“The first after the first” - Presidential Library’s materials illustrate the exploits of Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov

April 12 the whole world celebrates the Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics - a memorial date dedicated to the first manned space flight. The Cosmonautics Day was established in our country as a holiday by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 9, 1962, and received international status in 1968 at the conference of the International Aviation Federation.

Since 2011, this holiday has another name - the International Day of Human Space Flight. Such a decision was taken at a special plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first step in space exploration.

2019 marks 54 years since the first manned flight into space. In the spring of the same year, another date is celebrated on March 18, 1965, the world's first spacewalk was made.

The names of space pilots, heroes of the Soviet Union Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov forever entered the history of mankind. The digital collections of the Presidential Library contain unique materials on the life and exploits of the first conquerors of space.

“I want to dedicate this first space flight to the people of communism - a society into which our Soviet people are already entering and into which, I am sure, all people on Earth will enter. Now before the start there are a few tens of minutes. I tell you, dear friends, my compatriots, good bye, as people always say to each other, going on a long journey. I would like to embrace you all, my friends and strangers, distant and close ones! See you soon!” - Yuri Gagarin said these words on April 12, 1961. On this day he made the first flight into space in the history of mankind. The last minutes before the launch of the Vostok-1 spacecraft were recorded in the newsreel “Yuri Gagarin. The first manned flight into space” (2011), which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal. The filming was done at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. We can see Gagarin getting off the bus, coming up to the rocket, checking the operation of the instruments in the cockpit and leaving the Earth!   

According to the generally accepted version, Yuri Alekseevich circled the globe in 1 hour and 48 minutes. The space pioneer landed near Smelovka village in Saratov Region. However, according to the declassified documents, the historical flight was still two minutes shorter. And this is associated with a number of dangerous situations that occurred before and during the "star travel" of Gagarin and which he courageously overcame. The writer and journalist Anton Pervushin spoke at length at a lecture at the Presidential Library. The video version of his speech, which is called “106 minutes of Yuri Gagarin: declassified details of the first space flight” (2016), are also available on the library’s portal.

The flight of the first man into space blew up the society, and world newspapers printed special issues devoted to this sensational event.

“All Soviet people admire your glorious feat, which will be remembered for centuries as an example of courage, bravery and heroism in the name of serving humanity. The flight you have done opens up a new page in the history of mankind, in the conquest of space and fills the hearts of Soviet people with great joy and pride ... ” - these congratulations to Yuri Gagarin from USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev on April 13, 1961 were printed by Smena newspaper. A digital copy of this issue can be “flipped through” on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The flight of Yuri Gagarin was perceived be people as a priceless gift to all mankind. Here, for example, the message of war veteran A. Vinogradov, which was published by Smena in No. 89 of April 14, 1961: “I say through your newspaper a big thanks to the most courageous person in the entire history of our planet, Yuri Gagarin, who opened a new era the era of manned space flight. Today I turned 40 years old. No other day of my birth was so full of joy”.  

On the same day, Yuri Gagarin was fired as a major and awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

Many streets in cities throughout the former USSR, ships, aircraft, schools are named after Gagarin. Monuments to him are installed around the world. Gagarin is immortalized in the only art installation on the Moon: on the plate next to the spacesuit, he is on the list of six Soviet cosmonauts and eight American astronauts who have made significant contributions to space exploration. Also, one of the craters on the back side of the Earth satellite was named after him. The Presidential Library’s portal provides access to a large number of postcards dedicated to Yuri Gagarin. Of particular value is the reproduction of the postcard of 1961 with the autograph of Gagarin himself.

In four years after the flight into Yuri Gagarin’s near-earth orbit, on March 18, 1965, the legendary cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made the world's first spacewalk. Overnight, another eternal dream of all mankind has become a reality. Thus Leonov can be called the first after the first. A special digital collection of unique materials “Outer Space” is devoted to extra-terrestrial space research, which can be explored on the Presidential Library’s portal. These documents are the best evidence and proof of an indisputable fact: all the most significant discoveries and inventions in this area belong to our country, our heroic cosmonauts.    

A newsreel of those years tells about the feat of Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov: “Step by step, the Soviet cosmonautics accumulated experience, crossing the line of each experiment, beyond which the unknown is. For the first time from the new ship "Voskhod" Alexei Leonov stepped into outer space This feat opened up further paths to the development of the interplanetary medium. Space has become part of the living space of humanity”.

In general, the flight "Voskhod-2" lasted 1 day 2 hours 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The courage shown by Alexei Leonov was highly appreciated. March 23, 1965 the astronaut was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. And in October of the same year, the International Aviation Federation approved a world record for the duration of a person’s stay in outer space and an absolute record for the maximum altitude of the Voskhod-2 above the Earth’s surface - 497.7 kilometers. For this, Leonov received the highest award of the organization - the gold medal "Space".

Rare footage of well-known national astronauts Yuri Gagarin, German Titov, Valentina Tereshkova, Georgy Beregovoy and, of course, Alexei Leonov is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The incredible work of conquering the space is reflected in the Presidential Library’s extensive electronic collection of over 770,000 copies of rare documents. This can be done not only in St. Petersburg in the building on Senate Square, 3, as well as in any of the 900 remote access centers that are located in all regions of our country and in more than 30 countries of the world.