Science and the Unknown, Russia

Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut

Yuri Gagarin, space legend

Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the village of Klushino, Gzhatsk district, Western region of the Russian Federation (currently Gagarin district, Smolensk region). He became the first Soviet cosmonaut, the Hero of the Soviet Union, a full colonel, the first man on Earth to fly into space, whose radiant smile and the words "Let's get going ..." struck a deep chord in the heart of many generations.

Yuri Gagarin was the first cosmonaut of planet Earth, who became a living legend the moment his flight was announced in the media, but the ‘star disease’ did not touch him. He remained in the memory of his comrades in the first cosmonaut team and all those he worked with as a simple, accessible person.

However, Gagarin’s life was lavished with legends. According to one of them, the first cosmonaut was born on March 8, but some hospital official thought that it would not do for a boy to celebrate his birthday of the International Women's Day, and entered him in the birth register as born on March 9.

Notwithstanding, Yuri Gagarin showed himself a real man throughout his life. According to cosmonaut Boris Volynov, he was a "persevering and victory oriented man".

As another cosmonaut Pavel Popovich recalled, Yuri Gagarin, a peasant's son who became a pilot and then the first cosmonaut, could easily find common ground even with the British Queen, who invited him to her palace for tea, which was remembered by many as the ‘Gagarin-style tea-party’.