In honour of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin and of all mankind!

In honour of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin and of all mankind!

April 12, 1961

 photo. archive RGANTD http://rgantd.ru/

This day became a day of the triumph of the human mind. For the
first time in the world, a spaceship with a man on board burst into the
Universe. The Soviet spaceship ‘Vostok’ with a Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was led
by the booster ‘Vostok’ to the low earth orbit.
Yuri Gagarin is cosmonaut no. 1 and no one else will ever deserve this glory and
this title.
Yuri Gagarin paved the way for humanity to travel into space. Now it is a road
well travelled.
Gagarin’s followers storm new space heights. Nevertheless, they remember well
that he was the first – Soviet cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel.
On April 12, 1961, he carried out the world’s first flight into space on the
spaceship ‘Vostok’. The flight lasted 1 hour 48 minutes.
Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1939 in the village Klushino, Gzhatsk area of
the Western region of the USSR. Yuri was the third child in the family.
He came from a peasant family: his father and mother were collective farmers.
His childhood Yuri Gagarin spent in the village Klushino. On September 1, 1941
Yuri started school, but on October 12 German fascist troops occupied the village, thus,
his education was interrupted.
Only when on April 9, 1943 Soviet Army liberated the village, and Yuri was able
to continue his schooling.
In 1945, the Gagarins moved to the town of Gzhatsk. 1945, Yuri graduated from
the sixth grade of Gzhatsk high school and got enrolled in Lybertsy vocational school
nr 10. At the same time, he enrolled in night school of youth workers, which he
graduated in May 1951. In the same year he graduated with honours from the college
obtaining the speciality of moulder-caster.
In 1951, Gagarin entered Saratov industrial technical school, and in 1945, he
joined Saratov Aviation Club. In 1955, Yuri graduated school with honours and made
his first solo flight on the Yak-18. In the aviation club Yuri Gagarin had completed 196
flights and flew a total of 42 hours and 23 minutes.
In 1955, Gagarin was drafted and sent to the city of Orenburg, to the 1st Military
Aviation School named after Kiliment Voroshilov. In 1957, Yuri Gagarin graduated his
studies with honours and then he served in the 169th Fighter Regiment of the Northern
Fleet for 2 years.
In 1959, Gagarin married Valentina Goryacheva.
In 1959, Gagarin sent an application form asking to enrol him in a group of
would-be cosmonauts.
On March 3, 1960 by order of the Commander of the Air Force of the Soviet
Union, Yuri Gagarin was enrolled in a group of would-be cosmonauts.
On April 12, 1961, from the cosmodrom Baikonur for the first time in the world,
the spaceship ‘Vostok’ with pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on board started into space.
For this deed Yuri Gagarin was awarded the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’. In order
to mark this occasion, the 12th of April was proclaimed as Day of Astronautics.
On March 27, 1968, Yuri Gagarin died in unclear circumstances near the village
Novoselovo of Vladimirsky region during one training flight in the MiG-15UTI
together with the military pilot Seregin. Yuri Gagarin is buried near the Kremlin wall
on the Red Square.

art magazine "Golden Collection"