Doublers and farewell letter: 7 little-known facts about Gagarin and his flight into space

April 12 in many countries of the post-Soviet space celebrated Cosmonautics Day. Much has been written and said about the first manned flight into space and about the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, but there are still some facts that are not widely known. Here are some of them.

Фото: Depositphotos

1. Doublers

The world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had two backups at once - German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov. Both of them were part of the first cosmonaut corps of the USSR, but Nelyubov was considered a reserve cosmonaut. Therefore, unlike Gagarin and Titov, he did not put on a spacesuit, but was ready to fly if absolutely necessary, he says Air force.

Photo: video frame YouTube / HistoryTVru

2. Farewell letter

Two days before the space flight, Yuri Gagarin wrote a farewell letter to his wife, Valentina, and children in case of a tragic end of the flight. Valentina Ivanovna Gagarina received this letter only seven years later, after the death of Gagarin in the 27 plane crash in March 1968.

“Hello, my dear, beloved Valechka, Helen and Tick!

I decided to write you a few lines to share with you and share together the joy and happiness that I had today. Today a government commission decided to send me into space first. You know, dear Valyusha, how glad I am, I want you to be happy with me. An ordinary person was entrusted with such a big state task - to pave the first road into space!

So far I have lived honestly, truthfully, with benefit for people, although it was small. Once upon a time, as a child, I read the words of V.P. Chkalov: “If there is to be, then to be the first.” So I try to be one and will be until the end. I want, Valechka, to dedicate this flight to the people of the new society, communism, which we are already entering, our great Motherland, our science.”

Photo: video frame YouTube / TheExcellero

3. Spare buttons

Once, Yuri Gagarin said that when he traveled to different countries with visits, he carried with him spare buttons. This was due to the fact that when they met the fans tried not only to touch him, hug or kiss him, but also to grab something to remember. Buttons from the uniform were torn off very often.

On the subject: Yuri Gagarin saved the famous American pilot from the KGB

Photo: video frame YouTube / HistoryTVru

4. Meal with the queen. Three versions at once

In the summer of 1961, Gagarin visited the UK. He was even invited to lunch with Queen Elizabeth II, this meeting was later described by journalists and colleagues who were near Gagarin.

The fact of meeting with the queen and lunch is indisputable. But about how exactly this lunch took place, the evidence varies. We found three versions.

The first is that Gagarin, who did not know the intricacies of palace etiquette, took a lemon from a cup of tea and ate it. The Queen followed suit.

Second - confused by the abundance of cutlery, Gagarin said that he was born in a village and was used to eating everything with a spoon. The Queen said that she, too, was confused by the abundance of spoons and forks, and invited those gathered to follow the example of the astronaut.

The third one echoes the first. Gagarin allegedly ate a boiled egg served in broth. Although it doesn’t seem to be supposed to be eaten.

Photo: video frame YouTube / TheExcellero

5. Lace vs ribbon

After the first flight, Gagarin was solemnly greeted in Moscow on Red Square. The footage of the newsreel shows that Gagarin, striding towards the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev, untied the cord.

In an interview with the BBC, Khrushchev’s son Sergei said that in fact it was not a lace, but a suspender for socks: “Previously, socks were made without elastic bands and suspenders were worn on the calves so that the socks did not slip down. This rubber band came loose on one of Gagarin’s legs, and the iron buckle hit him very painfully on the leg.”

On the subject: Russia and the United States will send tourists into space on the route Gagarin

Photo: video frame YouTube / HistoryTVru

6. Medal

The first award Gagarin received after his space flight was the medal “For the development of virgin lands.” It was handed over after the helicopter that picked him up landed. Subsequently, this medal began to be awarded to other astronauts upon landing.

The fact is that due to a failure in the braking system, the descent vehicle with Gagarin did not land in the planned area 110 km from Stalingrad, but in the Saratov region, near the city of Engels. The development of virgin land, which began in the USSR in the 1954 year, was conducted, in particular, there, in the Volga region.

Photo: video frame YouTube / HistoryTVru

7. Monuments of Gagarin in the world

In total, there are more than 250 official monuments and busts of Yuri Gagarin in the world and, most likely, dozens of “unofficial” ones.

Among them are very famous, as a monument in Moscow on Leninsky Prospect, and very ambiguous, as a recently appeared monument in Serbia that caused an uproar in social networks.

There are monuments to Gagarin in Anapa and Azov, Arkhangelsk and the village of Veshenskaya, Greenwich and Houston, in Montenegro and Tashkent, in Kolomna and Nicosia, in Korolev and Saratov, in Montpelier and Tiraspol.

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