[FPSPACE] Alleged Gorbatko ('Almaz') quote: "We could see human beings on the street."

[Allen Thomson]

> quoted the Feb 1977  mission commander (that would  be Gorbatko) as 
> reporting,  "We could see human beings on the  street."
  
> Has anyone else ever heard of this quotation? 

No.

> How  credible does it sound?

Just based on the 1-meter aperture of the telescope and the orbital altitude (220-270 km) it doesn't sound out of the question if you use a slightly relaxed definition of "see." I.e., they could have seen dots on the street that, in the context, could be recognized as representing people. 

You'd have to know more about the telescope design than I do to figure out whether that potential was likely to have been realized.