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Gagarin in Our Memory

The 12th of April is the day, when the whole world celebrates the 55th anniversary of the first flight of Man into space. An interactive class “Gagarin in Our Memory” was held for the first-form pupils of Vyoshenskaya school.

In class, the children learned a lot about the first cosmonaut of the planet, saw a short film about the development of home cosmonautics and about the first space flight of Gagarin on April 12, 1961. With great interest the children listened to the narration about the visit of Yury Alexeyevich to Vyoshenskaya in 1967, and about his meeting with Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov.

In the garage at the writer’s Estate the children saw the cars used by Sholokhov in different times. There is “Volga” ГАЗ-21, which the writer took to come to the aerodrome in Bazki (near Vyoshenskaya) on June 13, 1967, to meet the First Cosmonaut. The children found a special interest in the story, where Mikhail Alexandrovich ceded his driver’s seat to Gagarin saying: “Well, cosmonaut, let’s go!”

The photographs showing the episodes of Gagarin’s visit to Vyoshenskaya from the Museum-Reserve collection were accompanied by children’s stories heard before from their grandparents about welcoming the First Cosmonaut on that memorable day.

One of the pupils, Snezhana Andreyeva, told: “My grandfather Vasya Belov and his classmates welcomed Yury Gagarin on his visit to Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya. My grandfather was 12 then. He remembers very well Yury Gagarin greeting the public and also remembers his radiant smile. My grandmother Nina also told me about the meeting with Yury Gagarin. She lived in a small town of Khodyzhensk the Krasnodar Region and went to school named after Y.A.Gagarin. In 1967, when travelling around the Soviet Union Gagarin visited that small town. At that time my grandmother was 10. She remembers the schoolchildren standing in line and greeting the dear guest. My granny says he was wonderfully kind, easy-going and good-hearted. She remembered that meeting forever.”

Lidiya Slyusarenko
Yelena Popova