Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin
At the Prague Post Office, in honour of Y. A. Gagarin’s visit, all the correspondence was franked with a special memorable post letter-stamp.
On April 29 of 1961, all the Czechoslovakian newspapers published a decree to award the best workers on the occasion of the 1st of May. The list of those who would be awarded started with Y. A. Gagarin’s name. The president of Czechoslovakian Socialist Republic, Antonin Novotny according to the proposal of the Czechoslovakian government bestowed upon the Soviet astronaut for his great feat the honourable title of the Hero of Socialistic Labour of CSSR.
At a solemn gathering at Prague Kremlin A. Novotny handed the Gold Star to Gagarin. As he spoke with his returning speech, Y. A. Gagarin excitingly thanked the government of Czechoslovakian Republic for the high estimation of his labour. “Let me address this high award, – he said, – to our Soviet people, our glorious Communist party.” Y. A. Gagarin better than anyone realized that not only his participation in the flight was appreciated by this ceremony, behind this award there was the appreciation of the labour of many specialists, who were known only to those directly involved with this project. Even as many years passed by, historians have not named all of them one by one; many of them are still unknown to the general public.
There were many meetings with the citizens of this state. The acceptance was very warm. Many testimonies concerning this visit reached us.
His first visit to one of the capitalistic countries Y. A. Gagarin made to the Great Britain. This visit was unofficial.
It takes a special occasion to speak about the story of this visit. We will use two testimonies: N. P. Kamanin’s, who accompanied Y. A. Gagarin; and the memoirs of a special correspondent of the newspaper Pravda, N. N. Denisov.
At the end of May of 1961, a letter came to Moscow from Manchester addressed to Gagarin. As he opened a big elongated envelope with many postage stamps, Y. A. Gagarin read,
“To the Central Committee of the Trade Union of machine-building workers of USSR, Palace of Labour, Moscow
On behalf of my executive committee and 73 thousand members of the unified trade union of founders of Great Britain I would like to express to You the warmest welcome and sincere congratulations on the occasion of huge scientific and technical achievements that made possible the solution of the task of space flights.
As the founders’ trade union we were especially pleased to get to know that Yuri Gagarin, a young man, who became the first one to travel into the outer space and thus paved the way for the fulfillment of the greatest dream of the mankind, is a founder. Therefore, we have all the reasons to believe that he has been a member of Your trade union.
My executive committee is asking You to express our best wishes to Yuri Gagarin and invite him from our name to become an honourary member of the United Founders’ Trade Union of Great Britain.
If he accepts our invitation, Yuri Gagarin will become a member of the oldest trade union of the world with a very long history, which began on February 6th of 1809.
We will be pleased to learn that our invitation has been accepted.
With my best wishes, brotherly Yours, Dave Lambert, secretary general of the United Founders’ Trade Union of Great Britain, Manchester.”
The visit in response to the invitation of foundry workers was timed with the opening of the Soviet Commerce and Industry Exhibition in London at the quiet square of Earls Court, which took place in July of 1961.
On Tuesday, the 11th of July of 1961, at 10:30 AM local time, the airplane with Y. A. Gagarin onboard arrived at the London Central aerodrome.
But even a few days before this, in the British press the tentative protocol of the meeting was subject of a lively discussion. I will remind you again that the visit was unofficial and the invitation came from the trade union of foundry workers in Manchester. But Y. A. Gagarin was the first spaceman of the planet. What should they do? How can they save the British dignity and arrange his meeting?
Eventually, at governmental level the decision was made, “Gagarin should be welcomed not by the Prime Minister McMillan, not by the minister of Foreign Affairs Lord Hume, not even by the minister of Science Lord Halesham. Who can now remember the names of these very respectful figures, except for the experts in British history? A compromise solution was found – Y. Gagarin would be welcomed by Francis F. Turnbull – Secretary of the Ministry of Science Office.
You need to know the British tendency to keep up with their traditions; July is a month of vacations. On the day of his arrival from time to time there was a drizzling rain. Still, the streets that Y. A. Gagarin was expected to drive through were filled with people, who were bristling up their umbrellas. To say that the streets were filled is an understatement. They were flooded with London’s population, who wanted to see in real life the first spaceman of the planet. They were standing there with their whole families, even with baby carriages, in which infants were lying.
At the airport Y. A. Gagarin started his speaking with the words of gratitude to the managers of the company “Industrial and Trade Fares Limited” Lord Droyd and mister Sherron, as well as to the leaders of the founders’ union for their courteous invitation to visit England during the demonstration of the Soviet Industrial Exhibition, and thanked the entire greeting party for their warm welcome, which was shown to Y. A. Gagarin and those accompanying him.
Then he said, “I relate this reception first of all to my Motherland and Soviet people, whose devoted labour made the first flight of a man into the outer space possible. We, Soviet people, are proud of this outstanding victory of our Motherland. At the same time, we not only consider it to be the achievement of the Soviet People, but as the achievement of the entire mankind, made in the name of progress, happiness and prosperity of all nations, in the name of peace in the whole world. Using the opportunity given to me, I would like to say heartfelt words of greeting to the British people and wish them happiness and wellbeing. It is my sincere hope and expectation that our visit to England will serve to strengthen the mutual understanding between our two countries and develop friendly relationships between the Soviet and British nations.”
In response, a huge crowd of welcomers at the aerodrome greeted the first astronaut with exclamations of delight, shouting, “Bravo, Gagarin!;” “Well done, Yuri!;” “We are happy to see you, Yuri!”
Y. A. Gagarin proceeded to the building of the Soviet embassy, which was in those days “under siege” in an open car with the number plate «YG1» (for Yuri Gagarin). Only the president of the United States who visited the Great Britain was shown such a privilege.
It was striking that when he drove on the embassy street, on one side of which there were private buildings and palaces, nobody was there – the welcomers were only on the left side of the street, in the so-called “civil area.” Y. Gagarin, believing that he was greeted only by the Londoners standing on the left side of the street, turned his face to them and drove like that through the whole street to the embassy, answering the greetings of the city dwellers.
But, as it turned out, on the right side of the street at that time Princess Margaret with two attendants had been waiting under the rain for forty minutes for the hero to drive by, and he “did not pay any attention to her,” as one of the British newspapers put it. One has to say that Princess Margaret was no stranger to cosmonautics; for example, on March 18 of 1960 she visited the British observatory Jodrell Bank and sent a signal through the command radio line on board of the interplanetary station Pioneer-5. The return signal was received in 25 seconds, covering the distance of 1.67 million kilometers and thus setting a new world record of speed for transmitting signals.
Of course, this involuntary “indelicacy” was overemphasized by some, but Y. Gagarin just could not suppose that the Princess would be there at that moment.
On the same day, on July the 11th, the British interplanetary society bestowed upon Y. A. Gagarin a specially founded medal for the persons, who made an important contribution into the exploration of the cosmic outer space. He became the first one, who was distinguished with this award.
Y. A. Gagarin was invited to the Royal Society in London (British Academy of Science). The society’s president presented the cosmonaut with several volumes of Isaac Newton’s works and asked to say to the soviet scientists the words of admiration concerning their feat of creating the space ship “Vostok.”
On July the 12th Y. A. Gagarin visited Manchester, from where his invitation to make this visit came.
A solemn ceremony of welcoming the cosmonaut in the hall of the foundry workers trade union was opened by the president of founders, 60-year-old Fred Hollingworth. There were around sixty chairs in the hall where this solemn meeting was held, but not less than one hundred and fifty people gathered in it. The founders’ president presented to Y. A. Gagarin a certificate in English and Russian languages to confirm that the space hero was granted honourary membership of the trade union – he became “the number one member of the union.” Addressing Yuri Gagarin as “brother” – according to the custom of this trade union, the president of founders fixed to his breast a gold medal, which was specifically cast in honour of the first cosmonaut. Upon the medal there was an engraving, “Together we will cast a better world.” At the ceremony there was the chairman of the General Council of the British Congress of Trade Unions, Ted Hill.
After this, Y. A. Gagarin spoke at a rally held at the factory yard of “Trafford Park Waters.” He appeared before the founders in the officer’s double-breasted jacket upon which were shining the Star of the Hero of Soviet Union, the Star of the Hero of Socialistic Labour of CSSR, Hero of Socialistic Labour of Bulgaria and newly received gold medal of the honourary member of British trade union of founders. All of this caused a storm of elevated emotions. Y. Gagarin was speaking deliberately, spotting his Russian speech with English phrases. He began his speaking with these words, “I am immeasurably happy to shake here, in Manchester, your callous hands, which, just like in all other countries, are creating the most beautiful things of the Earth.” As he continued his speaking, in particular, he said, “Time will come, when on board of interplanetary stations and ships cosmonauts from different countries will meet as friends and colleagues. There is enough room for everybody in the outer space – for Russians, Americans, and for the British.” The meeting with Y. Gagarin was held during a work break, which had to be lengthened, since there were too many people who wanted to say kind words to Y. Gagarin.
As it was slowly moving through the crowd, the car with Y. A. Gagarin headed for the mayor’s office in Manchester. Over the city council the red flag was fluttering. At the central driveway a military brass band was performing the anthem of the Soviet Union.
Manchester’s mayor, Mister Biggs, who, for this solemn occasion, had put on his gold chain, invited the guests for lunch. The table was served on a “Coronation Set” worth of five thousand pound sterling. Y. A. Gagarin took a plane to return to London.