Commander of crew, Soyuz TM-33 space vehicle,
Colonel, Deputy Leader of Crew Team,
Instructor-test-cosmonaut of Yu. A. Gagarin
Cosmonaut Training Center (TsPK), Russia.

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
December 31, 1948, Bryansk.
Father - Mikhail Zakharyevich Afanasiev (1918-1975). 
Mother - Maria Sergeevna Afanasieva (Blinnikova) (1923-1999).

EDUCATION:
1970, he graduated from higher military aviation pilot school after A.F. Myasnikov. In 1977 he finished training at the 267-th Center of aviation hardware testing and test-pilots training (Akhtubinsk, Astrakhanskaya Area). He graduated aircraft construction department (night classes) at Akhtubinsk branch of the Moscow Aviation College in 1980, in 1995 - Humanitarian Academy of the Russian Federation Armed Forces.

MARITAL STATUS: married.
Wife - Elena Yakovlevna Afanasieva (Kalinushkina), born in 1955.
Son - Vyacheslav, born in 1974.
Daughter - Yulia, born in 1981.
 

AWARDS AND RANKS: 
Hero of the Soviet Union, Pilot-cosmonaut of USSR. 
He was awarded with Order of Lenin, Order for Service at the Armed Forces for the Motherland of the 3-d degree, Order for Merits to the Motherland of the 3-d degree, Order for Personal Spirit, medals.

HOBBY: car driving, football, collecting of badges and pins.

WORKING EXPERIENCE:
During period of 1970 - 1976 he was on service as a pilot, senior pilot, commander of aviation squad at the Fighter Guards Regiments of the Soviet Forces in Germany. He is the first class pilot.
From 1977 to 1980 he served as test-pilot, senior test-pilot at the Fighter Aviation flight testing service. He's learned 40 types of aircraft and their modifications. The total flight is over 2000 hours. The first class test-pilot.
In 1985 he was accepted as a candidate cosmonaut and in 1988 he joined cosmonaut team at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
From November, 1985, to May, 1987, he took a course of general space training.