This year marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the great man who entered world history as the first cosmonaut in the outer space. Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union. On the eve of Cosmonautics Day, Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor of the Department of Russian and International History at the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities of South Ural State University Igor Sibiriakov shared the historical facts of the heroic feat by Yuri Gagarin.
SUSU is getting ready to actively celebrate Cosmonautics Day. As part of this holiday, the university prepared a large-scale and interesting program dedicated to April 12th.
What, in your opinion, was significant about the event of the first human space flight performed by Yuri Gagarin?
Of course, the flight of Yuri Gagarin is an event of historical significance for the Soviet Union, the world community, and for the Russian Federation today. In my opinion, its significance is determined by the historical context within which this event occurred. The end of the 50s was a time of very active competition between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, which took place in a variety of areas. This confrontation was systemic in nature and was very important from political, economic and social points of view. In this confrontation, the history of space exploration occupies one of the key places, because space is a special part of our existence. This is at the same time a dream of something unattainable, great, mysterious, and on the other hand, it is part of our earthly life, without which it would be completely different.
I think that people on both sides of the ocean perfectly understood the symbolic nature of space exploration. Therefore, the Soviet leadership hurried scientists, wanting to preserve the special position that the Soviet Union had occupied back in 1957, when the first artificial Earth satellite had been launched. It was important to prove that this had not happened by chance, that our supremacy had a rational basis, and therefore preparations for this flight were carried out in an accelerated mode. As it becomes clear today, not all technical problems were solved, especially with regard to the return of the descent vehicle from orbit. Therefore, the risk was completely real and very big.
What significance did Yuri Gagarin's flight have for the world history?
What Yuri Gagarin did is clearly called a "feat", because he risked his life, entered an unknown or poorly studied area, where the events could develop according to absolutely any scenario. For me personally, he is a hero, a man who accomplished a real and very significant feat for his country. But this event was important not only for the Soviet Union, as many people spoke and wrote about at that time. This feat was important for the history of all mankind, because for the first time we had the opportunity for a manned, albeit short, flight in outer space.
Why do you think Yuri Gagarin was chosen to carry out the historic mission of the first space flight?
It is worth noting that the choice that was made in favour of Yuri Gagarin, as it now becomes clear after analyzing many historical documents, turned out to be non-random, and the people who made it understood what this man’s mission would be after the completion of the flight. After all, by and large, he would become our country's ambassador of sorts. That is, the Soviet Union as a whole would be largely judged by how this person would look, what he would say, and what he would do. And in this sense, the choice, of course, was based both on visual characteristics, for example, the phenomenally charming smile of Yuri Gagarin, and political ones, as well as the features of his biography. Such an amazing and very important coincidence occurred, because indeed, the image of the man coincided with his biographical data and with the knowledge that he showed in the process of preparing for the flight.
But even with all this, after returning from space, certain moments appeared in his biography that required the art of improvisation from him, and he demonstrated it perfectly. For example, there is a beautiful legend that has existed for many years that Sergei Korolev’s choice of Gagarin was associated with the episode of the future cosmonauts’ acquaintance with their spaceship. Gagarin was the first to respond to Korolev’s offer to sit in the cosmonaut’s chair, but before ascending the stairs to this chair, he took off his shoes and climbed up wearing only his socks. And this special respectful attitude towards his ship, of course, was captivating. There was also the famous episode with his shoelace, when it came untied while walking along the red carpet; a very peculiar interaction with the Queen of England, who sympathized with him, and this manifested itself in several episodes at once. All this suggests that the right choice was made, and an image of an ideal person emerged, whom people not only in the Soviet Union, but also outside our Motherland will look up to.
What, in your opinion, contributed to the success of the first human space flight?
The first human flight into space is the result of the work of several thousand people. Not only engineers and workers, which was, of course, very important, but also Soviet scientists, because during the preparation and the flight itself, a huge number of complex scientific problems had to be solved. And the fact that this flight took place testified to a very high level of development of certain segments of science, which was recognized abroad. You can argue as much as you like about whose scientists are better, whose discoveries are more important, but this flight became a powerful proof of the success of the Soviet science.