An emergency landing in the taiga

The troubles did not end in space. During return the automatic orientation system failed and Belyayev had to land the ship manually — a first in Soviet history. The capsule came down 386 kilometres from the planned site, in deep snowbound taiga in the Urals near Perm.

The cosmonauts landed among the trees, far from any road. Rescue helicopters soon located them but could not land in the dense forest. Belyayev and Leonov spent two nights in around −5 °C cold before a rescue team on skis reached them and led them nine kilometres to a helicopter.