The Birth of the Cosmonaut

Abstract

For many years, a very simple story was told to the world about Yuri Gagarin, the first human being to visit space, to sustain the idealized image of the Soviet space program. Granted, the true story behind this historic accomplishment is much more complicated. The Soviet space program and the individuals operating within it were extremely unique, since the cosmonauts attributed their success to Soviet society as a whole rather than to a specific political leader or even themselves. Rather than focusing on individual achievements or credits, the focus was instead turned toward the general success and scientific potential of human-crewed spaceflight. Accomplishments of the space program were collective achievements, not individual ones. The actual truth of the Soviet space program would also be defined by the secret legacy of space scientists and engineers which grew out of secret projects that went officially unacknowledged even after the launch of Gagarin. The engineers who worked on the public space programs were the same ones who worked on programs like spy satellites that remained secret.