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

Andrew L. Jenks

Published by Cornell University Press 2019

The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling

The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin

Andrew L. Jenks

In the series NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501757686

Overview
Contents

About this book

"Let's go!" With that, the boyish, grinning Yuri Gagarin launched into space on April 12, 1961, becoming the first human being to exit Earth's orbit. The twenty-seven-year-old lieutenant colonel departed for the stars from within the shadowy world of the Soviet military-industrial complex. Barbed wires, no-entry placards, armed guards, false identities, mendacious maps, and a myriad of secret signs had hidden Gagarin from prying outsiders—not even his friends or family knew what he had been up to. Coming less than four years after the Russians launched Sputnik into orbit, Gagarin's voyage was cause for another round of capitalist shock and Soviet rejoicing.

The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling relates this twentieth-century icon's remarkable life while exploring the fascinating world of Soviet culture. Gagarin's flight brought him massive international fame—in the early 1960s, he was possibly the most photographed person in the world, flashing his trademark smile while rubbing elbows with the varied likes of Nehru, Castro, Queen Elizabeth II, and Italian sex symbol Gina Lollobrigida. Outside of the spotlight, Andrew L. Jenks reveals, his tragic and mysterious death in a jet crash became fodder for morality tales and conspiracy theories in his home country, and, long after his demise, his life continues to provide grist for the Russian popular-culture mill.

This is the story of a legend, both the official one and the one of myth, which reflected the fantasies, perversions, hopes and dreams of Gagarin's fellow Russians. With this rich, lively chronicle of Gagarin's life and times, Jenks recreates the elaborately secretive world of space-age Russia while providing insights into Soviet history that will captivate a range of readers.

Author / Editor information

Andrew L. Jenks is associate professor of history at California State University, Long Beach, and the author of The Perils of Progress and Russia in a Box.

Reviews

Clifford R. McMurray, National Space Society:

This is one of the most compelling works of space history to be published in the past decade. Jenks has given us a thought-provoking look at both the man and the society who led the way into space, and the paradoxical, ironic, and sometimes tragic ways in which they interacted with each other.

William P. Barry:

This is a brilliantly original, incisive work that not only says many new and interesting things about Gagarin, but also about the Soviet Union and Russia. By tackling both the man and the myth Jenks has transcended the hagiography.

This is an intelligent and balanced biography that combines well the cultural history of space technology with Soviet and Russian history. Highly recommended. Academic, professional, and general audiences, all levels.

This book is an outstanding piece of scholarship. The author has drawn on the best of Soviet historiography to craft a multifaceted biography of a man whose obscure origins made him appear to be a malleable public personality and with an easily masked face. Dr. Jenks has done as much for the scholarship of Soviet-era biography as historian Nell Irvin Painter has done for uncovering the lives of slaves in the United States.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ONE- Yuri Gagarin and the Many Faces of Modern Russia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
TWO-A Victor's Congress Baby Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
THREE-The Industrial Boys Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
FOUR-The Chief Designer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
FIVE-The Flight that Launched a Thousand Rumors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
SIX-Exegesis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
SEVEN-Homo Sovieticus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
EIGHT -Sacred Lies, Profane Truths Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
NINE-Landscapes ofRussianness, 1991-2011 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 323
Illustrations
- Other: 28 illustrations
Keywords: Sputnik; Soviet military-industrial complex; Gina Lollobrigida; Nehru; Castro; Queen Elizabeth II; space race

eBook

Published: January 15, 2019
ISBN: 9781501757686