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The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling - The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin (Paperback)
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The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling - The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin (Paperback)
Series: NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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"Let's go!" With that, the boyish, grinning Yuri Gagarin launched
into space on April 12, 1961, becoming the first human being to
exit Earth's orbit. The twenty-seven-year-old lieutenant colonel
departed for the stars from within the shadowy world of the Soviet
military-industrial complex. Barbed wires, no-entry placards, armed
guards, false identities, mendacious maps, and a myriad of secret
signs had hidden Gagarin from prying outsiders-not even his friends
or family knew what he had been up to. Coming less than four years
after the Russians launched Sputnik into orbit, Gagarin's voyage
was cause for another round of capitalist shock and Soviet
rejoicing. The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling relates this
twentieth-century icon's remarkable life while exploring the
fascinating world of Soviet culture. Gagarin's flight brought him
massive international fame-in the early 1960s, he was possibly the
most photographed person in the world, flashing his trademark smile
while rubbing elbows with the varied likes of Nehru, Castro, Queen
Elizabeth II, and Italian sex symbol Gina Lollobrigida. Outside of
the spotlight, Andrew L. Jenks reveals, his tragic and mysterious
death in a jet crash became fodder for morality tales and
conspiracy theories in his home country, and, long after his
demise, his life continues to provide grist for the Russian
popular-culture mill. This is the story of a legend, both the
official one and the one of myth, which reflected the fantasies,
perversions, hopes and dreams of Gagarin's fellow Russians. With
this rich, lively chronicle of Gagarin's life and times, Jenks
recreates the elaborately secretive world of space-age Russia while
providing insights into Soviet history that will captivate a range
of readers.
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