World history: Photo Exhibition in Berlin marks Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space

A Photo Exhibition which brings into focus 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space, opened in Berlin (Germany). It showcases 55 photographs from RIA Novosti archive, most of which have never been published before.

“Photographers of “Novosti” Press Agency were among the first Soviet journalists to take photos of Gagarin. Our Internet archive holds about 3 000 pictures. And this is not a limit, as not all photographs have been digitized yet”, said Dmitry Tulchinsky, head of the RIA Novosti office in Berlin, giving his address at the exhibition’s opening.

The exposition is housed in the building of “Urania” scientific society in Berlin, the exhibition has been organized jointly with the German Aerospace Center.

Photographs are displayed in a rather unusual way – on special stands in exhibition room there are white helmets bearing the sign “USSR” with small built-in screens which display changing photos. Visitors can take a helmet and examine pictures in more detail. Available images help to trace the biography of the first cosmonaut of the Earth from his youth and preparation for the flight up to the famous start and time after it, when Yuri Gagarin became the national hero of his country and a global favorite.

The exhibition at “Urania” will work up to May 17, and then travel to other cities of Germany.