Imagine leaving for a long work trip only to have your entire country cease to exist while you are away. That is what happened to cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who launched to the Mir space station in May 1991 and watched from orbit as the Soviet Union dissolved beneath him, becoming known to history as the last Soviet citizen.

Far from being forgotten, Krikalev’s extended 311-day stay was a deliberate choice driven by the mechanical reality of keeping a living space station alive amid economic collapse. A trained mechanical engineer and amateur radio operator, he relied on a ham radio lifeline to the outside world and went on to become a living bridge between the Cold War and the era of international cooperation.

• How his hands-on engineering background, including a tumbling-station rescue, prepared him for crisis
• Why Baikonur suddenly sat in a foreign country and how diplomacy reshaped the crew rotation
• The packet radio link with an Australian operator that became his unfiltered news feed
• His historic flights aboard US shuttles and being among the first two people inside the ISS
• The relativity quirk that makes him a fraction of a second younger after 803 days in orbit