Yuri Gagarin, like you’ve RARELY seen him before (PHOTOS)
The whole world still admires the late great Russian cosmonaut. But, what kind of person was he? Let's try to figure it out through these rarely seen photos.
His famous smile is known all over the world. It was said to be one of the deciding factors in choosing who would be the first to fly into space (all other things being equal). Below, Yuri Gagarin is seen on April 12, 1961, in the first minutes after landing back on Earth.
In his youth, nothing foretold a stellar future for the hero. Gagarin studied at the Saratov Technical College to become a foundry worker. But, in 1954, he first enrolled at the Saratov Flying Club as an amateur – his subsequent parachuting showed good results.
The very next year, Gagarin made his first solo flight aboard a Yak-18 aircraft (with which he is pictured below).
Later, he entered military service and studied at the military aviation pilot school in the city of Chkalov (now Orenburg). There Gagarin met Valentina, who worked as a medic at the Mission Control Center. They married in 1957 and later had two daughters together.
Then, for two years, Gagarin was a naval aviation pilot and served on a fighter jet in the Northern Fleet. He’s pictured below in the uniform from those years.
Designer and engineer Sergei Korolev played a crucial role in the Soviet space exploration and in Gagarin's own life. He designed the first spacecraft and led the Soviet space program. The famous joint photo of Gagarin and Korolev, seen below, was taken on May 5, 1961, at a state dacha in Sochi, where the cosmonaut was resting after his pioneer flight. This was also almost the first official photo of Korolev, whose name had been classified until then.
The cosmonaut had an excellent relationship with Korolev and his wife Nina. Gagarin even called the designer his "space father".
The first cosmonauts: Yuri Gagarin, Andriyan Nikolaev, Valentina Tereshkova, Pavel Popovich, Valery Bykovsky and German Titov.
After his legendary flight, Gagarin undertook a world star tour, visiting 29 countries, where he was welcomed as a genuine hero. In the photo below, he’s snapped in Bulgaria with a white dove in his hands.
World elites also paid Gagarin the highest honors. For example, in 1965, the French government gave the cosmonaut a ‘Matra Djet V’ sports car, which became the only one in the USSR.
These and other rare photos and artifacts related to Gagarin and his legendary pioneering flight can be seen in the ‘HEART OF THE FIRST’ exhibition at the Museum of Cosmonautics until July 5, 2026.
