On April 12, 1961, a simple Russian boy from the village of Klyushino took a step into infinity. His smile became the symbol of the Soviet Union, and his flight the greatest technological breakthrough of the 20th century.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934–1968) — a person whose name is known on all continents. His first space flight forever etched him into history, transforming him from an unknown pilot into a mythological figure. But behind the triumph was titanic work, risk, and the unique character of a man who perfected the work of his life.

108 minutes
duration of the first space flight

Childhood and the choice of path

Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the village of Klyushino in Smolensk Oblast in a peasant family. His childhood fell on the difficult wartime years. Occupation, ruins, constant hunger — all this tempered his character. After the war, the family moved to Gzhatsk (now Gagarin), where Yuri became interested in aeromodelling, and then entered the Saratov Industrial Technical College, as well as the aeroclub.

In 1955, Gagarin made his first solo flight in a Yak-18. After graduating from the First Chkalov Military Aviation School of Pilots in Orenburg with honors, he became a fighter pilot. Space then seemed like fantasy, but it was the talent and calmness of the young lieutenant that attracted the selectors.

Selection and the Gagarin smile

In 1959, the Soviet Union began a secret selection for the first cosmonaut team. The criteria were strict: age up to 35 years, height not exceeding 170 cm (due to the size of the "Vostok" spacecraft), excellent health, ideal flying training, and weight up to 72 kg. Out of three thousand candidates, 20 people were selected, and then six, who began final training.

Gagarin was not the strongest physically. For example, German Titov showed better results in the centrifuge and thermocamere. But Gagarin had something that cannot be measured — incredible psychological stability, cheerfulness, modesty, and charm. It was at the closed meeting of the State Commission that he was approved as the pilot of the first "Vostok". Titov was left as a stand-in.

Secret flight: "Let's go!"

On April 12, 1961, at 9:07 Moscow time (6:07 UTC), a rocket carrier "Vostok-K" with the spacecraft "Vostok-1" launched from Baikonur cosmodrome. Gagarin was inside a spherical capsule almost in full automation — the system was designed to eliminate pilot errors. However, at any moment, the cosmonaut could unlock the envelope with the manual control code.

Before the launch, Gagarin said the legendary phrase: "Let's go!". On orbit, he spent 108 minutes, making one orbit around the Earth. The maximum altitude of the flight was 327 km. During weightlessness, the cosmonaut regularly reported his condition to Earth, drank water, and made entries in the flight log.

Descent and triumph with the "secret" addition

The re-entry vehicle entered the atmosphere, but at an altitude of about 7 kilometers, Gagarin ejected — according to the rules of the International Air Federation (FAI), the flight was only counted if landing inside the spacecraft. To officially register the record, this detail was kept secret for several decades.

Gagarin landed by parachute near the village of Smelovka in Saratov Oblast. The first to greet him were the wife of a forestry worker and her granddaughter. Then the military arrived.

TASS issued an emergency message. The world gasped: a man had been in space and returned alive. For the Soviet Union, this was not just a scientific and technical victory, but a powerful ideological weapon in the midst of the Cold War.

World tour and popular love

Immediately after Gagarin's flight, he was awaited triumphant tours to dozens of countries. He was greeted by kings and presidents, cars and golden keys to cities were given to him. In London, Queen Elizabeth II broke etiquette and took a photo with him during dinner, calling him "not an earthly man." The smile and simplicity of Gagarin melted the ice of the Cold War, although he admitted that the difficult duty of a peace envoy tired him.

In 1962, he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and in 1963, he received the rank of colonel. However, he was prepared less and less for new space flights: the country's leadership preserved the main hero.

Tragic death and versions of the disaster

On March 27, 1968, Yuri Gagarin and pilot instructor Vladimir Seregin crashed during a training flight on a Mig-15UTI in the area of the village of Novoselovo in Vladimir Oblast. The investigation was led by Air Force General Lieutenant, future cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy. The commission failed to establish a single cause: complex weather conditions, sharp maneuvers to avoid a collision with a meteosonde, and even a technical error in piloting were called.

Legacy of the first cosmonaut

Yuri Gagarin remains not just a historical figure. In 2026, his flight will be marked by its 65th anniversary, and his name is immortalized in dozens of monuments, boulevards, scientific centers, and even a crater on the far side of the Moon. The most important achievement of Gagarin was to prove that space is within human reach and to open the era of manned flights. His 108 minutes inspired thousands of people on Earth to become engineers, scientists, and researchers.

"Circling the Earth on a spacecraft, I saw how beautiful our planet is," wrote Gagarin. "People, let us preserve and multiply this beauty, not destroy it." These words today sound like a testament.

Permanent link to this publication: