[VO] Boris Kukuliev and his wife Kaleria are artists from the village of Palekh in Russia
[VO] Before the revolution, Palekh was known for icon-painting
[VO] During Soviet times, the painters turned to fairy-tale characters
and on April 12th 1961 one fairy-tale miraculously came true
[Boris Kukuliev] Well imagine.. the first human to travel into space!
[Boris] It’s such a breakthrough going into space. It’s huge!
[Boris] The excitement was immeasurable
[VO] The artists knew intuitively that a new hero had emerged,
worthy of being immortalized by the latest of many generations of artists
[VO] The hero who had descended from the sky was a carpenter’s son, Yury Gagarin
[Title] GAGARIN
[Boris] Icon-painting paved the way for the future development of the art in Palekh,
[Titles] Boris Kukuliev, People’s Artist of Russia
and so we couldn’t break with the convention and creative characteristics of our art
[Boris] This work comes from the heart, you know?
[Boris] I’ve never even seen him in person. For me this is the image of a hero
[VO] If Yury Gagarin had known that the artists in Palekh
were creating a series of paintings which depicted him
with almost biblical illustrations, it is highly likely that he would not have approved
[VO] The first human flight into space was seen as a triumph of science
[VO] Gagarin himself often said that spaceflight was no miracle
but a direct result of hard work by thousands of people
researchers, engineers and developers
[VO] He was simply lucky to have been chosen from 12 other worthy candidates
[VO] In his story though, there is no shortage of miracles,
prophecies and eureka moments
[Alexey Leonov] He was being awarded some accolade,
there was a reception being held for the occasion, and he suddenly says:
“Ladies and gentlemen!”
In that time, in the 60s, we didn’t have gentlemen, and we didn’t have ladies
[Titles] Aleksey Leonov First cosmonaut team member
[Alexey] We just had citizens or at the most we had ‘men’ and ‘women’
[Alexey] And anyway, I know where he comes from,
[Alexey] I know the village of Klushino
[Alexey] He was born to an ordinary family in a small house in a remote village
[VO] Yury Gagarin was born in 1934 and in 1935 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,
an early pioneer of spaceflight theory, wrote
“I can easily imagine who will be the first human to overcome gravity“
[Leonov] “He is Russian. He’s a citizen of the Soviet Union
[Leonov] Most probably, a pilot by profession
I can imagine his honest Russian face, his blue hawk-eyes”
[Leonov] That’s what Tsiolkovsky published in 1935
[Leonov] Interestingly, he published it when Yury Gagarin was just 1 year old
[VO] And when Yury was seven years old, war broke out
[VO] The Soviet army was retreating, and the Nazis entered the village of Klushino
without striking a blow
[VO] Citizens were forced out of their homes
[VO] The Gagarin family had to live in a field dugout for two years
[Evegeniy Derbenkov] The German’s field kitchen was close to them in the courtyard
When the Germans had finished serving the soldiers and everything was quiet,
[Titles] Evegeniy Derbenkov Childhood friend
we use to go to the dump where they threw away their waste
[Derbenkov] We’d look through their rubbish to find a slice of sausage
or a chunk of bread that they’d thrown away
[VO] According to Evgeniy Derbenkov, the villagers were terrified of airplanes
[VO] and Yury Gagarin, the friend who shared his hungry childhood,
never even dreamed of flying
[VO] One day though, curiosity proved stronger than fear
[Derbenkov] He runs up to me and says “Evgeniy, let’s go! A plane’s landed in the bushes”
[Derbenkov] It had come down in bog-land, broken
[Derbenkov] I get there, and Yury’s already inside. I’ll never forget what he said
“What took you so long? I’m already flying”
[VO] That was long before his first real flight
[VO] In 1945 after war ended the family left their village for the town of Gzhatsk
[VO] That small town in the Smolensk region is known today as Gagarin
[Tamara Filatova] When in 1946 or 47 Yury and his brother were going home from school,
they encountered wolves in the central square, there’s a Statue of Gagarin there now
[Filatova] So can you imagine? How devastated these lands must have been
[Titles] Tamara Filatova Niece
for wolves to come into town
[VO] Boys who survived the war feared neither wolves nor death
[VO] The 12-year-old Yury Gagarin's favourite game
was an unusual variety of "dare"
[Lev Tolkalin] He’d take a grenade and he’d pull the pin
[Tolkalin] It would blow up after 10 seconds. He’d count;
one, two, three, four, five, six, and then throw it straight up
[Titles] Lev Tolkalin Classmate
[Tolkalin] It would go off in the air like thunder and lighting
Girls liked him. They liked him a lot
[Tolkalin] They chased after him trying to find the right approach
He was handsome, athletic, a boxer and played the trumpet
[Tolkalin] He was the first trumpet player in the orchestra
[Tolkalin] I used to go to his house and whine “Give me the trumpet please. I want to try”
[Tolkalin] Eventually I did get one and became the second trumpet player
[VO] With all that going for him, why did model student Yury Gagarin
suddenly drop out of school at 15, leave home and join a trade school?
[VO] It may seem hard to understand today
but those who remember the post-war years consider this strange decision quite logical
[Lev] How could we just sponge off our parents?
[Lev] We lived very modestly. One could even say poorly
[Lev] That’s why there were so many people, who studied so they could start working
[Lev] There was no use for reading books or scribbled writing
[VO] Foundry-work wasn’t really Gagarin’s chosen occupation
[VO] It was the only trade available teenagers with just 6 years of school behind them
[VO] At first, Yury envied the turners and locksmiths
but eventually became accustomed to blazing heat and molten metal
[VO] So much so that ten years later, as his rocket engine caught fire
while re-entering Earth's atmosphere,
[VO] Gagarin would calmly said to his colleagues,
“I’m burning-up. Goodbye, comrades”
[Anatoliy Kolosov] He never talked much about whether the experience was frightening or not
[Titles] Anatoly Kolosov Flying school calssmate
[Kolosov] He just said that when he had been descending
and had seen fire through the port-hole, it had been a bit scary
“I’m burning up now. This is the end”, he thought to himself
[VO] The world’s first cosmonaut didn’t burn up
[VO] And didn’t even go mad as psychiatrists had feared
[VO] One remarkable fact is that after that iconic orbital flight
he landed on the site where he had taken off for the very first time
[Leonov] And he says “I know this place! I used to fly here
[Titles] Aleksey Leonov First cosmonaut team member
[Leonov] It’s the Saratov flying club”. He had studied there
[Leonov] He knew all these fields
[VO] It’s thought that Yury Gagarin joined the flying club while
still a third year student at the industrial technical school
for no better reason than because being a pilot at that time was seen as cool
[Victor Kalashnikov] Obviously, we were eager to demonstrate
that we would start a career in aviation in no time
[Titles] Viktor Kalashnikov Flying club friend
[Kalashnikov] Then Yury suggests that we go to a Military Shop to buy pilot’s caps
We went to dance parties and he had a pretty girl called Inna,
she liked him, and he was totally in love with her
[Kalashnikov] Her parents found out about it. They lived in a posh house here,
her father was on the regional party committee,
and he said to her “Inna, you see, yes Yury Gagarin is an A student,
but when he graduates from technical school... what are his prospects?
[Kalashnikov] He could well become a foreman but nothing more senior!
[VO] Despite the smile in every photograph from that time,
his friends knew that not everything was going well for Yury
the girl he loved split up with him
and his aviation career wasn’t taken-off
[Kolosov] They were actually going to kick him out because he was bad at it
[Kolosov] He constantly failed to land properly
[Kolosov] He couldn’t see the ground and didn’t know how to land a plane
gently without plopping down and breaking the landing gear
[Titles] Anatoly Kolosov Flying school calssmate
[Kolosov] They had to give him a number of additional flights,
and then qualification flights
[VO] According to Gagarin’s official biography, after his very first flight
[VO] Yury knew that he would become not just a pilot but a military pilot
[VO] He would dart through the clouds in a jet fighter!
[VO] The reality though is a little different
the future cosmonaut’s fate was in fact decided
by anonymous officials from the Ministry of Education
[Porokhnya] Yury and I were going to enroll at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys
after finishing technical school
[Porokhnya] Back then there was a system, 5% of graduates with distinctions
could enter university without exams
[Porokhnya] Well we wanted to get into University but the country needed craftsmen,
and there were just 15 people in our group
So we were scattered all over the Soviet Union
[Porokhnya] Yury had to go to Tomsk, I had to go to Stalino, and so on
[Titles] Viktor Porokhnya Technical school calssmate
[Porokhnya] We weren’t allowed to be in that 5%. That was a turning point
[VO] To work with a hot furnace in a Siberian factory
or join the army and fly aeroplanes through clear blue skies?
[VO] The choice was obvious
Gagarin graduated from the Saratov flying club with distinction
and was admitted to the Orenburg Air Force Pilot School without exams
[VO] He was made Deputy Commander
[Titles] Anatoly Kolosov Flying school calssmate
[Kolosov] He liked order very much. He liked everything to be just so
[Kolosov] One winter everybody was taken outside for morning exercises
“I’m not going, Yury, I don’t feel like it” – I say
[Kolosov] He replied toughly “No, you will go. I can see that you’re pretending
If you don’t go, you will be washing the floors in the barracks”
[Kolosov] I mean, he wouldn’t accept any favouritism
[Title] GAGARIN
[VO] The Gagarin smile
It’s hard to imagine that the first ever cosmonaut could be so strict
It’s even harder to believe that there were people who hated him
Nevertheless, 4 years prior to the flight his fellow students
at the Pilot School thought he needed a lesson
[Kalashnikov] The guys there liked to go absent without leave
[Kalashnikov] And he, being Deputy Commander, started warning them
[Titles] Viktor Kalashnikov Flying club friend
“Guys, if you go AWOL again, I will inform the administration”
[Kalashnikov] The guys didn’t like that and gave him a “blanket party”
[Kalashnikov] They flung a big sack over his head and started throwing punches
[VO] Three of the trainees who had assaulted Gagarin were expelled
but he later confessed to his friends that he had deserved the treatment
[Kalashnikov] He said “Victor, you know I was young,
and I shouldn’t have raised the issue with the guys
I should have pretended not to notice but you know?
I just couldn’t do it that way”
[VO] This footage was filmed in 1962 in Japan. A year after landing
[VO] By then, Gagarin had no enemies
[VO] The whole planet seemed to adore him and millions of women
were jealous of one modest and bespectacled brunet, his wife Valentina
[VO] But why her?
[VO] Many people wanted to know how she had captured the handsome hero’s heart
[VO] The answer is simple
[VO] When they first met on a dance floor in Orenburg,
[VO] Valentina rejected the attentions of trainee pilot Gagarin
[VO] She was the one who didn’t fall for him
[VO] Gagarin refused to give up. The more difficult and inaccessible the goal,
the more driven and motivated he was to achieve it
[Kolosov] Well, she was a pretty and slim girl
[Kolosov] He met her on the same day that I met her
[Titles] Anatoly Kolosov Flying school calssmate
[Kolosov] I liked her a lot too, Valentina
[Kolosov] I wanted to swipe her away from him, but I failed
[Kolosov] He basically met her, got attached to her and he never let her go after that
[VO] Valentina married a pilot. But Gagarin only ever worked as a pilot for two years
[VO] When he was offered the chance of a medical examination
which would qualify him to start training for space flight, Gagarin didn’t hesitate
[VO] He was inevitably attracted to the idea;
the more inaccessible the goal– the more driven and motivated he became
[Leonov] The most difficult part was the endurance test in a hypobaric chamber
[Titles] Aleksey Leonov First cosmonaut team member
at an altitude of 14 thousand meters with just an oxygen mask
[Leonov] On that test people often suffered nitrogen boiling in their blood
hings like that are unnecessary and often sift out a lot of talented guys
and harm their health
[Leonov] That’s why we were outraged
[Titles] Viktor Gorbatko First cosmonaut team member
[Viktor Gorbatko] That outrage by the way was initiated by Yury
and I remember when the head doctor found out about it,
he spoke to Gagarin and warned him – I will expel you
[Leonov] There was this fellow, Dr Ezdovsky, who said
“You know the difference between you and the dogs?
They’re silent and all you do is bark”
[VO] In the history of space exploration, there were two famous dogs
that survived and returned to Earth alive. Their names are legendary,
BELKA and STRELKA but there was also LAIKA,
ent into orbit in a satellite capsule with no chance of survival
[VO] There were LISICHKA and CHAIKA who died
after their rocket exploded on the Launchpad;
[VO] Every member of the first group of cosmonauts
was aware that the same could happen to them
[VO] The chances of survival were slim
[VO] In spite of the risk though, everyone wanted to be the first
[VO] And the final decision rested largely with chief spacecraft designer, Sergey Korolyov
[Titles] Viktor Gorbatko First cosmonaut team member
[Gorbatko] It was October 1960 when we first met Mr. Korolev
[Gorbatko] He spoke to Gagarin first and asked where he lived,
where he served and about his family
[Gorbatko] Then he went through the rest from A to Z;
there was Anikeev, Bykovsky, Volynov...
[Gorbatko] So at that very moment, after we left, I said – he’s the first candidate
[Filatova] We all thought that he was a test pilot
[Titles] Tamara Filatova Niece
but on the 12 April, when we found out that he was in fact in cosmonaut training,
it was like a thunderbolt. We had never even suspected it.
[Leonov] I came out to Revolution Square
and barely recognized Moscow
[Leonov] Crowds of people were crying, hugging each other, laughing
[Leonov] I asked “What’s happened?”
[Titles] Aleksey Leonov First cosmonaut team member
[Leonov] Are you from another planet? It’s Gagarin! Gagarin went into space!
[Gorbatko] After all, a human had descended from heaven
[Titles] Viktor Gorbatko First cosmonaut team member
[Gorbatko] Not from a height of 22-24 km, people had already gone that high,
but from there. From the Gods
[Gorbatko] And obviously everyone wondered if he had actually seen God
[VO] Gagarin didn’t see God, he was though treated as a god
[VO] He was fascinated by the stars,
and he became a superstar that everybody wanted to meet;
from the Queen of England to a former roommate
[Porokhnya] Here and there people were saying “He’s great!
[Porokhnya] Great, great, mighty. He went where nobody had ever been before”
[Titles] Viktor Porokhnya Technical school calssmate
[Porokhnya] I wanted to ask him a few questions,
wanted to have a chat and understand who he was
[Porokhnya] He might be an alien now!
[VO] Meanwhile, Gagarin had a message that he wanted to send out to mankind
[Gorbatko] When he landed, he said that Earth was a wonderful place
and everyone who lives on this planet must unite,
[Titles] Viktor Gorbatko First cosmonaut team member
all together and I emphasize that – unite,
come together to take care of it
[VO] The message was for mankind but it was heard by ordinary people
who's priorities were more down to earth
then asked for an autograph, a smile - or for help to feed livestock
[Titles] Evegeniy Derbenkov Childhood friend
[Derbenkov] My cattle needs a bit of support;
[Derbenkov] I have nothing to feed them
[Derbenkov] I say “What about some feed? Can you request that from the government?”
[Tolkalin] And he could get it! He used to get hold of bicycles, and,
[Tolkalin] I apologize for saying this, toilets for building sites,
because the city had been neglected
[Tolkalin] He arranged proper drainage for the city, all the streets were dug up
[Titles] Lev Tolkalin Classmate
[Archive] Yury Gagarin has arrived in his home town of Gzhatsk!
[Filatova] Everyone had plenty of questions for him
[Filatova] I mean, we constantly had visitors
[Filatova] When he came over, our house was always full of guests
[Filatova] Some needed help with the rent, others needed assistance getting into hospital
[Filatova] He could come here, and barely manage to talk to anybody
[Filatova] When he got a call from Moscow he immediately went back there
[Filatova] After the flight, he belonged neither to himself, nor to his family,
[Titles] Tamara Filatova Niece
I mean not his wife and kids and not us
[Yury Gagarin] To be honest, I have to work a lot these days
[Gagarin] Before the flight I had a clearly defined daily schedule
[Gagarin] Now my working day often turns out much longer,
[Gagarin] I don’t just have to work 7 or 8 a day hours but 12 or 15 and sometimes more
[VO] In this rare footage the cosmonaut is seen with his wife and two daughters
[VO] It seems the very image of a peaceful and harmonious family life
but they’re not alone
[VO] A documentary crew is filming for a historical record
[Tolkalin] He didn’t need it, the country did
[Tolkalin] He was a sort of symbol. They’d bring him along him to meet this person,
to go here, or somewhere else. He was exhausted. That’s what he said
[Gagarin] My biggest plan, my greatest dream is to do it one more time
and if my health, my abilities and professional skills allow me,
to go to space a few more times. I want to fly there, see more, go to other planets
[Gagarin] Of course, I understand that until my friends travel to space, I won’t be allowed to go
[Gagarin] But when it’s my turn again, I will obviously take a flight there with great pleasure
[Tolkalin] Sometimes he lived it up, you know
[Titles] Lev Tolkalin Classmate
[Tolkalin] When he went to his parents in Gzhatsk, he drove a Renault
[Tolkalin] He raced in his Renault like crazy
[Tolkalin] I went with him once, and never did it again
[Tolkalin] He needed to reduce stress. Because he had so much responsibility,
and maybe, the kind of pressure that can make you go mad
[Kolosov] He was only indignant and maybe dissatisfied because he wasn’t allowed to fly
[Kolosov] They basically put limits on him, and he always asked to take a flight
“Can I fly a MiG-15? Anything?
[Titles] Anatoly Kolosov Flying school calssmate
I just want to fly. All the time”
[Kolosov] Yes, he used to say “they won’t let me fly. They’re protecting me”
[VO] On 27 March 1968, on a routine training flight in a regular fighter jet,
with Vladimir Seryogin, an experienced flight instructor,
Yury Gagarin, the world’s first cosmonaut, Despite the attempts to protect him a died
[Leonov] You start to think – But why Gagarin? What’s the reason?
[Leonov] Because there were others there
[Leonov] At that time I was parachute jumping there too. Why has something not happened to us
but happened to him of all people?
[Leonov] What a ridiculous turn of events
[Titles] Aleksey Leonov First cosmonaut team member
[Leonov] That was wrong, it was wrong, they made a mistake there,
particularly against Gagarin
[VO] Not long before his death, 33-year-old Yury Gagarin said
“It seems that I will never die”
[VO] He was signing his gypsum copy of a statue created by sculptor Grigori Postnikov
[Leonov] When at the funeral he says to me “Lucky Yury”
[Leonov] I say “What do you mean, Grigori?”
[Leonov] He will remain in people’s minds like Jesus Christ
who died at the same age, and so he will be forever young
[Leonov] That’s what Postnikov said
[Leonov] And I answered “You know? It would be right if he had lived to the age of Moses
That would be right”
[Kukuliev] He died but for us he is still alive
[Kukuliev] We have depicted him not on a spaceship but on a Russian troika.
He’s driving a troika. We were inspired by “The Song of the Falcon”
[Titles] Boris Kukuliev, People’s Artist of Russia
[Kukuliev] There is a line that goes “You died but you will always be the shining symbol,
proudly calling for light and freedom!”