In Space, No One Can Attempt to Assassinate You

Those bullets were not meant for you, Alexei. They were meant for me, and for that, I apologize.

- Leonid Brezhnev to Alexei Leonov (Jan 22, 1969)

Speaking of weird terrestrial events and star voyagers, how about this doozy from behind the Iron Curtain, recounted by the world's first spacewalker, Alexei Leonov:

In the middle of January 1969 a reception was organized at the Kremlin to honor Vladimir Shatalov, Yevgeny Khrunov and Alexei Yeliseyev¹. A motorcade was to bring them to the Kremlin through cheering crowds gathered around Red Square. While the cosmonauts rode at the head of the motorcade in an open limousine, behind them, in a Zil-117, rode Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin. 

Valentina Tereshkova, Beregovoy and I rode in the car behind Brezhnev. Behind us came a long line of cars with diplomats and other officials. 

After crossing the River Moskva, the limousine carrying the crews of Soyuz 4 and 5, together with the car in which Brezhnev and Kosygin were riding, abruptly veered off to the side to approach the Kremlin through a different gate. The rest of the motorcade, with our car now in front, proceeded toward Borovitskaya Gate. 

As we drew close to the Kremlin, a man suddenly stepped out from the crowd toward our car. He was dressed in police uniform but was brandishing pistols in both hands. Without warning, he started shooting in our direction. Our driver sustained severe head injuries, and the car veered out of control. 

I had been sitting directly behind the driver, Beregovoy to my right. The second I saw blood spurting from a hole in the driver’s neck I turned my head sharply to one side. A shot shattered the window immediately to my left, and shards of glass flew into my face. Another bullet grazed the breast of my military coat, and a third was fired at the level of my stomach, again just missing me and embedding itself in the ashtray of the opposite door. Yet another passed just behind my back. Even with my head bowed I could see the gunman firing wildly until he ran out of ammunition and was overpowered by the crowd.

Our car had fourteen bullet holes—it is incredible that I was not killed. Had the car not veered away from the gunman, one of his shots would certainly have killed me. But I escaped without serious injury, Tereshkova and Beregovoy too. 

The gunman, it was later revealed, was a young lieutenant from Leningrad² who had sought refuge in Moscow with his brother—a policeman, whose uniform he was wearing—after stealing two military pistols from the barracks where he had been stationed. He said he had wanted to kill Brezhnev. He gave no particular reason. 

The authorities in Moscow already knew, when we set out for the Kremlin, that two pistols had been stolen in Leningrad. All trains had been stopped and the main roads in and out of the capital had been closed for fear that there might be a terrorist attack. That was why Brezhnev’s car had taken a different route. We were told this after the event. 

After the shooting all motorcades for cosmonauts returning from space missions were suspended. 

Oh, those Russians...

1 - Crewmembers of historic Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, although Leonov strangely omits Boris Volynov, the first Jewish person in space.

2 - It was decreed on September 6, 1991, that Leningrad would return to its old name, St Petersburg.