The attack on Jan. 22, 1969, was performed by a junior lieutenant of the Soviet Army, Viktor Ilyin, who, disguised as a policeman, fired upon a motorcade at the entrance to the Kremlin.
Instead of the general secretary’s car, he shot a car with the crews of the Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 spacecraft, which Brezhnev met.
“We were driving along a beautiful street ... there were people who greeted us, threw flowers, crackers sounded. It was very cold, January, so we drove to October Square in a closed car ... Then we were transplanted into an open car, they said that people want to see, ”RIA Novosti reports the words of cosmonaut Volynov.
Then he heard claps and "he saw - a man in the form of a militia was shooting from two hands from his hip."
According to Volynov, Ilyin first shot the driver of the car in which the astronauts Aleksey Leonov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Valentina Tereshkova and Georgy Beregovoy were traveling.
Then the accompanying motorcyclist turned 90 degrees and drove off to shoot down the attacker. Ilyin shot a motorcyclist, he fell.
The astronaut noted that the attacker made 16 shots, after which he was arrested.
Then, according to him, a car drove up to the astronauts, and they were asked: “Are the astronauts all alive? Is everything okay Are there any injured? ”
Eliseev said that he was struck by how Brezhnev responded to the incident.
“We went into the wardrobe, Brezhnev enters right after us, and on his face is an expression like nothing happened. And he immediately tells us: "Guys, we agreed to pretend that nothing happened." This self-possession struck me, ”said the astronaut.
The investigation recognized Ilina insane, he was imprisoned for 20 years in a psychiatric hospital, in 1990 he was released.
In 2017, RT published an interview with Viktor Ilyin.