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Yuri Alexeevich Gagarin

by Ekaterina from Korolev, Russia

Yuri Gagarin (www.wikipedia.ru)
Yuri Gagarin (www.wikipedia.ru)

My hero is Yuri Alexeevich Gagarin. I think he was very brave because it was dangerous to fly into space for the first time. Nobody knew that he would return alive. Yuri Gagarin made history by his flight and he became the hero of the USSR. Here are some facts of his biography.

Yuri Alexeevich Gagarin was a Russian Soviet aviator and cosmonaut. He was born on 9 March 1934 in a village Klushino near Gzhatsk. His father was Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin and his mother was Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina. Gagarin spent his childhood in a big family. He had a sister and two brothers. Yuri studied at a local school for six years. In 1951 Gagarin finished a vocational school in Lyubertsy. In 1955 Yuri Gagarin successfully finished a technical high school in Saratov and made his first flight in Yak-18. By 1960 he had been selected for the first group of the USSR cosmonauts.

the spaceship “Vostok 1”  (http://www.newsru.co.il/pict/big/27770.html)
the spaceship “Vostok 1” (http://www.newsru.co.il/pict/big/27770.html)

On 12 April 1961 Gagarin started his flight into space on board the spaceship “Vostok 1” and made a tour around the Earth that lasted 108 minuets. Then Gagarin landed safely in Siberia. He became the first man to fly into space. Gagarin got a lot of ranks, celebrations and awards from different countries.

After the flight Gagarin studied in the academy, did some social work and for that time he had no flight practice. His first flight after the interval was in 1967 and he made a little mistake. The Soviet regime was afraid that the famous hero can die in one of his flights, but Gagarin began to re-qualify as a fighter pilot.

On 27 March 1968 Yuri Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. The exact circumstances of his death are not known up to now.

Gagarin is my hero because he was a very brave man. He loved his Motherland and people. I want to be like him.

Page created on 12/25/2008 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 12/25/2008 12:00:00 AM

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