20.12.2022
Gagarin was truly a people’s hero (just look at his biography), but the Communist top brass began to make active efforts to tear him away from the people from the first hours.
And Cedric’s cunning maneuvers were only the beginning. Symptomatically, this unsightly episode was also later ennobled. On April 20, 1961 the newspaper “Air Flight” published an article by the head of the solemn flight, Boris Pavlovich Bugaev, in which he wrote without blinking an eye:
“This flight is in our memory for life. The plane is ready to take off. The crew is waiting for the dear passenger. Here he comes up to us, introduces himself to the crew and shakes hands with everybody. All around the plane people. This came to see off the hero-cosmonaut workers. Yuri Gagarin climbed the ladder. Rumble of applause. People chanting: “Gagarin, Gagarin. Cries of “Hurrah” rang out everywhere. Three times he went out of the cabin. He said goodbye to the people who were seeing them off with all his heart and thanked them for the warm seeing-off”.
It seems to be true, but, alas, it is not.
At 12:30 pm “Il-18” (#USSR-75716), which delivered Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev from Sochi, landed at Vnukovo. At the airport, waiting for him were members of the CPSU Central Committee, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, the Council of Ministers, the marshals, the leaders of the party and Soviet organizations in Moscow. Among the representatives of the political and military elite the cosmonaut’s family was completely lost: Anna Timofeevna and Alexei Ivanovich Gagarin, his wife Valentina Ivanovna, sister Zoya, brothers Valentin and Boris.
Fifty kilometers from Moscow, the plane on which Gagarin was flying was met by seven MiG-15 fighters and took the place of an honorary escort: two fighters on the left, two – on the right and three – on top. They were so close that you could see the pilots’ faces. A short radiogram was sent on board the MiGs from the IL-18s: “To my fellow fighter pilots, my warmest regards. Yuri Gagarin. Before landing the procession passed over Vnukovo airport, Leninsky Prospekt, Red Square and Gorky Street. The cosmonaut could see hundreds of thousands of people greeting him.
At 1 p.m. the IL-18 with Gagarin stopped a hundred meters from the green laurel-lined podium with the leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet state. The hatch opened, and the first cosmonaut of the planet went down the ramp, then walked down the red carpet to the sounds of the air march. Modern journalists like to pay attention to one detail of the honorary aisle – the untied shoelace on Gagarin’s right shoe. But this trifle did not spoil the solemnity of the moment.
Approaching the podium, Gagarin reported to Nikita Khrushchev:
“Comrade First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR! I am pleased to report to you that the task of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government has been completed. The first ever Soviet Vostok space flight was successfully completed on April 12. All instruments and equipment of the ship worked clearly and flawlessly. I feel excellent. Ready to fulfill any new task of our party and government. Major Gagarin.
In front of millions of people watching the celebration on TV, Khrushchev took off his hat, hugged and kissed the cosmonaut. After him, other members of the government also stretched their congratulations to Yuri Alexeyevich. Khrushchev introduced Gagarin to Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Mongolian People’s Republic and members of the diplomatic corps who were present at the meeting, and then took Yuri and Valentina Gagarin to an open top ZIL-111 car decorated with flowers. The motorcade of many cars set off towards Moscow.
Muscovites greeted Gagarin throughout the whole 30-km drive to Red Square. People stood along the alleys of the airport, Kiev highway, Leninsky avenue. In the capital itself, the streets were packed with greeters: they no longer fit on the sidewalks, climbed onto the roofs of houses, lampposts, trees. Thousands of colorful balloons were floating in the air. The asphalt was strewn with flowers. From end to end there was a rolling, “Ga-ga-reen! Ga-ga-reen! Ga-ga-reen!” A blue helicopter flew in the sky, scattering brightly colored flyers with a portrait of the astronaut. Homemade posters and banners could be seen above the crowd: “Hurray for the conqueror of space!”, “Hurray for Gagarin!”, “Hurray for science!”, “Vostok is symbolic”, “Fantastic”, “Endlessly happy”, “Dibs on me second”, “All into space”, “Give Space!”, “Space is ours”.
At last the motorcade reached Red Square, where a 22-meter light model of a rocket taking off was placed on the Front Place. At 2:30 p.m. Yuri Gagarin, Nikita Khrushchev, and the leaders of the Communist Party and government ascended the central podium of the Mausoleum. The cosmonaut raised his hand to greet the assembled Muscovites. Frol Romanovich Kozlov, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, opened the meeting. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was the first to speak with words of gratitude. He was followed by a long speech from Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. Gagarin is the Columbus of the Universe, whose name will remain in the memory of mankind forever. He was helped to accomplish the feat by scientists, engineers, technicians and workers, who in turn embodied the labor of the Soviet people. But despite their socialist patriotism, the Soviet people were willing to share the results of the feat with other peace-loving peoples. After such a speech, the public was entitled to expect a more or less detailed account of who and what was behind Gagarin’s feat, since it was decided to “share.” However, the public, including those ready to live in peace and friendship, as usual, was deceived.
At the end of his speech, Khrushchev again hugged Yuri Gagarin tightly. Children ran up to the podium. They gave flowers to the cosmonaut and the leaders of the Party and government. To the thunder of applause a third grader from school 404, Olya Prudnikova, tied a scarlet pioneer tie on Gagarin. Frol Kozlov declared the rally closed, after which the solemn procession began.
In the evening, a reception was held in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. The event was prepared in a big way. Young men and women in white robes, standing on the grand staircase, showered the entrants with flowers. Singers from the Bolshoi Theater sang the chorus “Glory!” from the opera “Ivan Susanin” by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was the first to speak with words of gratitude. He was followed by a long speech from Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. Gagarin is the Columbus of the Universe, whose name will remain in the memory of mankind forever. He was helped to accomplish the feat by scientists, engineers, technicians and workers, who in turn embodied the labor of the Soviet people. But despite their socialist patriotism, the Soviet people were willing to share the results of the feat with other peace-loving peoples. After such a speech, the public was entitled to expect a more or less detailed account of who and what was behind Gagarin’s feat, since it was decided to “share.” However, the public, including those ready to live in peace and friendship, as usual, was deceived.
At the end of his speech, Khrushchev again hugged Yuri Gagarin tightly. Children ran up to the podium. They gave flowers to the cosmonaut and the leaders of the Party and government. To the thunder of applause a third grader from school 404, Olya Prudnikova, tied a scarlet pioneer tie on Gagarin. Frol Kozlov declared the rally closed, after which the solemn procession began.
In the evening, a reception was held in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. The event was prepared in a big way. Young men and women in white robes, standing on the grand staircase, showered the entrants with flowers. Singers from the Bolshoi Theater sang the chorus “Glory!” from the opera “Ivan Susanin” by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka. At the beginning of the reception, the decree awarding Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR was announced. Standing on the stage in St. George’s Hall, Leonid Brezhnev personally pinned to the cosmonaut’s uniform a gold medal of Hero and the Order of Lenin and noted that he “performed an extraordinary great feat. Gagarin responded by thanking the Party, the government, and the people for their attention and assured them that he was ready to carry out any mission. “Serving the Soviet Union!” – he said in a commanding manner.
