World history: State Duma holds an exhibition of unique photographs which shed the light on the first team of Soviet cosmonauts

April 4 – 12, 2011 the State Duma is holding an exhibition of unique photographs shedding the light on the first team of Soviet cosmonauts, which have never been put on display before.

The exhibition is timed to the Day of Cosmonautics and 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space. The exhibition puts on display around 130 works by contemporaries of first cosmonauts – photojournalists Yuri Somov and Vasily Mordvanyuk. Photographs depict scenes from the everyday life of cosmonauts. Of particular interest is a section which highlights their trips to France, Sweden, the German Democratic Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Algeria and other countries. It should be stressed, that only 15% of all photographs, portraying the first team of cosmonauts, were made public before. Other works have never been put on show, that’s why visitors of the exhibition have a unique chance to see the heroes in the eyes of photographers of that time.

The event has been organized by the State Duma deputies and cosmonauts Nikolai Budarin, Yelena Kondakova, Mussa Manarov.