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Book Review – The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin

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The Cosmonaut who couldn't stop smiling

Title: The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press (May 15, 2012)
Author: Andrew L. Jenks
Hardback: 315 pages
ISBN: 9780875804477

Disclosure.  I contacted the author in mid 2011 just as I was finishing my book Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester. We exchanged some chapters prior to publication to learn from each other’s research.

In this compelling book the author untangles the complex and at times conflicting legacy of Gagarin’s epic spaceflight and its socio-political global aftermath. Drawing on his experience as a journalist and a historian of technology the Russian speaking American author, injects fresh life in to a story that started over half a century ago.

As the subtitle “The life and legend of Yuri Gagarin” suggests, the thrust of the book deals with the perceptions of the real man that existed and the myth that was created on his return not only in the Soviet Union but around the world.  Many vivid examples, some published for the first time, illustrate Gagarin’s greatest impact. His single orbit of the Earth served to finally shed  the inferiority complex that had hung over the Soviet Union for decades.

The author illustrates with personal accounts from the time, Gagarin’s commitment to assist members of the working class from which he had emerged whilst also exploiting his celebrity status to access privilege and favours for himself and friends.

One of the many surprises for me was to learn how much a polarising figure Gagarin has become within the Russian community. A figure of disdain in Moscow but continues to attract reverence in the provinces where he lived especially the Saratov region.  Despite gaining access to some archives, many remained inaccessible. The gatekeepers of some archives insisted on preserving the Soviet hero image they helped to create.

Gagarin’s duplicity is examined. His willingness to lie about landing in the spacecraft when he had actually ejected whilst he was still at 7km altitude or claiming that the injury to his forehead was the result of him protecting his daughter rather than jumping from a balcony of a bedroom he had no business being in. The author offers an explanation. The lies of the west were seen as immoral and blatant but those of the east were noble and just.  That smile, according to his wife, was a defense mechanism. With it Gagarin blurred the distinction between truth and a joke.

Gagarin had mastered the complexities of spaceflight but for a twenty seven year old who had never been outside Russia prior to orbiting the Earth a more demanding journey was yet to come. Navigating the global celebrity and politics of the Cold War was an infinitely greater challenge.

This is the most penetrating and insightful study, seven years in the making, of how Gagarin was transformed by his astonishing achievement and how it continues to shape society even today.

Fireball over Europe

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Fireball over Scotland - Craig Usher
Picture from Craig Usher

For a change the sky was clear. I could have seen it but I didn’t.

Last Friday a brilliant (magnitude -7) fireball swept across the sky over western Europe. Numerous visual sightings, pictures and video testify to a great night-sky spectacle but no one still knows what it actually was – meteor or space debris.

A detailed report here from a Dutch blogger brings together video clips and reflects on what the object may have been.  Concluding that it is unlikely to have been space debris. If it was then it must have been associated with secret satellites probably American or Israeli. If so, the only people on the planet who already know the origins of this object are military.

 

Episode 54: 23 July 2012 – Manchester Interplanetary Society and Stanley Davis

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Stanley Davis

The August 2012 edition of Spaceflight, the monthly magazine from the British Interplanetary Society carried an article where I discuss the Northwest of England’s contribution in Rocketry during the 1930s. An extended version of that article is available for free download on Astrotalkuk.org – here.

So on to today’ episode.

In 1937, two teenagers Harry and Stanley with an outrageous ambition to design and build rockets for space travel joined a newly formed group with a name to match – the Manchester Interplanetary Society. Soon each met a girl, fell in love, exchanged wedding rings and got married. They went off on their separate ways but pledged to stay stay in touch. In addition to his interest in rockets he had a strong interest in science. In the late 1930’s he went by train to London to hear a talk from H.G. Wells. Had he not died prematurely, he like Harry would have immersed himself in the sci-fi fandom movement that blossoming in Britain from the early 1930s.

Wooden Statue of Abraham Lincoln. Carved by Stanley Davis
Members of the Manchester Interplanetary Society. Harry Turner is 1st on the left

Two years later began the ferocious and violent events of World War Two that would shatter  their dreams and lives along with millions of others around the world. Harry Turner spent much of the War in India and following his return enjoyed a successful career as an artist. Stanley Davies died in August 1941 from injuries he endured at Dunkirk.

Recently this shared story brought together Harry’s son Philip and Stanley’s daughter Ann.  In episode 50 Philip recalled the memories of his father and in this episode Ann Sutcliffe remembers her father Stanley Davies.

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Chinese Soviet Forum:British Interplanetary Society – London 9th June 2012

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Chinese Soviet Forum - British Interplanetary Society. London 9th July 2012. Photo - Alistair Scott

I attended the BIS Chinese Soviet Forum lat weekend, organised by Dave Shayler and Bert Vis. With 12 (yes -12!) speakers it was a cram packed day with each speaker’s talk full of meticulous detail in a topic in which they were thoroughly experienced. Throughout the day, amongst their other duties, Steve Salmon, Suzann Parry, Mary Todd and Alistair Scott ensured all attendees had lots to eat and drink. Alan Marlow from Delta Vee recorded the whole day. Thanks to all who signed the petition to bring the Gagarin statue from London to Manchester.

There was so much content throughout the day it is impossible to to include it all in a single blog post. Here is a flavour.

Major Wang Yaping

Pat Norris (who received an Apollo Individual Achievement Award from Neil Armstrong in August 1969 whilst working at NASA)  provided an expert analysis of an official paper published by the Chinese authorities in 2011. The paper discusses the Chinese achievements in the previous five years and outlines the plan for the next five.

Brian Harvey, who has written several books and is working on another about the Chinese space program, provided a summary of China’s space program from origins to the present. Tony Quine, an active space sleuth, explained how he uncovers the details the Chinese authorities do not like to publish.  He predicted that the first Chinese female astronaut will be Major Wang Yaping.

William Carey and Jacqueline Myrrh highlighted a not for profit website specialising in news about the Chinese space program called http://go-taikonauts.com/en/.

Bart Hendrickx provided a fascinating insight into the NK-33 engines from the early Soviet era which may come into active use once more. George Spiteri reminisced by replaying actual recordings from short wave radio broadcasts clips of the Soviet Space era. At a time before the internet that was the only way to get to this type of information.

David Shayler and Bert Vis
David Shayler and Bert Vis

Bert Vis provided an update about the Yuri Gagarin Space Centre that he has frequently visited and where he will be going again this summer. David Shayler, spoke about the Russian ISS segment in so much detail, you would think he has been there!

Two topics that were pretty much new to me. Fritz Muse introduced Soviet RORSATS and Richard Williams provided a rich illustration of early Soviet philatelic items.

Dominic Phelan spoke about a new book he is editing. It is  not available until 2013 but just looking at the contributors – this should be compulsive reading.

Cold War Space Sleuths: The Untold Secrets of the Soviet Space Program

Cold War Space Sleuths: The Untold Secrets of the Soviet Space Program
Edited by Dominic Phelan.

  • Editor Dominic Phelan, giving an overall history of the Cold War hunt for Soviet space secrets.
  • Space writer Brian Harvey reveals his own personal search through official Soviet radio and magazines to find out what they were (and weren’t) revealing to the outside world at the height of the space race.
  • Robert Christy gives a firsthand account of the famed Kettering Group.
  • Sven Grahn from Sweden details his own 40 year quest to understand what was happening on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
  • Professional American historian Asif Siddiqi explores his own adventures in the once secret Russian archives – often seeing documents never before read by Westerners.
  • Dutch cosmonaut researcher Bert Vis provides an inside account of the Yuri Gagarin training center in Moscow.
  • Belgian researcher Bart Hendrickx’s details his important translation of the 1960s’ diaries of cosmonaut team leader General Kamanin.
  • Pioneer space sleuth James Oberg’s shares his memories of his own notable ‘scoops’ – including revelations about missing cosmonauts, the Nedelin rocket explosion and his trips to previously secret facilities after the fall of the USSR.
  • Paris-based writer Christian Lardier recounts the efforts of French space sleuths – whose work was frequently overlooked in the USA and Britain because of the language barrier.
  • As “one of the original” space sleuths, UK’s David Shayler will write about his experience of recording the Soviet programme in the 1970s and 1980s .