Twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, cosmonaut Nikolai Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov was born in 1932 in Tomsk to a family of railway workers. Here he spent his childhood and began his youth: he went to school, made his first friends and teachers. After his first flight into space as a research engineer on the Soyuz-10 spacecraft in April 1971, Rukavishnikov noted in an interview with the Tomsk newspaper 'Krasnoe Znamya': 'My homeland begins with Tomsk.' The Rukavishnikov family left Tomsk when Nikolai was 12 years old. In 1957, he graduated from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and began working at a machine-building plant in the design bureau, where he proved himself to be a capable and initiative specialist. In January 1967, Rukavishnikov was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps, and in February 1970, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He made three space flights, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1971 after the flight on Soyuz-10 and the title of Twice Hero of the Soviet Union in 1974 for the flight on Soyuz-16. In honor of his feat, a bust was erected in Tomsk. The unveiling took place in the autumn of 1978. The monument is located by the White Lake, a popular recreation spot for Tomsk residents. Against the backdrop of the lake rises a marble pedestal 250 cm high, 39 cm wide at the base and 60 cm at the top, on which a bronze bust of the Hero is installed. The pedestal is engraved with the inscription: 'Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot, cosmonaut of the USSR Rukavishnikov Nikolai Nikolayevich for the successful implementation of the orbital flight on the spacecraft 'Soyuz-16' and the courage and heroism displayed during this, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 11, 1974, awarded the Order of Lenin and the second medal 'Gold Star'.