Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) was a Soviet cosmonaut. In 1961 he became the first human being to orbit the Earth on board of the Vostok 1.[1] Some sources have said that Gagarin commented during his space flight, "I don't see any God up here," though no such words appear in the verbatim record of his conversations with Earth stations during the spaceflight.[2] In a 2006 interview, Gagarin's friend Colonel Valentin Petrov stated that Gagarin never said these words and that the quote originated from Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the state's anti-religion campaign, saying "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there".[3] Petrov also said Gagarin had been baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church as a child, and a 2011 Foma magazine article quoted the rector of the Orthodox Church in Star City saying, "Gagarin baptized his elder daughter Yelena shortly before his space flight; and his family used to celebrate Christmas and Easter and keep icons in the house".[4]
References
- ↑ NASA bio
- ↑ Полная стенограмма переговоров Юрия Гагарина с Землей с момента его посадки в корабль (за два часа до старта) до выхода корабля "Востока-1" из зоны радиоприема (ru).
- ↑ I am proud to be accused of having introduced Yury Gagarin to Orthodoxy (12 April 2006).
- ↑ Gagarin's family celebrated Easter and Christmas, Korolev used to pray and confess (11 April 2011).