Vostok-2 was piloted by Major German Stepanovich Titov, born in the Altai region. He spent 25 hours in the space, made 17 circles around the Earth and went down in history as the first cosmonaut who stayed in the orbit more than one day as well as the youngest of pilot-cosmonaut in the history: at the time of the flight, he was under 26 years old. And for those who were confused by his non-Russian name it was explained that his father, a teacher from the village of Verkhneye Zhilino, Kosikhinsky district of Altai Territory, was very fond of Pushkin, therefore he named his children in honor of Pushkin's heroes – German and Zemfira. As a boy, German Titov never dreamed of space. He was growing up like everyone else, but he had interest in technology: he learned to drive a car and a tractor, dismantled and studied a cinema projector, took up radio techniques and assembled home-made receivers. The same interest in engineering led him to the planes: when the Barnaul military enlistment office asked him where to be assigned, he asked to go to a flying school. And then he heard that pilots were being recruited for the first group of cosmonauts. German Titov was well liked in the group, as he was a people’s person. He could have flown first, they say, but the resume did let him down – his father was a village teacher, in other words, the intelligentsia. The year of Gagarin's death, Titov graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. But the country did not want to lose cosmonaut №2, so he was banned from flying into space. He engaged in desk research and organizational work, graduated from the General Staff Academy, worked in the Ministry of Defense and many other places. He died early: a few days after his 65th birthday. At his funeral Pavel Popovich recalled Titov's phrase said at his jubilee: “You know what the difference between an anniversary and a funeral reception? People say the same words, but during the funeral reception you don't hear them.”