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Stamp featuring Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin & the First Human Space Flight

Featuring translated Soviet documents selected, curated, and annotated by Asif Siddiqi, this collection provides an extraordinary peek into the preparations and implementation of the flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first Soviet cosmonaut, who flew into space in his Vostok spaceship on April 12, 1961. For context and analysis of the sources, see the April 2021 essay by Siddiqi on the Sources & Methods blog, “Declassified Sources on Gagarin.” See also the Digital Archive collection on the Space Race.

Stamp featuring Yuri Gagarin

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April 13, 1961

Top Secret Report of Major Yuri Gagarin

Full Report of Yury Gagarin to the State Commission after his mission, on April 13, 1961.

April 11, 1961

Transcribed Notes Dictated by Nikita Khrushchev while at Pitsunda on the Eve of Gagarin’s Flight

Transcribed notes dictated by Nikita Khrushchev while at Pitsunda on the eve of Gagarin’s flight, on April 11, 1961.

April 13, 1961

Questions to Yu. A. Gagarin and Answers of Yu. A. Gagarin (During the State Commission Session of 13.04.1961)

Transcript of the State Commission’s interview with Yuriy Gagarin after his mission.

April 26, 1961

Excerpt from Minutes Nº 325 of the April 26, 1961, Meeting of the CPSU CC Presidium, 'On the Further Commemoration and Popularization of the First Flight of a Soviet Man in Space'

Presidium (or Politburo) decree on publicity for the flight of Yuriy Gagarin.

September 16, 1958

Letter, Sergei Korolev to Comrade K.N. Rudnev

Proposal from Sergei Korolev submitted to the State Committee for Defense Technology to develop a spy satellite with a cosmonaut on board.
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Exterior of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Declassified Sources on Gagarin

Documents selected, curated, and annotated by Asif Siddiqi on Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human to travel into space on April 12, 1961.

Go to Sources & Methods
Exterior of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

The Soviet Union Leaps Forward: The 60th Anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's Space Flight

A panel of experts considers the enduring legacy of Yuri Gagarin’s flight and its effects on popular culture and scientific innovation as well as the dynamic of space competition and collaboration since that flight.

Go to wilsoncenter.org
Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on a Soviet stamp

Space Race

Documents on the 20th-century competition for supremacy in spaceflight capacity between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Explore the Digital Archive