Yuri Gagarin: Overcoming the Odds
Posted by Pete on Mar 9th 2020
On the anniversary of his birth, let’s reflect on the first human in space and his humble roots – Yuri Gagarin.
"Off we go! Goodbye for now, dear friends."
Those were the words of Yuri Gagarin as he took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 12th April 1961. In a matter of minutes, Gagarin, the working-class, ex-steelworker from Gzhatsk in western Russia, would become the first human in space.
Too many of history’s spotlights are taken up by those born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
The story of Yuri Gagarin offers a beautiful exception.
Born today in 1934, Yuri grew up on a collective farm in the USSR; his dad was a carpenter and his mum worked on the dairy farm.
Yuri Gagarin, an ex-steelworker and working class hero became the first human to ever enter space.
Yuri Gagarin: enchanted by flight
Luckier than other Soviet kids, Gagarin managed to survive the Nazi's barbaric occupation of western Russia during World War 2.
After the war, he took up work as a foundryman in a steel plant near Moscow.
Enchanted by flight, Yuri joined the Soviet air force in 1955.
Ferociously intelligent, the next four years saw Gagarin advance as a fighter pilot until, in 1959, he was one of 154 flyers recommended to the Soviet cosmonaut programme.
Two years later, on 8th April 1961, Gagarin was picked to fly 'Vostock I' – the first manned space flight in human history.
Yuri returned to Earth a hero.
He was paraded through Moscow and made a 'Hero of the Soviet Union' – the USSR’s highest honour – by Nikita Khrushchev.
Gagarin then toured the world, cheered on by huge crowds wherever he went.
He visited Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Finland, and more.
Like Annie Kenney, Gagarin followed his dreams despite his background
A working class hero
A somewhat bitter JFK had to prohibit Gagarin from entering the US, fearful that the charming Russian cosmonaut might dampen the anti-Soviet spirit of Americans in the heat of the Cold War.
Despite this instant fame, Yuri Gagarin never lost sight of his working-class roots.
This was clear to see when he visited Manchester in July 1961.
He’d been invited to the city by Mancunian trade unions and was greeted at the airport – in pouring rain – by thousands of cheering locals.
After his drive into the city (during which he had been applauded by Manchester United footballers as the motorcade passed their training ground), Yuri spoke at the headquarters of the Foundry Workers’ Union.
Thanking the workers gathered there for their hospitality, he confessed himself, "still a foundryman at heart".
The British steelworkers made Gagarin an honorary member of their union, and awarded him a medal inscribed with the delightful wordplay:
"Together moulding a better world"
Later in the day, Gagarin spoke eloquently of peace to workers and scientists at an arms factory:
"I visualise the great day when a Soviet spaceship landing on the moon will disembark a party of scientists, who will join British and American scientists working in observatories in the spirit of peaceful cooperation and competition rather than thinking on military lines."
A trip to the stars
At a time when buffoons rant about 'space forces', the memory of Gagarin offers a powerful vision of peace throughout the cosmos. In his own words:
"There is plenty of room for all in outer space."
Stephen Jay Gould once said, "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
Yuri Gagarin was a rare break in this mould.
The peasant boy who led humanity to the stars.