The Evenki people, once also called the Tungus, were proud natives of northern Siberia in the Eastern Soviety Union, though after the revolution in 1917 the communists forced the Evenk people onto collective farms and almost all of their nomadic tribes were settled down.<br/><br/>It was into this world of poverty that Vitali Irtysh was born, and volunteering for the incredibly dangerous world of cosmonautics training was what he saw as his way out.<br/><br/>He was no politician nor was he a member of the communist party; rather he was someone who believed very strongly in the writings of the famous Russian cosmist author Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky.<br/><br/>At this point, though, the sadness of the steppes of Sibera was as far from him as could possibly be. He had now proven himself worthy and could count himself among the very few individuals who ever flew in space. He spent ten days orbiting the Earth on the Vostok VIII launch, and on his return was named Hero of the Soviet Union and entered into the Order of Lenin - rewards that were so often denied his people at every turn.<br/><br/>Sighing gently, he realized that only one thing was going to make his life that much better.<br/><br/>The fact that he was going to get to see an old friend again, who he hadn't in a long time, since he had just gotten word that said friend was coming to visit the USSR.<br/><br/>While they wouldn't let his friend visit the Baiknour complex of course, he could find plenty of places to meet up. That was going to be nice.<br/><br/>Of course, he could never have imagined that anything was up. He didn't think that someone like that would have at all had betrayed him. It was more or less beyond him in a manner of speaking, considering that he had trusted the individual in question.<br/><br/>For now, though, he figured it would be just best for him to wait outside of the gates of the facility that he lived in and wait for the aforementioned individual.<br/><br/>He wore what looked somewhat like a bomber jacket that was, of course, fitted with a patch from the mission that he was so proud of having flown on. Marking his heritage were of course the shape of his face and eyes that gave him a visage that almost appeared like he were an Inuit. Indeed, some archaeologists had claimed a heritage between his people and those of northern North America.<br/><br/>Finally his hair had grown back during his isolation phase after the space flight here in the Kazakh steppes, but he still had it fairly short. Vitali would have liked to have grown his full tight topknot back in again, but it wasn't looking like that would be here in time for his friend to get here.<br/><br/>He knew only all too well that he was going to get some bad comments about it!<br/><br/>Naturally he dreaded that part!