Already in the 19th century, science fiction literature about space travel became quite common – just remember Jules Verne’s dilogy “From a cannon to the moon” and “Around the moon”. Science did not lag behind literature – already in 1881, our brilliant scientist, revolutionary and socialist Nikolai Kibalchich, while in prison, a few days before his execution, developed a project for a jet aircraft that was supposed to carry out manned spaceflight and even proposed ways to control it by changing the angle of the motor. The article also talked about the principles of stability of such a device, and even about solving problems with braking in the atmosphere. Alas, the tsarist authorities did not even allow Kibalchich’s works to be published, they were made public only in 1918, immediately after our country socially made a real breakthrough to the stars. It is significant that Kibalchich was a scientist and a revolutionary – the psychotypes of these people are often similar, and they are the ones who most often think of the stars and the future.
Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the literature on interstellar travel was becoming widespread, and the most prominent writers paid homage to it, such as Alexei Tolstoy with his novel Aelita, in which two earthlings travel to Mars and carry out a socialist revolution there. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s ideas that humanity would become cosmic no longer sounded like something unbelievable.
After the Second World War, the most terrible war in the history of mankind, in which the brightest idea defeated the darkest, everything related to the future, to progress, to received a huge boost. Both socially and technologically, people were the first preparation for spaceflight. World literature was simply swept away by a wave of science fiction – from consumer goods to the brightest, best writers, which was almost entirely devoted to spaceflight. Even the most distant inhabitants of space, at least sometimes, but looked at the stars.
Science, like all other spheres of our life, was stimulated by the competition of two systems – for the two superpowers, the USSR and the USA, it was important to prove that their system was the best and that it was the future in the most literal sense of the term, and the race for space, which required large means, adapted to these ends like nothing else.
On October 4, 1957, a real breakthrough happened – the USSR was the first in the world to launch an artificial earth satellite into space. Only twelve years after the most destructive and bloody war in human history, our country has taken the lead in the space race. However, the main achievement in the history of mankind was yet to come.
On April 12, 1961, a citizen of our country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, communist Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin made the world’s first manned flight into space. The whole world heard his famous “Let’s go!” “. Humanity has become cosmic. I’m not afraid of this word, but I think it’s the main event in the history of mankind. Thousands of years from now, when people become much wiser and advance not only technologically, but also socially and morally, all wars that will be studied as far and distant history will come to an end and people will conquer the space, Yuri Gagarin’s flight will be objectively perceived as the beginning of a new era. It is perhaps from this major event in the history of humanity that a new chronology will be conducted. The oldest remember that all of humanity, well beyond the borders of our country, even in the capitalist countries, was seized with pride, happiness and enthusiasm. And despite the fact that Gagarin made only one orbit around the Earth, the stars came closer to us than ever before.
The Soviet Union demonstrated to the whole world that in our country a simple young man, from the people, can be the first to go into space. Of course, before flying into space, Gagarin underwent a difficult selection, mainly for health and professional criteria. But I’m sure our government was well aware of the enormous psychological burden that would be placed on someone who was the first to enter space, so psychological stability was also important. I think external data played a role. After all, after returning to Earth, Gagarin became the most important “star” of mankind, incredible fame and world love fell on him, reinforced by the fact that Gagarin himself was so charming, pleasant and in the best sense of the simple word that the term “Gagarin’s smile” has entered all the languages of the world as one of the main compliments. I think Gagarin was and will remain for a long time, if not forever, the most famous and popular person in the world.
The Soviet government was not mistaken in its choice – Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin honorably performed all flight tasks and then fully justified the trust of the people. I think you can’t say better than Gagarin himself: “It’s hardly worth talking about the feelings I had when I was offered to make this first flight in history. Joy? No, it wasn’t just joy. Pride? No, it wasn’t just pride. I knew a great happiness to be the first in space, to enter head-to-head in an unprecedented duel with nature – is it possible to dream of more? But after that, I thought about the colossal responsibility incumbent on me: to be the first to achieve what generations have dreamed of, to be the first to lead the way for humanity in space. And if, despite everything, I decide to take this flight, it is only because I am a communist, because I have behind me examples of the unparalleled heroism of my compatriots, the Soviet people. I know that I will muster all my willpower to do the best job. Understanding the responsibility of the task, I will do everything in my power to fulfill the task of the Communist Party and the Soviet people. I would like to dedicate this first spaceflight to the people of communism – a society into which our Soviet people are already entering and into which, I am sure, all the inhabitants of the Earth will enter…”
After Gagarin’s flight, mankind achieved many more achievements in the field of space, and our country as a whole retained its leadership. The space race and competition between the two powers continued, although by the late 1980s it had become more common.
And in the 1990s of the last century, the stars not only turned out to be more distant, but simply ceased to be necessary for the majority of those who were supposed to determine the strategic line of mankind. It can be said that the slogan “Don’t look up!” and its variations “Take all of life!”, “Live for you!”, “Live for today!” has become the slogan of many political parties and politicians. The science fiction predictions of the 1960s, which predicted 2000s flights throughout the solar system, joint space exploration, international space bases on the Moon and Mars, did not come true at all, and not for objective technical reasons – if desired, humanity can implement such projects in the coming years. They were not justified for purely subjective reasons, it no longer depended on them. Many other things have appeared, due to which even the worst people no longer have to look not at the stars, but more and more at their feet.
Exactly 55 years ago, on March 27, 1968, Yuri Gagarin, together with the most experienced pilot Vladimir Seregin, left for his last flight. His plane crashed near the village of Novoselovo, in the Vladimir region. The exact causes of the disaster have not yet been clarified.
But some say that Gagarin is not dead, but was saved by representatives of a super-civilization that watches us and comes to the rescue at critical moments. And now he lives with them, but he will definitely come back – he will come back when we learn to look at the stars again!
