Assassination Attempt
At 2:15 pm on 22 January 1969, as the motorcade passed through the gate, Ilyin drew pistols in both hands. Ignoring the waving cosmonauts, he opened fire on the second car in the line: he later admitted that he only assumed it carried Brezhnev. Unbeknownst to him, this Zil limousine was filled only with other cosmonauts from earlier missions: Alexey Leonov, Valentina Tereshkova, Georgy Beregovoy and Andrian Nikolayev.
Ilyin's shots struck the limousine fourteen times, killing the driver, Ilya Zharkov, before a guard ran him down with his motorcycle. The other occupants of the car were unscathed or suffered only superficial wounds. After Ilyin was arrested, the cosmonauts' ceremony took place as planned, just slightly delayed.
Read more about this topic: Brezhnev Assassination Attempt
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