The Presidential Library’s materials portray Yuri Gagarin

March 9, 2019 marks the 85th anniversary of the birth of the legendary pilot-cosmonaut of the Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Gagarin. The digital collections of the Presidential Library contain unique materials on the life and feat of the first man in space.

Yuri Alekseevich was born in 1934 in the village of Klushino, Gzhatsky (now Gagarinsky) district of Smolensk Region, in a family of peasant collective farmers. The school years of the future astronaut fell on the Great Patriotic War.

After the Victory, he studied at vocational school in the Moscow suburb of Lyubertsy, Saratov Industrial College. It was there that the student began to dream of the sky and enrolled in the flying club. This step forever linked his life with aviation.

While serving in the army, Yuri Gagarin graduated from the 1st K. E. Voroshilov Chkalovsk Military Aviation Pilot School, then transferred to the aviation unit of the Northern Fleet in the Arctic.

Soon, Yuri Alekseevich married Valentina Goryacheva. They had two daughters - Elena and Galina.

Perhaps, in the life of every person there comes a moment of the main choice. It was in December 1959 for Yuri. The young pilot asked to be assigned to the group of candidates for cosmonauts. Having successfully completed all the necessary examinations, in March of the following year, Gagarin had already begun training.

According to the generally accepted version, Yuri Alekseevich circled the globe in 1 hour and 48 minutes. The space pioneer landed near Smelovka village in Saratov Region. However, as it became known from the declassified documents, the historical flight was still two minutes shorter. This is associated with a number of dangerous situations that occurred before and during the "star travel" of Gagarin and which he bravely overcame. The writer and journalist Anton Pervushin spoke at length at a lecture at the Presidential Library. The video version of his speech, which is called “106 minutes of Yuri Gagarin: declassified details of the first space flight” (2016), is also available on the library’s portal.

The flight of the first man into space excited the society, and world newspapers printed special issues devoted to this sensational event.

The editors of the newspapers were inundated with enthusiastic letters from readers. The flight of Yuri Gagarin was perceived by people as a priceless gift to all mankind. Here, for example, the message of the war veteran A. Vinogradov, which was published by Smena in No. 89 dated April 14, 1961: - the era of manned space flight. Today I turned 40 years old. No other day of my birth was so full of joy”.

On the same day, Yuri Gagarin received Major and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

Then the famous cosmonaut began to travel abroad regularly - the so-called Mission of the World lasted a total of two years. Presidents, kings, scholars and artists considered it a great honor to meet him. Gagarin's career was swift and successful: he was the deputy chief of the Cosmonaut Training Center, trained crews, supervised the flights of the Vostok, Voskhod and Novy Soyuz ships. On it in 1966, he was understudy of Vladimir Komarov, for whom it was the first and last flight. The astronaut died tragically.

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was also engaged in social and political activity: he was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, a member of the Komsomol Central Committee, president of the Soviet-Cuban Friendship Society and an honorary member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

... March 27, 1968 - 18 days after his 34th birthday - the famous cosmonaut discovered sky for the last time. He and his instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a plane crash during a training flight on a MiG-15UTI plane. This happened near the village of Novosyolovo in Vladimir Region. The bodies of the pilots were cremated and buried in the Kremlin wall in Moscow.

Although the life of Yuri Gagarin was short, his fame and contribution to the development of all mankind is truly eternal. Even half a century after the flight of the first man into space, many people remember this day in great detail.

Many streets in cities throughout the former USSR, ships, airplanes, schools are named after Yuri Gagarin. Monuments to him are installed around the world. Gagarin is immortalized in the only art installation on the Moon: on the plate next to the spacesuit, he is on the list of eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts who have made a significant contribution to space exploration. Also, one of the craters on the back side of the Earth satellite was named after him. The Presidential Library’s portal provides access to a large number of postcards dedicated to Yuri Alekseevich. Of particular value is the reproduction of the postcard of 1961 with the autograph of Gagarin himself.