Home from the heavens, Major Yuri Gagarin was the toast of Russia. Simferopol in the Crimea threw up a hastily sculpted plaster bust of Yuri. Moscow planned a 287-ft. commemorative obelisk. Yuri's voice in space on an LP record with commentary in six languages was being readied for world sale. Yuri's image blossomed on everything from postcards to pottery. The grateful Soviet government outdid itself: it bestowed on the first spaceman and his household of six a new, four-room apartment.
But was Yuri Gagarin really the first spaceman? French Correspondent Edouard Bobrowski, just back from Moscow,...
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