14 Minutes Until Start

[3][4] "14 Minutes Until Start" was written in autumn 1960 by Vladimir Voinovich, a relatively unknown Soviet author at the time, during his six months working as a writer for All-Union Radio.

In his biography Design, Voinovich claims that he was the only worker at the All-Union Radio to volunteer to write lyrics for the piece, and, with help from Oscar Feltsman, the song was completed within less than a week of the order.

The song peaked in popularity in summer 1962, when it was sung aboard the joint Vostok 3 and 4 spaceflights by their respective cosmonauts Andriyan Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich, as well as at when the crews were received by Nikita Khrushchev after the missions.

[1] Another attempted alteration to the lyrics was the term 'dusty paths' (Russian: пыльных тропинках, romanized: pyl'nykh tropinkakh), which was criticised by Soviet censors as 'deromanticising the image of space'.

[citation needed] The song was not widely distributed in the Soviet Union until after the success of the Vostok 1 mission, but became an almost obligatory addition to any space-related musical repertoire afterwards.

Costumes and the interior of the Soviet apartment were recreated for the shooting, as well as historical chronicle footage and iconic items from the biography of the first cosmonaut were used.