one of the airfields near Moscow, engineer Trusov put on a specially prepared suit and soared sharply up with the help of balls to a great height. After that, he was never found.
Another inventor proposed to control the rubber doll with balls that could shift the object's weight in the right direction. If everything had gone as planned, there would have been no questions about where the Olympic bear was. After all, in his right paw, according to the idea, there should have been a person who would control the talisman. But the tests failed: the bear flew over a flaming torch and flared up. The operator, seated in the chrysalis, died from burns.
After that, it was decided to fix the balls only on the ears and upper paws. Thanks to this, the bear did not roll over. As planned, he was supposed to land neatly in the Sparrow Hills area, and even this plan could not be fully implemented.