Posts: 116
From:
Registered: Mar 2009

posted 06-17-2009 08:22 PM               

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I have a document with a Russian (?) cosmonaut listed with the following Cyrillic letter initials: WX.

I would like to know if there any here that know at who is attached to these 2 letters (seems to be at least Russian), normally period is around 1960.

Seems it is perhaps cosmonaut with name like Sha.... since the W = Sha?

Posts: 410
From: Bratislava, Slovakia
Registered: Apr 2009

posted 06-18-2009 04:40 AM               

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You are correct with "W" - it stands for latin "Sh". Then "X" stands for "Ch".

If we take your period given as around 1960 it should be someone from the first group of twenty.

We have there G. Shonin for W and E.Chrunov (in english spelling Khrunov) for X, but nobody who would pass as a one person for WX.

So either it is not one person or it is a different period (and some later group), it even may not be a cosmonaut or he (she) is not Russian. Maybe if you had some more details to narrow the field of options?

Posts: 1522
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006

Posts: 54
From: Germany
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 06-18-2009 08:37 AM            

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How do Russians use their initials? They have a first name, a father's name and a family name. The initials of the three parts of Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov's name would be BMK (B in cyrillic for a latin V). In case that Russians need to give two initials, would they use BK, or probably BM? In some countries they use the initials in reverse order. I think this is the case in France, so Patrick Baudry would give his initials as BP.

So I am not sure that Sh stands for the first name and Ch for the family name.

It seems that none of the 103 flown Soviet or Russian cosmonauts has both Sh and Ch in his three names.

I also checked many unflown cosmonauts and didn't find a match.

To make things more complex: Russians love to use diminutive forms for first names. Aleksandr may be called Sasha or Shura, the latter starting with a Sh.

Posts: 54
From: Germany
Registered: Jan 2006

Posts: 410
From: Bratislava, Slovakia
Registered: Apr 2009

posted 06-18-2009 09:15 AM               

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Helen Sharman - even when jokingly - is not a bad guess. I thought of ZHan lup CHretien (in russian spelling) where Zh in cyrilics looks like double W (it's a vertical mirror image of two W where the bottom one is upside down - well, this is the closest description I am able to give).

It can't be anybody from the soviet group 1, nor from the first five women, that means 1960 does not fit. It has to be later period. Without further details a difficult job.

Posts: 42
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Aug 2006

Posts: 54
From: Germany
Registered: Jan 2006