Biography of Yuri Gagarin

                                             
                               
                                             

                     Yuri Gagarin: The First Man in Space

On 12 April, 1961, Baikonur Cosmodrome inwhat is now Kazakhstan picked up a transmission that changed human history. “I can see the clouds. I can see everything. It’s beautiful!” Spoken in a youthful Russian voice, thosewords came from a place no human had ever gone before. Sat 327 km above the surface of the Earth,Yuri Gagarin had just become the first man to ever visit space. Outside his window, our planet hung brilliantblue against the cold darkness of the universe. Thanks to this one Russian pilot, mankindwould now have a whole new frontier to explore; a frontier we’re still trying to tame sixdecades later.

 Today, the name Yuri Gagarin remains worldfamous, up there right beside Neil Armstrong in terms of amazing firsts. But who really was this Soviet spaceman, andhow did he come to be sitting in that capsule? Born into a poor peasant family on the eveof WWII, Gagarin could’ve easily never amounted to much. But thanks to the sheer force of his talent,he wound up changing history. In the video today, Biographics is strappinginto its Soyuz and aiming for the stars, as we uncover the life of the very first spaceman. Hard Times If you were picking a time and place in whichto be born, 1934 and Klushino would probably be far down your list. That’s because Klushino is a poor villagein western Russia.

The sort of place where hens roam the streetsand living in a weathered wooden shack is practically a luxury. But it’s also because Klushino at this particularpoint in time was undergoing a painful decade. In 1934, the Soviet countryside was alreadyin the throes of a Stalinist agricultural shakeup that resulted in a whole ton of povertyand famine. In just a few years, it would be shaken upeven harder, when Nazi Germany invaded. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. For now, just know that when Yuri Gagarinwas born in Klushino on March 9, 1934, it wasn’t into circumstances that screamed“hey, isn’t this great!” The third of four children, Gagarin was theson of a carpenter and a milkmaid, both of whom worked on the nearby collective farm.

This being Soviet Russia, that meant doingbackbreaking work for a pittance while wallowing in poverty. It’s been suggested the reason Gagarin nevergrew beyond 157 cm - or 5ft 2 in old money - was down to childhood malnutrition. Yet, despite this unpromising start, the boyYuri seems to have been relatively content. One feature everyone who encountered him seemsto remember is that he was always smiling. A big, open smile that would one day win himfriends across the globe. But first the boy would have to survive aperiod in which there was very little to smile about. On June 22, 1941, when Gagarin was only 7,Nazi Germany launched a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. For the first couple of years of WWII, Hitlerand Stalin had been allies. But now, as Panzer tanks rolled across theflat grasslands of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, all the hatred between the two came bubblingout. When the German frontlines reached Klushino,the Nazis threw the Gagarin family out their home, forcing them to build a mud hut a mere3 meters square to live in. Gagarin’s two older siblings were arrestedand sent as slave labor to camps in Poland. When Gagarin and his younger brother Boriswere caught trying to sabotage German vehicles by sticking potatoes up their tailpipes, anenraged soldier tried to hang Boris from an apple tree.

 It was only when Gagarin’s parents beggedon their knees for their five year old son’s life that the Nazis relented. Yet even amid the apocalyptic horrors of lifeon the eastern front, Gagarin still managed to find inspiration. One clear day, a pair of German Messerschmittswere engaged by two Soviet Yaks in a dogfight high above Klushino. One Nazi plane was destroyed in the fight,while one of the Yaks was shot down. Like the rest of the villagers, 7-year oldGagarin rushed to help the downed Soviet airman. But when he reached him, the boy couldn’tmove. Couldn’t do anything but stare at this impossibleman who’d fallen out the sky. It’s said that this was the moment YuriGagarin first decided to become a pilot. Finally, in 1945, Germany was defeated andpeace declared in Europe. In the aftermath of the Nazi occupation, Gagarin’sdad decided to move the entire household to the town of Gzhatsk. Like, literally. Mr. Gagarin sawed up the family’s woodenshack, transported it bit by bit to Gzhatsk, and rebuilt it by hand for them to live in. It would be from this humble, reconstructedshack on the fringes of this anonymous town that Yuri Gagarin would truly begin his journeyto the stars.

The Sky’s the Limit Compared to the deprivation of Klushino, Gzhatskwas practically a paradise. There was work for Gagarin’s parents. A sizeable school where Yuri could make friendsand meet girls. There was also an aviation club the teenagerjoined, where he learned all about aircraft despite being too young to fly. Not that he yet seemed pilot material. When Gagarin left school at 16, it wasn’tto enroll in the Air Forces. It was to train to be a foundryman, a decentenough job in the USSR, but not one that usually lead to a YouTube channel in the far futuredoing videos on you. Gagarin, too, must’ve sensed this was adead end. After a single year, in 1951, he transferredaway from his studies, away from his family, all the way down the the brand-new technicalschool in Saratov. Supposedly, he was there to study tractors. But were you to ask the teenage Gagarin anythingabout them, he’d have probably just given you one of his trademark shy smiles. That’s because Gagarin was really in Saratovfor one reason.

The school’s shiny new flight club. Unlike the aviation club in Gzhatsk, the biggerone down in Saratov really did allow its students to fly planes. For the first time in his life, Yuri Gagarintook to the skies onboard a Yak-18. Looking back later, he would say: “That flight filled me with pride and gavemeaning to my whole life.” When Gagarin finally graduated, no-one harboredany illusions that he was gonna be a tractor repairman. In 1955, aged 21, Gagarin enrolled in thePilots School in Orenberg. The mid-50s were a time of great change inthe USSR. Two years before, Stalin had died. In just one more year, Nikita Khrushchev wouldmake his Secret Speech, beginning a thaw that would see long-lost freedoms regained. Maybe it was the mood in the entire nation,but Gagarin seems to have blossomed in Orenberg.

It was while at pilot school that he met ValentinaGoryacheva, and so turned her head that she fell for him without ever really knowing why. It was there, too, that Gagarin took his firstsolo flight in a MiG-15 jet, an experience that made even his virgin flight in the Yak-18appear trivial. By 1957, Gagarin was lucky in love, and cruisingthrough his studies. He was recognized as a brilliant pilot, despitehis short stature meaning he had to sit atop a cushion to see out the cockpit. And this was perfect timing. Because 1957 was when mankind finally beganlooking upward. On August 21, the world’s first intercontinentalballistic missile was launched in the USSR. Designed by the ultra-secretive rocket geniusSergei Korolev, the R-7 “Semyorka” was a breakthrough in weapons technology thatleft the USA eating Soviet dust. But while Moscow loved the R-7 for its offensivecapabilities, Korolev wanted to use it to expand mankind’s horizons. That October, another Korolev rocket blastedoff from the Baikonur launchpad in what is now Kazakhstan. But rather than carrying a warhead, it wascarrying a small metal orb the size of a beachball. That day, Sputnik 1 became the first manmadesatellite in orbit. It was a moment that changed everything, markingthe dawn of the Space Age. But Korolev wasn’t done yet.

 He had another goal, one so secret, so preposterous,that only a handful of people knew about it. Korolev wanted to send a man into space. It was this impossible dream that would soontransform Yuri Gagarin’s life. Searching for Starman Two years after Sputnik’s launch, in Octoberof 1959, groups of mysterious recruiters began fanning out across the USSR, looking for pilots. By now, Yuri Gagarin was a lieutenant in theSoviet Air Forces, based in chilly Murmansk in the Arctic Circle. He and Valentina had married three weeks afterSputnik’s launch, and their lives were now as good as they’d ever dreamed. Then these mysterious recruiters came knockingat Gagarin’s base, and everything was turned upside down. Alongside his comrades, Gagarin was subjectedto a battery of tests, physical and mental, that were so strenuous few could pass them. When those were done, the successful pilotswere sent to Burdenko military hospital in Moscow, where Gagarin later recalled: “They tapped our bodies with hammers, twistedus about on special devices and checked the vestibular organs in our ears…

They tested us from head to toe.” By the time the tests were over, only 20 pilotsremained. 20 pilots from across the USSR, the creme-de-la-cremeof Soviet airmanship. It was now clear to the remaining pilots whatall this was about. They were in the running to be the first-evercosmonaut. Shortly after passing his medical, Gagarinand Valentina left behind their cold, comfortable lives in Murmansk, and transferred to oneof the most-secretive towns in Russia: Star City. A closed town, Star City was a place of luxuryunparalleled even in Moscow; with well-stocked shops and vast apartments. But while life in Star City may have beenluxurious, it was also tough. As the first astronaut training program inthe world - America was still dicking about with chimpanzees at this stage - Star City’strials pushed the 20 pilots to their limits. They endured G-forces even seasoned pilotshad never experienced. Underwent physical tests so rigorous thatmost dropped out. Eventually, only six remained, all of themshort men. Apparently Korlov had gone and built a capsuleso small no average-sized man could dream of fitting inside.

At last, those six short men became two: YuriGagarin and Gherman Titov. Gagarin was convinced that Titov would bethe one chosen. Possibly the best pilot in the USSR, he wasintense, athletic, and educated. In another time, in another place, he likelywould’ve gotten the job. But this was the Soviet Union, the workers’paradise. When word got to Nikita Khrushchev - himselfthe son of peasants - that the choice had come down to a poor boy from the sticks, anda middle class intellectual, he supposedly told Korolev to forget Titov. The first man in space would be Yuri Gagarin. By the time word reached the two pilots, they’ddecamped to Baikonur Cosmodrome, on the vast plains of the Kazakh Steppe, to prepare forthe launch. How exactly Titov took the news is a matterof some debate. Although all accounts say he was outragedat the time, some claim he found peace with the snub in later life, while others say hedied still bitter at being robbed of his place in the history books. Either way, on April 12, 1961, it was Gagarinwho got out of bed knowing he had a date with destiny. The Spaceman If your idea of rocket launches comes viaHollywood, you might be picturing Yuri Gagarin sat in his capsule, listening to a countdownbefore liftoff. But that image would be entirely wrong, asKorolev thought the idea of a countdown absurd American nonsense. Instead, Gagarin sat there listening to Russianlove songs, waiting for the final checks to finish. That morning, he’d awoken at 05:30 am toget to the launchpad.

 There, he’d made time for a quick pee againstthe back of his bus, a bit of necessary business that every future cosmonaut would repeat inthe hopes of getting some of Gagarin’s good luck. Now Gagarin was sat atop a gigantic missilepointed at the stars, not knowing whether death or destiny awaited him. At exactly 09:06 am, Korolev punched the ignitionkey. There was no warning. Just the sudden jolt of the rocket, a roarof noise that seemed to fill the universe… …and then Yuri Gagarin was blasting upwards,leaving Earth behind in a way no human had ever done before. Although he later claimed to have no memoryof it, he was heard screaming “Poyekhali!” - an informal Russian word that roughly translatesas “Let’s roll!” A little over ten minutes later, the storyof humanity had begun its newest chapter. Outside the window, a giant swathe of brightblue impressed itself on the cosmonaut’s retinas. It was the Earth, seen for the very firsttime by human eyes as it really is. An orb in space, surrounded by endless darkness. The radio crackled, and Korolev’s voicecame on: “How are you feeling?” And so Yuri Gagarin replied with the firstwords ever said in space: ‘‘The flight continues well.

The machine is functioning normally. Reception excellent. Am carrying out observations of the earth. Visibility good. I can see the clouds. I can see everything.” And then, most poignantly: “It’s beautiful!’’ What it lacked in the poetry of “one smallstep for man, one giant leap for mankind,” it more than made up for in honesty. As Gagarin circled the Earth, he looked downon our world as no-one had seen it before. Today, we’re used to images of our planettaken from space; blasé about the idea that we can pull up 1,000 photos of the Earth justby googling. But try to imagine how Yuri Gagarin, the peasantboy from the poor Russian village, must’ve felt. Try to grasp even the tiniest fragment ofhow the world must’ve appeared to him. To say it was likely awe inspiring is almosttrite. You’d probably need to invent whole newwords to describe how Gagarin felt. 108 minutes after launch, Vostok 1 began itsreturn to Earth.

It was here that Gagarin’s story almostended. His capsule had been meant to separate, buta cable refused to break, and now he plunged back to Earth not as a streamlined dart, butas a tumbling, spinning, burning ball of metal. In this out of control descent, Gagarin almostlost consciousness. But, through sheer luck, the high temperaturesmelted the cable, allowing him to regain control and then eject at the appointed moment. At 10:55 am, a Russian peasant woman livingon the endless grasslands outside Gagarin’s old student city of Saratov looked up in astonishmentas a short man in an orange suit floated down toward the Earth. As this stranger landed right by her and removedhis helmet, Anna Takhtarova managed to stammer: “Have you come from outer space?” Beaming his great, wide smile, Yuri Gagarinnodded triumphantly. “Yes,” he replied. “Would you believe it? I certainly have!” Making a Star The Americans were informed first. They had to be. Nobody wanted Gagarin to be mistaken for amissile and his successful flight to accidentally trigger WWIII. But the Soviets made sure it wasn’t justWashington that got the news. Even as Gagarin was watching the Earth fromfar up in Vostok 1, his astounded relatives back home were staring at the sky, prayingfor his safe return.


When it was confirmed the spaceman had survivedhis landing, the world went nuts. In Moscow, crowds poured into the streets,abandoning factories, offices, schools. Across the other cities of the Soviet Union,across the Warsaw Pact nations, then across the non-aligned states, and even in the west,people came together to celebrate this historic event. Perhaps the only country where news of Gagarin’sflight was received coldly was the USA. When NASA’s press office was phoned at 04:30amby journalists, a surly spokesman yelled into the phone “what is this! We’re all asleep down here!” The headline the next day? “Soviets put man in space. Spokesman says US asleep.” Within days, Yuri Gagarin was thrown a lavishparade in Moscow, where he was personally greeted by Nikita Khrushchev. After that, it was on to a world tour, andlife as a living icon. Moscow sent Gagarin all over. He visited Soviet allies like Czechoslovakia,Bulgaria, Cuba, and Hungary, but also capitalist states like Canada, Iceland, and Great Britain.

But he never made it to America. Although Gagarin expressed a desire to visit,JFK banned him from entering the country. Nothing like a sore loser, huh? The Politburo’s plan was to turn Gagarininto a piece of propaganda; a demonstration of Soviet superiority. But their plan quickly hit a fatal bump. Gagarin was just too damn nice. Although he was a supporter of the systemhe lived in, Gagarin was mostly apolitical. He wasn’t the kind of guy to make speechesextolling the value of Soviet tractors, or what have you. Nah, he was far more likely to just give thatwide, boyish smile of his, crack a few jokes, and win the hearts of everyone around him. In this man who’d seen the stars, humankindcame to see a universal symbol. Someone who brought them together even inthe depths of the Cold War. For Gagarin, though, life as an icon was hard. Faced with a parade of celebrations honoringhim across the planet he’d orbited, he turned to drink. Before his flight, Gagarin had been borderlineteetotal, not wanting to mess with his flying. After landing, he spent half a year more orless permanently drunk.

 It was a mental state that would cause himto make a dangerous mistake. In September, 1961, Gagarin was in Crimeafor yet more celebratory parties. Sozzled out his mind, he followed a gorgeousyoung blonde named Anna back to her hotel room on the second floor. When Valentina burst in, the spaceman triedto escape by leaping out the nearest window, only for his foot to catch and send him plungingheadlong to Earth. The cracked concrete impacted sickeninglyagainst Gagarin’s forehead, leaving him permanently scarred. When he came to in the hospital, his brainwas so scrambled he initially thought he’d never fly again. But, no. The gods were, for now, still smiling downon the former farm boy. Not long after this, Gagarin abandoned hisnew life as a global celebrity, and returned to working on the Soviet space program. This world of parties wasn’t for him. He was still less than 30.

He had infinitely more missions left to fly,infinitely more rockets to pilot. Didn’t he? Beyond the Infinite If Yuri Gagarin’s early life was the goodside of the Soviet dream, plucking a talented peasant boy from obscurity and taking himto the stars; the last years of his life showed its nightmarish side. In early 1967, the new Soviet leader, LeonidBrezhnev, made it known that he wanted something spectacular to mark 50 years of Communism. The idea was to send up two Soyuz rocketsa couple of days apart, symbolizing Soviet supremacy. At first, Gagarin was excited. He pulled some strings and got himself selectedas backup pilot, just in case his fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov fell ill. But, as the date approached, that excitementturned to fear. A technical team identified 203 faults thatneeded urgent attention. Gagarin helped them prepare a ten page reportfor the leadership at Baikonur to send to Moscow. But when the report was finished, he discoveredsomething truly terrifying. Everyone was too scared to send it.

With Brezhnev in charge, the Soviet systemhad returned to its cruelest ways. Shooting the messenger was now practicallya sport, and no-one wanted to be the bearer of bad news. As the launch date approached, Gagarin seemsto have realized that getting in the rocket would be a death sentence. He begged a KGB friend of his to take thenegative report to his superiors. The friend at last agreed, went to upper command… …and disappeared. He, and everyone who’d seen the report,were all summarily fired or sent to work in humiliating postings in the arse-end of Siberia. With Brezhnev in charge, rocking the boatsimply meant you drowned. On the day of the launch, Gagarin accompaniedKomarov to the rocket pad. There, Gagarin had a moment of heroism. He kicked up a massive stink, demanding hebe put in that rocket, shouting that it was his right as as Komarov’s superior… But, no. Komarov didn’t fall for it. Instead, he said goodbye to Gagarin, and clamberedinto his execution chamber. Komarov’s wife was in the control room,and they spent the minutes before launch saying goodbye over the radio, aware the cosmonautwasn’t coming back, but unable to do anything to stop this horrific chain of events.

And so, on April 27, 1967, Yuri Gagarin wasforced to stand helpless on the ground as the Soyuz carrying his friend failed in mid-air,reducing Vladimir Komarov to ash. The cosmonaut never got over what had happenedthat day. The wide smile faded, replaced by a moroseexpression. Openness gave way to depression. Maybe it wouldn’t have lasted. Maybe Gagarin’s sunny side would have returnedeventually. But we’ll never know. On March 27, 1968 - 11 months exactly afterKomarov’s crash - Gagarin jumped in a MiG-15 for a routine flight. 96km northeast of Moscow, he crashed at highspeed. The impact killed Gagarin instantly. Aged just 34, the first spaceman was no more. At the time, there were endless conspiracytheories surrounding Gagarin’s death. But, in 2013, formerly classified files werereleased showing that it was just another case of Brezhnev-era mismanagement. That same day, an SU-15 jet had accidentallyflown too low, passing incredibly close to Gagarin’s MiG. The huge aircraft had rolled Gagarin’s jet,causing it to spin out of control, sealing his fate. Yuri Gagarin’s ashes were interred in theKremlin Wall in Moscow on March 30, 1967, following a huge memorial parade. Shortly after, his teenage hometown changedits name from Gzhatsk to Gagarin in his honor.

 Today, over half a century since Gagarin’suntimely death, it can still be hard to fully wrap your head round his achievement. While Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk first isprobably more famous in the west, Gagarin’s flight was arguably far more impressive. Prior to that spring day in 1961, no humanhad ever done anything beyond the confines of our Earth. Every technological revolution, every greatexplorer, every brilliant scientist, all had been limited to this one pale speck in thecosmos. And then came Yuri Gagarin. The moment the cosmonaut reached orbit, anew horizon opened for humanity. The first man on the Moon, the space shuttle,the ISS; Nasa and SpaceX’s plans to land a human on Mars; China’s goal of a moonbase…all stem from one journey undertaken by this one peasant boy from Russia. The story of humanity’s expansion into spacemay only just be beginning. But when the history books are finally writtenin one hundred, one thousand, even a million years, they will all agree on one thing. It all started with Yuri Gagarin, the firstman in space.