Flight of the Cosmonaut — David Wright

Soviet fighter pilot Georgi Petrov is poised to make history as the first man in space. But can he survive the secret and dangerous world of cosmonaut training behind the Iron Curtain? Volatile rockets, lethal KGB agents, tyrannical commanders, and mysterious rocket scientists. How many lives are they willing to sacrifice to achieve their ambitious goals and who will be the next to die? But if Georgi ever hopes to escape his violent past and start a new life with the green-eyed girl of his dreams, he has to take this one desperate chance for glory. Flight of the Cosmonaut is an 85 000 word historical thriller which draws upon recently released Soviet documents (such as the Kamanin Diaries) and fifty years of cold war rumors to tell the story of the phantom cosmonauts -- the brave, young men and women who sacrificed their lives for the conquest of space.