SECRET SPACE: The Cosmonaut CoverUp - FEATURE FILM

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on April 12 1961 the Soviet media reported the successful launch orbit and

re-entry of the first man in space cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin celebration

erupted worldwide the cosmonaut single orbit and the Soviet Union's landmark achievement

Gagarin went on to become one of the greatest heroes in history with a

breakup of the former Soviet Union and the rise of democracy in the Russian Federation a shocking truth has been

unearthed access to recently declassified documents in the Kremlin archives by Western journalists coupled

with newly forthcoming eyewitnesses now confirmed that Yuri Gagarin the symbol

and heroic icon of the Soviet empire was not the first man in space this honor

belongs to Vladimir elution

it is now clear that the world-famous Soviet test pilot Vladimir Ilyushin was

the real first man in space numerous accounts of his flight leaked out at the time and the kremlin archive documents

along with the eyewitness accounts only now confirm the accuracy of these original stories after several decades

of propaganda lies and official denials the truth about one of humanity's greatest achievements can now be told

after more than five years of research the whereabouts of the actual first man

in space was learned although now in his 70s retired Air Force general Vladimir

Ilyushin still works as one of the designers at the Sukhoi design bureau a Moscow based fighter jet manufacturer

general Aleutian was a celebrated test pilot of over 145 aircraft including the

Sukhoi 27 the premier Russian interceptor fighter jet in piecing

together this real-life puzzle of a space mission gone wrong and the subsequent cover-up the producer spent

two full days in Russia with Ellucian where he displayed the Family Museum and offered a glimpse into his amazing life

story although Ellucian promised to

reveal his story on camera upon the producers arrival in Russia he chose to steadfastly maintained his secrecy oddly

he revealed many other facts about his life never before made public that clearly indicated his involvement in the

Soviet space program in order to explain

Aleutians fear it is important to understand both the dynamics of the former communist Soviet regime and the

top military secrecy in the Soviet space program from its earliest beginnings

in a feat most experts thought impossible the Soviet Union assured in the Space Age on October 4th 1957 when

the satellite Sputnik weighing in at over 100 kilograms was secretly launched into Earth orbit upon the success of

Sputnik people around the world were shocked and dismayed when they realized that the Soviet payload could just as

easily have been a nuclear warhead capable of being delivered anywhere on the planet

after Sputnik was launched Soviet press

published very modest reports some small objects was delivered to the orbit but

government clearly was surprised by tremendous outpouring of emotions by

international media and finally the sword look this little toy can give in

our hands very important political and propaganda instrument the success of the

Sputnik launch was due entirely to the brilliance and determination of the head of the Soviet space program Sergey

Korolyov paranoic was not the genius

engineer he was not assigned he was a good engineer but he was the genius

manager he could to manage all these huge people he will put them together without care enough it was impossible to

do something because all these scientists will be like the ants or once the ants from the outside today mother

they will now work together and he create all the put them together like the screen and they they work for him

nobody knew about surrogate that I don't think that I don't think

the name in my time there I don't think the name korolyov was even known he he

was always referred to as the designer never by name and he never appeared at

any of the press conferences in my day the Nobel Prize Committee approached the

Soviet leadership for the purpose of awarding the Nobel Prize to the designer of the sputnik's rocket booster along

with the accompanying accolades and money that emanate from the honor however the Soviet government and leader

Nikita Khrushchev would not permit the award to go to the individual responsible for the success or allow him

to leave the country to accept the award so it's him no reasonable explanation

it's even difficult not explained to Americans but to Russians now why nobody

wanted to give the name of Carol oh when the Nobel Committee asked this because

they want to give him Nobel Prize so we stole no no the not interested Nobel

Prize he's sickly so it is part of this as of this society the part of this

society was just recovering from the stalin history it's take taking a long

time by the late 1950s it was clear to both

the United States and the Soviet Union that the next space challenge would be to send a human into orbit several

highly trained military jet test pilots were chosen by both nations to literally go where no man had gone before the

Soviet space program remained a highly secretive branch of the military test pilots became known as cosmonauts

Smirnov test analysis vehicle was later Walker canis little ofcourse Mo's

daughter who has manners of making famous only after they had been in space

before then no one was allowed to tell anyone what they did the rule was made

so as not to attract attention to those people who to become cosmonauts and also

to be able to cover up the truth if any accident secured

in the 1960s the Soviets were very secretive about their space program

pictures would be condensed things in the background would be changed for what

appears to be no apparent reason that we can tell that the the Russians were

trying to be secretive that they were covering up something and not being

totally truthful we have photographs where where we believe a cosmonaut in

training has been airbrushed away in

October 1960 the most tragic example of the fanatical paranoia of Soviet secrecy

occurred a huge new booster rocket appeared to malfunction at the time of

launch instead of lifting off it remained fixed in a launch pad ignoring

all warnings and flagrantly overriding safety precautions the Kremlin ordered the launch director and engineers to

repair the problem immediately in order to get the rocket launched that same day

Marshall medallion who was a head of rocket strategic forces personally

sitting in the chair next to the rocket was in preparation before the launch he

demanded that this chair should be brought next to the rocket and it was

completely against all the safety regulations and everyone around knew

that this is against the safety regulations but everyone thought look if

I wouldn't get place next to the big boss I might be

fired net to the next day from my job with more than 200 men inspecting the

rocket including the launch director Nadella a huge ball of fire suddenly erupted

instantly killing everyone nearby no

list of the people who died was ever compiled and no one will ever know just how many people died that day

amazingly this historic tragedy was continually denied with the Soviets and

the tragic details of this event were not revealed by the Soviet government for almost 30 years other recently

Declassified Kremlin documents also indicate that as many as seven cosmonauts were killed in training

accidents prior to the d'harans reported flight cosmonauts Ladakhi shiburin meet

coffe Dolgov bella Konev catcher and garage chef were never honored for being

the pioneers they were giving their lives in attempts to reach space they will instead remain as mere names and a

secret list of cosmonauts who perished in training accidents that was the point

at which a lot of these guys became increasingly clear that they had been

shafted and they became angry there was a lot of anger but they couldn't do

anything there was no place to go there was no free press there were only family members to hear their stories and

after a while they had told those stories and what more could they do

Cosmo Subaru Pastrana propaganda receipt east eastern civilization regina

guerrilla said no deal with Sasha no drug war everything was built on

propaganda and everything was secret it was always this way and everybody knew

about it the newspapers and radio said one thing and what really happened was

something different his nose was darkness

what the Soviet propagandist did not understand was that by presenting the

difficulties the problems the mistakes the accidents the mishaps

they could have presented a far better picture also and then in fact they did

but the to present everything is perfect was in fact to belittle the achievement

of a solid to belittle the achievement of the Soviet people and to depict it in

that light was to underestimate the hero is on the struggle the effort of the

Soviet people and you know you show completely a completely inept approach

as a result of the Soviet Union's reported technological achievements

while at the same time hiding its failures positive perception of communist philosophy was at its peak

Khrushchev reportedly became obsessed with the idea of being the first to successfully launch a man in space and

ordered koroliov to make it happen regardless of cost

at that time Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Aleutian was unquestionably the Soviet

Union's most famous and experienced test pilot as it tests the planet Aleutian

said dozens of speed and altitude records and also held the world altitude record of nearly 30 kilometers which he

said in 1959 using a Sukhoi 9 military interceptor jet in late 1916

Ellucian was awarded the hero of the soviet union their highest military honor for his altitude records

equivalent to the prestigious American Congressional Medal of Honor or a British knighthood this Soviet award was

bestowed upon a select few Aleutian himself was the offspring of the most

distinguished military and aircraft engineering family in the Soviet Union his father Sergei was one of the most

famous heroes in the Soviet Union designing and building many of the fighter and bomber planes that contributed the safety Soviets the

invading Nazis at the height of World War two

Sergei Ellucian the designer was very much involved world war two fighter

planes Soviets the Battle of Stalingrad

the il-2 Sturmovik was probably the most famous of all the Russian aircraft a

ground attack aircraft so this gave a huge stature under Stalin and of course

the chef that he took over

in addition sara gay le ocean was also one of the most powerful men in the soviet union having been awarded the

hero of the soviet union three times and being a member of the inner sanctum of

soviet power as a distinguished deputy leader of their Parliament the Supreme Soviet after world war ii the elder

Ilyushin correctly envisioned the future of aircraft manufacturing as requiring the transition from military to civilian

production once again Ellucian showed his brilliance in designing and manufacturing some of the

best civilian passenger jet airplanes ever made the Aleutian aviation complex

was considered by many to be one of the world's finest civilian airplane manufacturing companies Ellucian would

would be respected and in Soviet society not because he had three awards but be

why he got the three awards which because of his work which was because of

his work as an aircraft designer and his contribution to the develop those for

development Soviet Civil Aviation was outstanding

the younger Ellucian was always fearful of being lost or stuck in his father's

larger-than-life image and set out to free himself from his father's shadow the younger Ellucian did not want to be

groomed to take over his father's civilian airplane manufacturing company instead he entered test pilot school

then went on to design and test pilot military jet fighters in a final act of

defiance Wladimir joined the Sukhoi Aircraft Company in 1952 his father's most bitter

personal rival the elder Aleutian is said to have been enraged over his son's

actions remaining highly incensed for several years throughout the 1950s the

relationship between elder and younger Aleutian was non-existent but ultimately culminated in one of mutual pride and

respect for each other's accomplishments Vladimir Ellucian reportedly snubbed the

thought of flying in space when it was first offered to him regarding it is fit only for dogs and lab rats the Soviet

space capsule was to be operated exclusively by Mission Control engineers via remote control no hands on cosmonaut

actions were required which was an uninteresting prospect for the best test pilot of the era still most of Aleutians

accomplished fellow test pilots did join the cosmonaut Corps in spite of this obvious handicap at some point shortly

after being bestowed the Hero of the Soviet Union Honor Aleutian changed his mind he began to actively pursue the

idea of becoming the first man in space Ellucian began to view space as his

personal opportunity to separate himself from his larger-than-life father and become an immortal hero on his own and

in a field apart from aviation one of

the powerful things that the Aleutians brought to Russia was a sense of a dynasty

there's a group of families who are significant historically and the

Aleutians were certainly one glimpse and the fact that it was all in the same

sphere in aviation and aerospace sciences was significant it was

therefore in my view no accident that vladimir lucien would have been picked as the man for the job I mean it was an

obvious choice he was the right age he had the right training he had the name

it would have been perfect had it worked and that was what first got me interested in the story was the obvious

'no succumb the communist regime to pick pollution for the job as a result of his

professional accolades coupled with his family's tremendous political influence lieutenant-colonel Ellucian was

ultimately given his chance to become the first man in space Ellucian doggedly engaged in months of

intense catch-up training necessary to prepare him for his chance at immortality even though his fellow

cosmonauts were well into their second year of space flight training

Vladimir cateura watch in Cairo's now we'll watch in with you all and Nemo

Radomir whom I knew well was very happy smart and he was always helpful to others during his training because

intense detail-oriented and meticulous all assignments he did to perfection and

the results were the best of any cosmonaut in training

as secretive as a Soviet space program was there were a number of leaks as to

Aleutians imminent flight possibly as a result of his enormous celebrity as the man who had been closest to achieving

true spaceflight with his altitude records and the natural choice to be the first man in space in early 1961 a

photograph of Aleutian wearing space gear was published and it was said he

was undergoing training as a cosmonaut

my job was to fill all aspects of Rodimus lunch Vladimir was a nicest

happiest friendliest pilot I have ever

seen vardaman was confident and atonement and he was ready for this day

according to declassified documents Ellucian was put into the capsule named or Assia and launched in top military

secrecy early in the morning on Friday April 7th 1961

I was just so excited to be a part of

this whole thing and I was thinking to myself how most people could only read

about history and here I was being a part of history

at the time the CIA and other military intelligence organizations neither

confirmed nor denied the detection of the launch or the flight even after

several decades CIA and US State Department documents are still classified on this issue it is presumed

that Western intelligence agencies neither wanted to tip their hand as to their capabilities in detecting Soviet

launches in orbits nor to reveal their sources earlier in the year a jump a few

months before I had seen photograph of ladi mere illusion wearing space gear

and referred to as a member of the cosmonaut group training or gospel

therefore when I heard the story Vladimir Ellucian had been up in space

it fitted now I was so sure at that time

that the story was true I tried to get

comment from all Soviet sources I could from the press department from Prague

from his vest year from TAS from all of them I got the answer we don't know we

don't know subsequently I realized they did know

during the flight there was a malfunction in the electrical system knocking out the guidance controls and

radio Ellucian lost consciousness during the third orbit just before reentry causing ground control to lose contact

with the capsule so I believe what

happened was that the vladimir lucien was put into orbit something went wrong aboard the spacecraft whether the

guidance system or or whatever and that for several hours he was subjected to

two conditions that were not conducive to his elf unlike the Americans who had

their early capsules land in the ocean the Soviet capsules had to land on the hard ground within their borders because

the Soviets had not yet perfected proper re-entry and landing procedures cosmonauts were expected to eject

between 10,000 and 20,000 feet then parachute to safety according to

recently reveal Kremlin documents Ellucian was unable to eject and made a

hard landing in the capsule amazingly he survived badly hurt but alive

the dynamics of orbital mechanics are such that the capsule could only have returned to Russian soil near the

planned landing site on the first or the 17th orbit Ellucian however came down on

the third orbit Kremlin archive documents now indicate that Ellucian went off course and crash-landed in

mainland China not the Soviet Union he was first detained by villagers then by

local authorities and ultimately was held in China as an honored guest of the

country regarding the scenario that

involve crash landing in China one of

the things that the case of documents which I had a chance to rifle through in

the archive I did notice quite a few documents referring to Chinese Communist

Party officials in this period of time which was not the best period for

sino-soviet relations asking questions about the nature of the space program

and direct connection to solutions being there those questions that were raised

by Chinese Communist Party officials about the Soviet space program were

directly connected to a incident on their own soil I think that's certainly for future researchers and investigators

a definite path to pursue the worst

possible case scenario for the Soviet Union now came true with their mission in shambles and their hero in the hands

of their enemies the Soviet leadership was in total confusion about what to do

at first there were many indications that the Soviets were going to publicize the flight ultimately they refused to

acknowledge the foreign reports and later forcefully but sloppily denied the story all together with several

conflicting and contradictory excuses by

that time however it was too late the story had been broken wide open denis ogden the Moscow correspondent

with a london-based communist newspaper The Daily Worker was among the first to get the Aleutian story published and he

still refuses to reveal his informant to this day but Ogden did confirm that this

source had been a well-placed informant that he trusted fully

The Times had a story very similar to the one I had I not surprised that

Hungarians and Yugoslavs and other correspondents published such stories or

knew of such stories all correspondence news such stories and we were constantly

exchanging phone calls have you heard this have you heard that what do you think of it that doesn't surprise me at

all there was one of a French reporter that

was there on that day one from Bulgaria various American Air Force people made

comments that an attempt was made and those sources were independent you know

they wasn't it wasn't a case of one source and then another by picking it up they were separate sources for several

decades the Soviets angrily and profusely denied these stories as fabrications and lies and had propaganda

writers discredit slander and defame the reputations of these reporters and correspondents it was only after the

collapse of communism in the breakup of the former Soviet Union that access to Kremlin archive documents and memos

confirmed the truthfulness and accuracy of these stories about Vladimir elution

I first heard about the Aleutian story from Russian colleagues who basically

whispered it I got a clear sense that there was something about this story which I hadn't heard about in the West

that needed to be pursued but it took I guess from the first time I heard about

it to the time when I was able to get access to some documents it took about eight years in a society that was built

around Secrets the archives are you know the most important resource to be

protected not necessarily to preserve the memory but to preserve the fictions so that's one of the reasons why getting

access to archival material is still difficult to the state with the advent

of Russian democracy and the availability of substantiating documentation Aleutians story can now be

appreciated in full finally I was able to finagle my way into a library which

gave me an opportunity to read some things that I wouldn't have been able to get access to otherwise and that helped

me conclude some of the things that I wrote in the story there were really three types of documents there was the

pre-launch documentation there was the catastrophe and there were documents

pertaining to discussions that took place after the event

back in April 1961 the Soviet media was becoming more and more vociferous

contradictory and utterly confusing and denying that illusion was in fact the first man in space

at first the story released by the Soviets proclaimed that Ellucian was

never a part of the cosmonaut Corps and that he was in excellent health then they admitted that Ellucian was a

cosmonaut in training but was in a car accident the month before and couldn't be the first man in space

then they reported that illusion was not a cosmonaut in training because he had been in a car accident back in 1959

which was later modified and changed by the Soviet media to mid 1960 and that

Aleutian was in a coma from the time of the accident until March of 1960 won

numerous contradictions of this nature added to the skepticism of Western journalists at that time not the least

of which was a photo taken of a healthy Aleutian in December of 1960 just four

months before his spaceflight the photo showed Aleutian receiving the Hero of the Soviet Union award for his altitude

record obviously he was not in a coma at that time the Soviet government never

could produce Aleutian himself during this time to refute the alleged flight but always maintained its insistence

through the media that Aleutian was not the first man in space

they the confused stories about illusion simply demonstrate the point that I made

several times that the Soviet Union was its own worst enemy the talk of Soviet

propaganda being efficient effective is just nonsense I don't believe I never

believed that the story of its Soviet Soviet Union was good at propaganda it

was not to explain how Aleutian could be in

mainland China at that time the Communists controlled government media in the Soviet Union

reported that Aleutian was sent to a rehabilitation hospital in China there were also contradictions and

falsehoods given by the Soviets regarding even this story there were two reports on Vladimir Aleutian being

injured and being sent to China one of them had him in a Peking Hospital one of

them had him in a Hangzhou hospital it's very doubtful to me that somebody in a

car accident in a Soviet Union especially the son of a famous aviation

designer and somebody himself a test pilot a military test pilot would be

sent to a Chinese hospital for recuperation I never heard of anybody

being sent from the Soviet Union to China for medical treatment and the

medical facilities available in the Soviet Union perfectly satisfactory

probably better than those available in China and the second point was that of course in from during the sectoring and

towards the end of the 50s and in the early sixties Soviet Chinese relations were very strained and I really couldn't

conceive that someone like illusion

would would be sent there I find it difficult to understand

obviously the Soviets were caught in a no-win situation Khrushchev could not simply cover up

this failure with sheer propaganda but when kaliesha came to power he make our

society much less closed but before

everything was secret now still many things remain secret which had no

explanation because for example keep they told why we have to talk to all the

world about our failures it will not help us all the failures very known only

to a narrow circle and you know there was kind of oral history you know you

could learn from friends what happened at the launch but it was amazing that

now in retrospect we did not have more failures I think the way government's tried to

hide the failures was really detrimental for the program

people wonder why today not disclose

catastrophes well I mean the easy answer in courses that was embarrassing Marxist Leninist economics and Marxist

Leninist politics prided itself on being a scientific objective analysis of human

and natural law and if you are really good at your Marxist Leninist theory

then nothing in the real world should be less than perfect so it was a great

embarrassment not only to disclose this fact externally but to have to admit it

internally in the halls of power I think they were put in a situation then that

that they didn't have somebody they could present the public and here Khrushchev had been using the space

program as has one of his big propaganda hammers and to have this kind of failure

it was intolerant in an almost unbelievable coincidence on

Saturday April 8 1961 the day after Aleutians ill-fated mission an internal

meeting was quickly scheduled by korolyov for various members of the military and government for the purpose

of introducing the next first man in space lieutenant yuri gagarin this meeting

however was not acknowledged until after Gagarin's flight and the film documentation was not released for

several years after the fight Aaron yeah it's difficult to single out any other

six splendidly trained cosmonauts but it must be done the Air Force command

recommends Senior Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin for the first flight in space with chairman Seto as the backup in hindsight

it is very difficult to even imagine that the cosmonaut chosen to be the very first man in space would be named so

hastily and on a Saturday with only three or four days of preparation before the most historic launch in human

history was to take place by comparison to the heroic

record-setting test pilot Ellucian Gagarin was not even in the same league he had just recently graduated from

flight school and was considered a novice pilot without a single noteworthy achievement to his credit Gagarin was

however young articulate attractive and a committed member of the Communist Party

allow me to show the Soviet government the Communist Party and people that I

will carry out with honor the task entrusted to me and that I will be able

to overcome all difficulties I may encounter the way a good communist true

five days after the aleutian flight the successful Gagarin mission was reported

in the Soviet media it is noteworthy to

point out that Khrushchev was in Moscow at the time of Aleutians flight but was on vacation to a remote resort on the

Black Sea at the time of Gagarin's launch Khrushchev was caught totally by surprise when told about Gagarin flight

by phone and he immediately returned to Moscow then arranged a tremendous hero celebration with Gagarin some Soviet

experts now believe that Khrushchev was so overwrought with the Aleutians failure that he had to go on vacation

and that Korolyov took things into his own hands to launch Gagarin no matter what the consequences without even

bothering to tell Khrushchev in the event there might have been another failure Yuri Gagarin was clearly a

political piece Khrushchev and the Soviet Union used to the maximum extent

we could after if the flight he was welcome back in Moscow he went on a tour

of the world he went to London and India and he was a spokesman of the Soviet

Union he was the typical being portrayed as the typical Soviets person you know

young aggressive bright courageous you know everything that they

wanted to portray communism to be

an interesting note in a recently Declassified State Department document reveals that the leaders of almost every

country sent Khrushchev gifts and congratulatory letters over Gagarin successful flight with China being the

sole exception choosing to remain mysteriously quiet during the entire affair however China did send

congratulatory letters to the Soviet leadership on all subsequent Soviet space missions perhaps this was the

subtle way China could tell the world that they knew Gagarin was not the first man in space with a successful flight of

Gagarin the aleutian flight became a non-event as for those who knew the

truth about Aleutian such as reporter Dennis Ogden his informant and the space

program engineers and technicians involved in the flight each was forced to participate in a conspiracy of

silence driven by fear I got a call a

call from my superior he taught me in no uncertain terms to

destroy everything I had on dragomir and to just keep quiet about the whole

affair from the tone of his voice I knew

clearly that if I didn't do exactly as

he said my family and I would have

one-way tickets and a permanent address change to Siberia I was summoned to the

press department to meet the head of the press department man called Harlem

he had been instructed by the Central Committee to conduct an investigation

into my story he said leading across the table I only

want to know one thing who told you I said I'm sorry I can't

tell you why not journalistic ethics and

then he blew up in a big way and he said yes but we want to know who told you

because this person has done great harm had I been what was called him Moscow of

bourgeois correspond a non-communist correspondent I'm sure I would have been expelled there's no doubt about that but

it would have been very embarrassing for them to expel a communist correspondent

through all the years of propaganda and denials the story of Vladimir Ilyushin

in a space flight had been relegated to the garbage can of hoaxes myths and fabrications generated by overzealous

and imaginative Western reporters Ogden himself was branded as a fantasy writer

and flat-out liar the Soviets however went to extraordinary measures to find out who

Ogden's informant was Ogden was constantly followed by the KGB in hopes

of capturing his informant both Ogden and his informant feared for their very lives it went to a reception and as I

and I sensed that one of my minders was close behind and as I walked through the

door straight ahead of me was my informant and I knew that if my mind saw

him and me together that was it

he would know and I fortunately fortunately my

informant saw my minder and realized the situation and just ignored me

since both China and the Soviet Union were hostile to the West no Press reports were ever made

available an Aleutian stay in China nor an any swap for his release while it is

still unclear as to what kind of deal was struck between the Soviet Union and China to get Ellucian back in either in

exchange of spies or money or both Ellucian finally and quietly came home

about a year after his flight and shortly thereafter resumed working in his home for the Sukhoi aircraft company

in a very low-key manner vladimir

Ellucian was in a position that i believe was a problematic for Khrushchev

and the government first off he was a very famous person in his own right as a test pilot he was famous because of the

family that he was born into and they and the what would you consider to be the elite within the Soviet Union so I

think what came down was it was a joint

decision that Vladimir would just basically just be quiet

the brilliant Soviet space designer Sergey Korolyov also suffered once again

from the Asteria and secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program he was again

denied his dual just like Aleutian was Sergei Korolev was the chief designer of

the rocket and spacecraft used for the Gagarin flight the first manned flights

the Nobel Committee wanted to give this

person a Nobel Prize for the accomplishment it was a tremendous accomplishment but under Khrushchev and

the tight regime at the time even those that follow Khrushchev there was no release of his name at all until

in fact his death in 1966 it is indeed

hard to believe that koroliov went to his grave in 1966 having been cheated

out of not just one but two Nobel Prizes for his brilliance because koroliov

lived in a society where paranoia and cover-ups were the norm the world never knew or appreciated his unparalleled

contribution to space exploration during his lifetime looking back at the stories

of personalities khrushchev personality

korolev personality of the Garen personality the aleutian personality

probably the most interesting element of it was the Shakespearean character

the life that was led after these events by Gagarin and Aleutian of course if

Gagarin was not the first in space he was probably aware of that fact at some point and that may have led to his

demise alcoholism and lack of control and public apparently he became very

difficult for the Communist Party to cope with because he would say things in public that were an embarrassment if not

outright dangerous there were even reports of Gagarin

throwing a glass of champagne in the face of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev at a government function shortly thereafter

in March 1968 Gagarin died in a highly suspicious and mysterious mik jet crash

in perhaps the ultimate twist of fate Vladimir Ilyushin was appointed to lead

the committee investigating the crash whose report was inconclusive and left many nagging questions

Ellucian himself reported that Gagarin's body was never found and only a finger

of the once great hero was recovered from the wreckage leading many experts to question whether or not Gagarin may

well have been murdered by the KGB at Brezhnev's instructions meanwhile the

true conquering hero must continue to live wrestling the memory of the life was due him a life that was led by

illusion was actually quite significant

than he did not only work as a test pilot after the fact but he also became

a significant designer and I think it's kind of tragic that the one man who the

world acknowledges still today as the great hero actually may have been a fabrication and that's kind of a sad end

to the story that the two guys went different ways and each in one sense got

the reverse of what you would have expected the hero wound up being the tragic figure and the one that they

tried to bury turned out to actually make a lasting contribution even though

this gentle giant of a man must face the statues of Gagarin visit the buildings that bear Gagarin's name and participate

in the ceremonies at Heil Gagarin as the first man in space Vladimir Ilyushin knows in his heart

that it was his accomplishment that broke new ground not only in the space race of the Cold War but in the human

quest for knowledge adventure and conquest I moved to America several years ago and

I am so happy that the Soviet Union and the Communist are finished and now I

don't have to keep quiet to protect the Soviet Union's good name so if the KGB

wants to come after me mail then I'll be

waiting for them to spit in their faces after what they did to Valley with the

truth at last unveiled Vladimir Ilyushin deserves to be recognized as the space

pioneer and hero he is rather than as a footnote in a falsified history