Yuri Gagarin

Speak Out (I Belov)

My favourite hero is Juri Gagarin.

Yuri Gagarin was born on the 9^th of March, 1934, in Klushino, a small village near Gzahtsk (now Gagarin). His parents worked on a collective farm. Yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped to raise him while his parents worked. During the war, the Nazis threw his family out of their house and took away two of his sisters. Yuri helped his parents to dig a dugout where they lived until the end of the occupation. In 1946,   the   family moved to Gzahtsk. In his youth, Gagarin became interested in space and planets. When he was in his fourth year of a technical school in Saratov, he joined a flying club and soon became a wonderful pilot.

In August 1960, when Gagarin was one of 20 possible candidates for the space programme, an Air Force doctor wrote about him: 'Modest, very intel­ligent, fantastic memory, a very good imagination, quick reactions, understands life better than his friends, can defend his point of view.'  After his historic flight into space, Gagarin became famous all over the world.

Sadly, he died on the 27^th of March, 1968, in a plane crash.