Yuri Gagarin Lives in Each of Us

Gzhatsk is a small provincial town with its population hardly more than forty five thousand people. There seems to be nothing special about it. But the fact that Yuri Gagarin lived, studied, and worked there makes it different from any other town in the world.

Gagarin was born not far from Gzhatsk, in the village of Klushino, the Gzhatsk region. Nowadays the town is named after Gagarin, the first-ever man to undertake a flight into space. Therefore, people, living there, are somehow special. And students in this town are especially anxious for knowledge. This is a remarkable feature of those who study in the Gagarin branch of RosNOU.

A group of famous Russian cosmonauts came to the town of Gagarin on March 9 to take part in the 37^th Research-to-practice Conference, marking the 76^th anniversary of the birth of the first space explorer. Almost all the citizens took part in festivities together with the guests. The Gagarin branch of RosNOU actively contributed to and participated in various events, held in the town on that day.

Let us reminisce….

(To the 76^th anniversary of Y. Gagarin’s birth)

It is nearly half a century that elapsed after the first space flight by Yuri Gagarin which marked a triumph of the human in Space,. Today, of course, when space tourists are quite common, it does not look so grand a deed as in the distant 1961. At that time, after the legendary space flight, Gagarin became an example to follow for many people. Thousands of boys dreamed of flying into space. They wanted to be like Yuri Gagarin, whose diligence, faith in human perfection and the great power of human intelligence helped him to achieve his goal.

First dreams of the Sky

Yuri Gagarin’s father was a carpenter, his mother worked in a dairy farm.

Yuri Gagarin spent his childhood in the village of Klushino. In 1941 the boy went to school on September 1, but on October 12, German invaders seized the village and the study broke off. The Germans stayed in Klushino for almost a year and a half. In 1943 on April 9 the Red Army set the village free, and Yuri’s school study continued.

The Gagarins moved to Gzhatsk on May 24, 1945. After six years at school Yuri Gagarin entered both Lyubertsky Vocational Training School and an evening school for working youth.

One of Yuri’s teachers, Leo M. Bespalov recollected:

—…Yuri Gagarin saw fighter pilots in autumn of 1941 for the first time in his life. Since then, he “fell in love” with aircraft. He used to explore a plane that had crashed in the outskirts of Gzhatsk.

Teachers reminisce that Jury was a diligent, lively and very active child. They had to reseat him to a front desk because they were to keep an eye on him.

— When Yuri was quiet, that might mean only one thing that he was fascinated reading a book or a magazine which he would hide under the desk”, his teacher Nina Lebedeva would remember. — Yura was a capable student and he was especially good at mathematics. He wanted to become a pilot even at that time. The boys and I would make aircraft models after our classes were over. Yura worked very absorbedly, he was a cheerful, sociable, curious and lively boy.

First steps

Yuri Gagarin wanted to know as much as possible about a pilot’s life. He asked many questions about it, and his ultimate goal was to become a pilot. He was a keen sportsman, as though he had been preparing himself for his life-work since he was a boy.

Yuri Gagarin entered the Saratov Technical High School in 1951, and on October 25, 1954, he came to the Saratov “AeroClub” for the first time. This day can be considered a starting point for Yuri Gagarin in achieving his cherished goal. Yuri Gagarin completed with honors his training and made his first solo flight in the Yak-18. While in the club, Yuri Gagarin took 196 flights and flew 42 hours 23 minutes in total.

In 1955, Gagarin was called for military service. He was sent to Orenburg Air Force Military School named after K.E. Voroshilov. Y. S. Akbulatov, a well-known test pilot, trained him. Gagarin graduated the School with honors. He was doing military service in the 169th Fighter Air Regiment of the 122nd Northern Fleet Fighter Division for two years. He had flown 265 hours in total by October 1959.

From pilots to cosmonauts

On 9 December 1959, Gagarin wrote an application to enroll him in a group of cosmonaut candidates. Within a week, he was summoned for medical examination to the Moscow Central Military Research Aviation Hospital. The medical board qualified First Lieutenant Gagarin for space flight, and in 1960, he enrolled in a group of cosmonaut candidates. On 11 March, Gagarin with his family left for a new job. He started systematic space training classes. He was selected with 19 other candidates. S.P. Korolyov, chief designer of Russian spacecraft, selected candidates himself. Their height, weight, and health were very important.

On 12 April 1961, the spaceship "Vostok" was launched from the Baikonur Space Center with the pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard for the first time in the world history. He was awarded the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union”. And since then, April 12 is celebrated in Russia annually as the Day of Cosmonautics.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolyov characterizing the first-ever cosmonaut said: “I have seen a great number of remarkable people in my life. Gagarin was unique. He was a significant person”.

In 1966, Gagarin was elected an honorary member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and in 1964, he was appointed commander of the Soviet cosmonaut group. In June 1966, Gagarin began training for the “Soyuz” program. He was appointed a backup of Komarov, who made the first flight on the new ship.

On March 27, 1968, Yuri Gagarin met with a fatal accident during a training flight near the village of Novoselovo, not far from the town of Kirzhach, the Vladimir region. He was buried near the Kremlin wall on the Red Square in Moscow. Each of Us Retains Yuri Gagarin in His or Her Memory.

It is next to impossible to imagine Yuri Gagarin as a seventy-year-old man. He remains in people’s memory young, smiley, worldly and a kind of kindred to all of us. This was said by his family, and by those who knew Yuri Gagarin closely, who studied and worked with him. Joseph Kobzon, a man of noble soul and a born singer, instead of performing two songs, gave an hour concert honoring Yuri Gagarin and the Day of Cosmonautics. There were many celebrities who took part in the festivities.

The concert that lasted no less than five hours did not seem too long for the audience because of a friendly and appealing climate of the meeting.

That is how Yuri Gagarin could bring people together. And he still does.