To hear the Russians tell it, all the world's women were in chains before Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. As the first woman cosmonaut looped the earth, Tass exulted: "A brilliant star has flared up in the cosmic firmament. It outshines all the film stars in the world. Never and in no country did women ever attain such height." In every Russian village, women celebrated, and congratulations were fired aloft from such Soviet heroines as Lyubi Li, described in the press as "the renowned corn planter and hero of Socialist labor."
In her space capsule, Vostok VI, "Valya" was still the compleat...
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