Yuri Gagarin
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Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin(9 March1934–27 March1968) was aSovietcosmonautand the first human in space (12 April 1961).
Quotes
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- Let's go!(Russian: Поéхали, Poyekhali!)
- Uttered during the launch ofVostok 1(12 April 1961); quoted by Sergey Viktorovich Novikov, inБольшая историческая энциклопедия(The Greater Historical Encyclopedia) (2003) by Olma Media Group, p, 943
- Variant translations:Let's ride!
- Let's drive!
- Off we go!
- I am a friend, comrades, a friend!
- First words upon returning to Earth, to a woman and a girl near where his capsule landed (12 April 1961) The woman asked: "Can it be that you have come from outer space?" to which Gagarin replied: "As a matter of fact, I have!"
- Quoted inThe Air Up There: More Great Quotations on Flight(2003) by Dave English, p. 118
- First words upon returning to Earth, to a woman and a girl near where his capsule landed (12 April 1961) The woman asked: "Can it be that you have come from outer space?" to which Gagarin replied: "As a matter of fact, I have!"
- Dear friends, both known and unknown to me, fellow countrymen, men and women of all lands and continents!
In a few minutes a mighty spaceship will take me into the far-away expanses of theUniverse.What can I say to you in these last minutes before the start? I see my whole past life as one wonderful moment. Everything I have experienced and done till now has been in preparation for this moment. You must realise that it is hard to express my feelings now that the test for which we have been training ardently and long is at hand. I don't have to tell you what I felt when it was suggested that I should make this flight, the first in history. Was it joy? No, it was something more than that.Pride?No, it was not just pride. I felt very happy - to be the first in space, to engage in an unprecedented duel withNature- could one dream of anything greater than that?
But then I thought of the tremendous responsibility of being the first to accomplish what generations of people had dreamed of, the first to show man the way into space... Can you think of a task more difficult that the one assigned to me. It is not responsibility to a single person, or dozens of people, or even a collective. It is responsibility to allSovietpeople, to all mankind, to its present and its future. And if I am nevertheless venturing on this flight, it is because I am aCommunist,because I draw strength from unexampled exploits performed by my compatriots, Soviet men and women. I know that I shall muster all my will power the better to do the job. Realising its importance, I will do all I can to carry out the assignment of theCommunist Partyand the Soviet people.
Am I happy to be starting on a space flight? Of course I am. In all times and all eras man's greatest joy has been to take part in new discoveries.
I would like to dedicate this first space flight to the people ofcommunism,a society which our Soviet people are already entering, and which, I am confident, all men on earth will enter.
It is a matter of minutes now before the start. I say to you good-bye, dear friends, just as people say to each other when setting out on a long journey. I would like very much to embrace you all - people known and unknown to me, close friends and strangers alike.
See you soon!- Quoted in the book "Soviet Man in Space",ISBN 9780898754605.
- Quoted inДО СКОРОЙ ВСТРЕЧИ!(in Russian),roscosmos.ru
- If all thosepeopleare getting wet towelcomeme, surely the least I can do is get wet too!
- Asking for the roof of his car to be put back despite the pouring rain, during his visit to Manchester (12 July 1961), as quoted in"Yuri Gagarin: Mankind's first giant leap" inThe Economist(3 August 2011)
- Many people are interested in my biography. I have read in anewspaperthat some irresponsible persons in theUnited States of America,who are distant relatives of the Gagarins princes and think that I am one of their offsprings.I have to disillusion them. I am a simpleSovietman.I was born March 9, 1934, to the family of a collective farmer. The place of my birth: Smolensk region, Gzhatsk district, the village of Klushino. I’ve never heard and don’t know any princes or nobility in my family tree. Before therevolutionmy parents were poorpeasants.The older generation of my family, my grandfather and grandmother, were also poor peasants.
- Rays were blazing through theatmosphereof theearth,the horizon became bright orange, gradually passing into all thecolorsof therainbow:from light blue to dark blue, to violet and then to black. What an indescribable gamut of colors! Just like thepaintingsof theartistNicholas Roerich.
- Statement of April 1961, as quoted inWarrior of Light: The Life of Nicholas Roerich: Artist, Himalayan explorer and visionary(2002) by Colleen Messina, p. 46
- Ведь главная сила в человеке — это сила духа.
- Our people, with their genius and their heroic work, created the Vostok spaceship, wonderful in the world, and its very smart, very reliable equipment. From the start to the very landing, I had no doubt about the successful outcome of the space flight. I would like to sincerely thank our scientists, engineers, technicians, all Soviet workers who created such a ship which allows to confidently comprehend the secrets of outer space. Let me also thank all the comrades and the whole team that prepared me for the space flight. I am convinced that all my friends, pilot-cosmonauts, are also ready to fly around our planet at any time. It is safe to say that we will fly on our more distant routes on our Soviet spacecraft.I am immensely glad that my belovedMotherlandwas the first in the world to make this flight, the first in the world to penetrate the Cosmos. The first plane, the first sputnik [satellite], the first cosmic spaceship and the first space flight — these are the stages of the great path of my Motherland toward the mastering the secrets of the Nature.
- Quoted in108 минут, изменившие мир
- Облетев Землю в корабле-спутнике, я увидел, как прекрасна наша планета. Люди, будем хранить и преумножать эту красоту, а не разрушать её!
- Translation:OrbitingEarthin thespaceship,I saw howbeautifulour planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, notdestroyit!
- Russianphrase, handwritten and signed after his historic spaceflight, photo of facsimile published inSyny goluboi planety3rd.edition (1981) by L. Lebedev, A. Romanov, and B/ Luk'ianov; the first edition was translated into English asSons of the Blue Planet(1973) by L. A. Lebedev
- What beauty.I sawcloudsand their lightshadowson the distant dear earth.... Thewaterlooked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots.... When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth's light-colored surface to the absolutelyblacksky.I enjoyed the rich color spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquiose, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.
- As quoted inEarth's Aura(1977) by Louise B. Young
- When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am aSovietlike you, who has descended fromspaceand I must find a telephone to callMoscow!
- Recalling his meeting with workers in a field, upon his landing, as quoted in"Life on Mars?" by Jesse Skinner inToromagazine (14 October 2008)
Disputed
[edit]- I looked and looked but I didn't seeGod.
- As quoted inTo Rise from Earth(1996) by Wayne Lee; some websites quote him as saying "I looked and looked and looked but I didn't see God." on 14 April 1961, a couple days after his historic flight, but the authenticity of such statements have been disputed;Colonel Valentin Petrov stated in 2006that the cosmonaut never said such words, and that the quote originated fromNikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the state's anti-religion campaign, saying "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there." Gagarin himself was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.
- Variant: No I didn't see God. I looked and looked but I didn't see God.
- As quoted inWhat's Missing Inside You?(2006) by Paul Schlieker, p. 17
Misattributed
[edit]- I see no God up here.
- This has been reported as a remark Gagarin made while in orbit aboardVostok 1,but there is no indication of it in the official transcripts of his communications. It is similar to the above statements he reportedly made after his return to earth, which might have given rise to this account.
Quotes about Gagarin
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- The people of theUnited Statesshare with the people of the Soviet Union their satisfaction for the safe flight of theastronautin man's first venture intospace.We congratulate you and the Sovietscientistsandengineerswho made this feat possible. It is my sincere desire that in the continuing quest forknowledgeof outer space our nations can work together to obtain the greatest benefit to mankind.
- John F. Kennedy;Message to Chairman Khrushchev Concerning the Flight of the Soviet Astronaut Online,The American Presidency Project; 12 April 1961
- Trying to describe the experience of going to space has beendifficultfrom the very beginning. When Yuri Gagarin, the first man who went into space, returned to Earth, there was a huge reception in hishonor.As his close friend and cosmonaut colleagueAlexei Leonovtells it, then-premierNikita Khrushchevcornered Gagarin "So tell me, Yuri," he asked, "did you seeGodup there? "After a moment's pause. Gagarin answered," Yes sir, I did. "Khrushchev frowned." Don't tell any one, "he said. A few minutes later the head of theRussian Orthodox Churchtook Gagarin aside. "So tell me, my child," he asked Gagarin, "did you see God up there?'" Gagarin hesitated and replied "No sir, I did not." "Don't tell anyone."
- Anecdote inNew Age Journal,Vol. 7 (1990), p. 176
- He was like a sound amplified by amountainecho. The traveller is small, but the mountains are great, and suddenly they merge into a single whole. Such was Yuri Gagarin.
To accomplish aheroicexploit means to step beyond one's own sense of self-preservation, to have the courage to dare what today seems unthinkable for the majority. And to be ready to pay for it. For the hero himself, his feat is the limit of allpossibilities.If he leaves something "in reserve", then the most courageous deed thereby moves into the category of work: hard, worthy of all glorification, but — work. An act of heroism is always a breakthrough into the Great Unknown. Even given most accurate preliminary calculations, man enters into that enterprise as if blindfold, full of inner tension and ready for any outcome.- Valentina Malmy, inStar World(1988), p. 218
- Anton Pervushin said, “In fact, Gagarin should be remembered for completely different words. I always remember that Yuri Gagarin said: ‘An astronaut cannot be suspended in space and not have God in his mind and his heart.’”
External links
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- Gagarin- detailed biography atEncyclopedia Astronautica
- Photo, Audio and Video with Yuri Gagarin (in Russian),online version of CD created to his 70th anniversary on the homepage of Russian state archive for scientific-technical documentation (RGANTD).
- Transcripts of Gagarin's conversations from space(MS Word document, in Russian)
- Article in online Encyclopedia of cosmonauticsA lot of information about the first human's flight to space (in Russian).
- Various information about Yuri Gagarin (in Russian)