Jurij Gagarin
Pgreco Editions, Milan 2013
pp. 214
"I come from a common family, a family of workers like there are millions in my socialist homeland. My parents are two simple Russians to whom the October Revolution gave a full and dignified life. "Thus begins the diary of the one who the 12 April 1961 will be the first man to see the world from the cosmos aboard the Vostok spacecraft - 1, Jurij Alekseevic Gagarin.
Born the 9 March 1934 in a village north of Moscow, after completing the compulsory education cycle, he moved to Moscow to attend a vocational school to learn the trade of smelter.
"The fire is strong, the water is stronger than the fire, the earth is stronger than the water, but the man is stronger than all." These were the words with which he was received by the foreman, when he made his entry to his new school. Later moved to Saratov, he attended the tecnicum industrialist to perfect himself in the trade of smelter. The phrase of the Russian scientist Tsiolkovski, "man will not remain eternally linked to the earth. In his race towards light and space, he will first overcome the boundaries of the atmosphere and subsequently conquer all the space of the solar system" helped to give birth in he is an irresistible attraction to the cosmos. Furthermore, in Saratov, while completing his studies as a smelter, he began the first flights at an aeroclub.
"So do you like the plane? The instructor asked. I could not give him an answer. I missed the words. At that moment, only music could express my joy during the flight."
Having passed exams at the club, his desire was to become a military pilot. So it was that he left for the aeronautical school in Orenburg, a city in the steppe, where he would have to learn to fly jet planes. The 8 January of the 1956 swore and the November 7 1957 became a military pilot and lieutenant of the Soviet Army, coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the October revolution, while now, with the launch of the Soviet satellite into orbit Sputnik, the 4 October 1957 had been opened the way to heaven.
The 14 September 1959 the Lunik II was the first spaceship to reach the moon. Gagarin, increasingly attracted by the cosmos, presented an application for admission to the group of cosmonaut candidates. After the first phase of the selections he was transferred to another base, to complete the preparation. Tradition wanted the Soviets to join the ranks of Lenin's party on the eve of a decisive event in their lives. So did Gagarin who received the 16 June 1960 in the party, receiving, a month later, the card No. 0890927, proudly shown to his mother and his wife Valia. After the unfortunate conclusion of the Laika dog's space mission, the 19 August 1960 was put into a spacecraft with the Strielka and Biella dogs on board.
"For the first time in history, at the conclusion of many revolutions around the planet, living beings had returned safely from the cosmos to the earth. This important event proved the absolute security of the cosmic ship to which we would be entrusted. "
Meanwhile, training continued, including parachuting, centrifuge tests, testing vibrostand (a device that imitated the vibrations of the spaceship with running rocket engines), adaptation to the imponderability state and flight simulation in a model of a space cabin.
"Transferred to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the launch day finally arrived, the 12 April 1961. I had before me not only a stupendous creation of the technique but also an impressive work of art. "This was the thought of the Gagarin pilot at the time of his boarding on the spaceship Vostok. "The powerful engines of the missile seemed to invent a music of the future perhaps even more moving and more beautiful than the great works of the past."
“The flight continues normally. I bear the state of imponderability well ”- he stated after the detachment of the carrier missile from the cosmic ship. Then the re-entry phase began with the entry into the atmosphere. Everything went as planned. "The Soviet wings had grown."
Promoted major on the field, Jurij Gagarin was awarded by Khrushchev the title - first among men - by cosmonaut pilot of the Soviet Union and, addressing his wife Valentina Ivanovna, in Red Square, Khrushchev himself congratulated himself saying: "No one could guarantee that the farewells made to Juri Alexeievic before his departure for the cosmic flight were not the last."
He was "the greatest representation of the myth of the Soviet man: handsome, good, studious, hard-working, committed."
Gianlorenzo Capano
