KGB Dwarf (-1971) Russian phantom cosmonaut. Moscow urban legend of 1970: diminutive robot Lunokhod crawler was actually driven by a midget KGB agent on a one-way suicide mission to the lunar surface.

The feat of remotely driving the unmanned Lunokhod lunar rover around the lunar surface must have seemed a bit beyond Soviet technology for some Muscovites. So an urban legend was put about that the diminutive Lunokhod was actually driven by a midget KGB agent on a one-way suicide mission to the lunar surface. How sufficient provisions were packed into the tiny rover during its eleven month mission was not explained…

KGB Dwarf, NEVER FORGET

There’s a book called Omon Ra by Viktor Pelevin about a similar situation. The Russians don’t have the technology for an unmanned lunokhod, so they send a cadet to ride it, in fact all of the stages of the rocket and the lander are performed by people. It was written after the fall of the Soviet Union and deals with how the Soviet Regime revered these supposed heroic acts, when in reality they’re just artificial. It’s really good.