Leonov was born in Listvyanka , West Siberian Krai , Soviet Union . In 1936 , his father Arkhip was arrested and declared an " enemy of the people " . Leonov wrote in his autobiography : " He was not alone : many were being arrested . It was part of a conscientious drive by the authorities to eradicate anyone who showed too much independence or strength of character . These were the years of Stalin 's purges . Many disappeared into remote gulags and were never seen again . " In 1948 his family moved to Kaliningrad . In 1957 Leonov graduated from Chuguev military pilot 's academy in the Ukrainian SSR . He was one of the 20 Soviet Air Force pilots selected to be part of the first cosmonaut group in 1960 . Leonov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( the only cosmonaut that was not was Konstantin Feoktistov ) . His walk in space was originally to have taken place on the Voskhod 1 mission , but this was cancelled , and the historic event happened on the Voskhod 2 flight instead . He was outside the spacecraft for 12 minutes and nine seconds on 18 March 1965 , connected to the craft by a tether . At the end of the spacewalk , Leonov 's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock . He opened a valve to allow some of the suit 's pressure to bleed off and was barely able to get back inside the capsule . Leonov had spent eighteen months undergoing intensive weightlessness training for the mission . Leonov is the last survivor of the five cosmonauts in the Voskhod programme
purges
Great Purge
Alexei Leonov