After watching the "world response" to Mark Watney portrayed in The Martian. I was wondering how Apollo 13 was portrayed around the world especially in the USSR. In my googling I was unable to find a review of the soviet media's coverage.
I know they congratulated the success of Apollo 11, did they congratulate the successful return of the astronauts of 13 as well?
Follow up question: when did the actual space teams (NASA and the Soviet space program) start to view each other as compatriots in the goal for space exploration? When did they both cheer each other's successes?
I'm also unfamiliar with any reviews of Soviet coverage of Apollo 13 (at least in English), and if someone knows of such sources or sources on Soviet coverage on U.S. space achievements in general, I'd be happy for any tips!
That said, the histories of Apollo 13 mission do note that the drama united the world, and there are some grounds for that claim. As far as I'm aware from my study of Apollo 13 and of earlier US missions and their Soviet coverage (note that I don't understand Russian and hence my sources are very limited), the Soviets generally did portray civilian spaceflight in favorable light, although with a bit of "sour grapes" approach ("manned missions to moon are little more than publicity stunts, extravagant waste of money and typical of Capitalist excess, when we Soviets can do everything necessary with Lunokhod robots!"). Still, pioneers such as the crew of Apollo 11 were certainly congratulated, even if with reminders that the first man in space was still a Soviet citizen and that the Soviet Union led the space race in all the arenas that really mattered...
This was due to the fact that the Soviets were indeed reasonably serious if unfocused players in the moon race, but their hopes were irrevocably dashed when the supposed N-1 Moon rocket proved its fundamental unsuitability for this task by unblemished record of failure, in one case turning its launch pad and a large group of launch pad engineers to ashes in one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever. Since they could not beat the Americans to the Moon, they did the next best thing (familiar to everyone with siblings) and denied ever having even been in the race, which furthermore didn't matter, really. Nevertheless, space exploration was fairly popular topic in Soviet culture, and given the cultural significance of Moon landings, they couldn't entirely ignore the U.S. successes.
In the Soviet media, there was nothing like the almost real time coverage of Apollo 13 mission, of course. But the drama was still followed as far as I know, and it is a fact that the Soviets offered every possible assistance they could render to the rescue and recovery efforts. The safe return of the astronauts was likewise hailed as a success, but unfortunately, I cannot really say anything about the extent of news coverage - only that it most likely was among other news from abroad.
The coverage of Apollo 13 mission specifically has been discussed to very small extent in Lovell's book The Lost Moon (republished as Apollo 13); recovery efforts are detailed in Gene Krantz's autobiography Failure is not an option; other sources would be welcome.
EDIT: although I haven't seen or read The Martian, I very strongly suspect that the "worldwide event" theme really comes from real-life experience of Apollo 13.