| By
Karl Emerick Hanuska
MOSCOW
(Reuters) - It was 108 minutes on April 12, 1961 that made
the difference to Yuri Gagarin and the world -- the time
it took for the first man in space to complete his historic
dash around the globe and blaze a trail to the stars.
That
trip transformed a former farm boy into one of the greatest
icons of the 20th century and stunned the West with the
realization that for all its backwardness, the lumbering
Soviet giant was capable of feats it could only dream of.
``There
aren't many achievements that can compare to what Gagarin
did,'' said Pavel Popovich, one of the original team of
six Soviet cosmonauts and a friend of Gagarin's.
``No
matter how much man ever manages to do in space, none of
it will have the same resonance as when Yuri flew...but
after putting the first man up there we know there are few
barriers that can't be overcome,'' he told Reuters in an
interview.
Things
are somewhat tougher 40 years on as Russian space chiefs
struggle with the financial crises and conflicting priorities
that have slowed progress and claimed victims such as the
Mir space station (news - web sites), ditched in March because
of a lack of funds.
To the
nation's rocketeers Gargarin's success is a proud symbol
of the past, when they left U.S. scientists scrambling in
their wake. It is also a beacon of hope for the future.
Part
of Gagarin's allure is that like so many of the century's
great icons he died before his time, in a mysterious plane
crash at the age of 34, just seven years after his historic
trip.
So forever
he remains the youthful, vibrant figure who won the hearts
of millions as he traveled the globe in what was the most
successful propaganda effort the Soviet Union ever managed.
Destined
For Greatness
Popovich,
now 70 but still with a boisterous charm that hints of the
charisma the original cosmonauts had, said when he first
met Gagarin it was clear he was destined for greatness.
``Yuri
stood out from the rest of us. He was simple, gregarious,
happy and full of life and curiosity...He was a genuinely
nice guy,'' said Popovich, the fourth man to fly in space
for the Soviet Union.
``At
one time they asked us cosmonauts who should be the first
to go into space and every single one of us said Gagarin.''
Gagarin's
charm won the approval of Soviet planners when they had
to decide who would ride his way into history aboard the
first manned space ship, the Vostok 1.
His
humble roots saw him narrowly edge out Gherman Titov, whose
intellectual family and penchant for spouting poetry seemed
to make him too bourgeois for a Soviet hero.
Years
later Titov said that while he still felt the disappointment
of the choice, he grudgingly agreed with it.
``Yuri
was loveable, but no one could love me,'' Titov said in
an interview shortly before his death last year.
A Need
For Heroes
The
40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight comes at a key time
for the nation, just as the original event did.
In a
country battered by the political and economic upheaval
of the decade since the Soviet collapse, undisputed heroes
are in short supply, as is the pride that Gagarin inspired.
So officials
have set about trying to recreate some of that mood by remembering
Gagarin with ceremonies and exhibits and feting those few
who remain of the original cosmonaut corps.
The
situation in Russia now is not unlike it was 40 years ago
when the scars of World War Two and of dictator Joseph Stalin's
purges had yet to heal.
Handsome,
quick-witted and just sufficiently self-deprecating, Gagarin
was the perfect figure to bring the nation together and
turn people toward the future they were meant to be building.
On trips
abroad where musicians, politicians and movie stars jostled
one other just to shake his hand, he smashed the Western
stereotype of the crude, backwards Soviets.
In a
moment captured in one famous photograph, actress Gina Lollobrigida
pushed through a crowded room to plant a kiss on Gagarin's
cheek, fulfilling a personal ambition.
``There's
never been another hero like him and there never will be,''
insisted Dasha, a 13-year-old girl, during a visit to a
Moscow museum where many relics of Gagarin's flight are
kept.
``We
don't really have any kind of heroes today, but Yuri Gagarin
was one that we can always remember.''
Yet
despite his legendary status, Gagarin proved to be not quite
the perfect hero.
Soviet
officials frequently complained about drinking binges and
tales of his alleged adultery had to be quietly hushed up,
including an incident where he was caught by his wife with
another woman and injured himself leaping from a hotel balcony.
But
those problems have done little to tarnish Gagarin's image.
Yuri
Biryukov, an engineer who helped build the capsule that
Gagarin rode, said he had never lost his wonder of Gagarin
and the men who took the world's first great leaps into
space.
``For
all of us these men were like superheroes, larger than life.
We knew then that Gagarin was making history. Perhaps then
we even understood better than Gagarin the significance
of what he was going to do,'' Biryukov said.
``We've
never forgotten that we were the country that opened the
way into space,'' he said. ``We've never forgotten that
Yuri Gagarin was the man who showed we could do it.''
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