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The [[spacecraft]] of the [[Soviet Union]] were not individually named, nor are those of [[Russia]] today. Only the general type of spacecraft, for example, "Vostok," "Soyuz," or "Soyuz-T" is publicly announced after launch, usually followed by the number of the flight of that type of spacecraft. The Soviet and now Russian call signs are more nearly [[Code word (communication)|code words]], and so are not disclosed before launch. Each is given to a particular [[cosmonaut]] who commands a spacecraft, generally staying as his or her designation from spacecraft to spacecraft. The other crew members use the same call sign with a number of their rank in the chain of command suffixed. Russian popular journalism refers to the crew by the plural of the call sign (for example, "the Fotons").
''Kedr'', meaning "cedar," was the call sign of [[Yuri Gagarin]], the first man in space. It would have disclosed nothing to a listener concerning the momentousness of the flight. The rest of the call signs of the [[Vostok (spacecraft)|Vostok]] series were the names of birds. [[Pavel Popovich]] and [[Andriyan Nikolayev]]'s call signs in their joint flight in ''Vostok-3'' and ''Vostok-4'', ''Sokol'' ("falcon") and ''Berkut'' ("golden eagle"), were widely popularized by
Early [[Soyuz program|Soyuz]] flights intent on practicing docking procedures were given call signs elaborating on the first few letters of an alphabet. [[Soyuz 4]], which had the call sign ''Amur'', docked with [[Soyuz 5]], called ''Baikal'' - the names derived from a railway project of that era, intending to link those two geographical features. [[Soyuz 6]] was given a call sign equivalent to "Antaeus," which referred to the largest aircraft of the era, the [[Antonov 22]]. Its mission in a group flight was to film the intended docking of [[Soyuz 7]] (called ''Buran'', which means "snowstorm") with [[Soyuz 8]], called ''Granit'' ("granite") - standard Soviet military call signs. The equivalent for the letter ''A'' was ''Aktif'', meaning "Active"; it would be inappropriate for the mission of Soyuz 6.
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