‘We No Longer Mark April 12 as Anniversary of Gagarin’s Flight’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 12 – Long ago, the anniversary of Yury Gagarin’s flight into space on April 12, 1961, became the International Day of Cosmonautics, one that is marked in many countries – Israel attempted to land a space vehicle on the moon on that date this year – but is increasingly ignored in the Russian Federation, Anatoly Baranov says.

            The editor of a pro-communist and pro-Soviet portal points out that there are almost no special events planned for that day this year despite the fact that Gagarin’s triumph remains one of the most important markers of scientific and even human development; and he asks why this is the case (forum-msk.org/material/news/15568341.html).

                Perhaps, he says, Russians have become “shy” about celebrating anyone who wears a uniform on which the letters USSR can be seen; and they have become accustomed to the idea that “in the USSR there couldn’t be anything good. The NKVD, the GULAG, the border guards, SMERSH” but not a remarkable breakthrough like Gagarin’s.

            Consequently, most Russians led by the current Russian government have simply chosen to ignore the first cosmonaut altogether. Indeed, Baranov says, the Yandex news file did not list the anniversary of his flight at the top of its news of the day. Instead, it simply provided a weather forecast for Moscow.

            While various institutions did little to recall Gagarin’s orbital flight, many Russian commentators did mark it. But the absence of official commemorations does highlight something else: the Putin regime does celebrate the Soviet past but not for achievements like Gagarin’s but only for the USSR’s military prowess and especially its victory in World War II.

            In Soviet times, remembering Gagarin was a central part of the official ideology, and commemorating the victory in World War II received, for most of the post-1945 period, relatively less attention than it does under Putin.  That pattern carries with it an important lesson that Baranov touches on but doesn’t discuss.

            The Soviet system celebrated itself because its leaders believed it was at the cutting edge of scientific progress; the Putin system celebrates the Soviet past only because of its military power, an entirely different thing altogether and yet another example of the way the current powers that be look backward rather than forward and to war rather than peace.