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Take as an example what should have been a relatively simple task: obtaining the rights to reproduce a few minutes of archive footage of cosmonauts training for their flights. The space-medical institute in question demanded a horrendously high price for their footage, until their chief administrator agreed to release it for free, because he believed that his institute would benefit by having its work highlighted in our documentary. Then his deputy arrived back from vacation and overturned his decision. At last a senior advisor in President Yeltsin’s administration cleared the way for us . . . until the space-medical institute complained, in no uncertain terms, that it was not answerable to Yeltsin – or anyone else in the government – and so the entire deal was off. We began our negotiations again, from scratch.

There was hardly a single instance where we contacted an interviewee without using intermediaries, or obtained documentary material directly from its source. Business relations in Russia are multi-layered and complex. Certain procedures have to be observed. Discovering the secrets of Gagarin’s life and death came down to much more than simply picking up the phone and calling his old colleagues for a chat.

From our Western perspective, Russia is unimaginably vast. How could we possibly find the long-retired engineers who built Gagarin’s spaceship, especially bearing in mind that their real names were kept secret throughout their careers? How could we identify and locate the humble farmworkers in deep rural locations (with no telephones in their homes), who saw Gagarin come home from space and land in a field? How could we even learn the names and addresses of the KGB escorts, long-retired and never identified at the time, who advised Gagarin during his global publicity tours in the mid-1960s? How to persuade the cosmonauts who vied with Gagarin for position in the space hierarchy to talk openly about things that simply are not supposed to be mentioned?

Once again, our Moscow researchers were indispensable to us in locating many of our witnesses and persuading them to speak. Some advisors within the modern, but still daunting, remnants of the KGB also helped us. They do not wish to reveal their names, but they know how grateful we are for their help in locating certain people.

But we owe our greatest debt to the interviewees themselves. As I hope this book will demonstrate, we have managed to speak to most of the surviving key figures in Gagarin’s life. With considerable candour, occasionally at some risk, and almost always with a special Russian humour and emotion that brings their stories to life, the following people have entrusted us with their memories.

Gagarin’s brother Valentin and sister Zoya told us about Yuri’s early childhood and upbringing, as well as the impact of his famous space flight on the lives of those closest to him. They also narrated their family’s terrifying experiences during the Nazi invasion of their homeland. These events shaped their brother’s character. Yelena Alexandrovna, a retired schoolteacher, recalled Yuri as a bright, mischievous pupil, a merciless prankster, who also showed a deeper and more responsible side to his nature, remarkable for one so young.

Journalist Yaroslav Golovanov, who at one time actually trained for space flight himself, knew Gagarin and the other cosmonauts well. With his help we heard from Georgi Shonin and other Air Force pilots who were recruited into the space programme alongside Gagarin. Golovanov filled in the basic details of Gagarin’s career, drawing on his encyclopaedic memory and his many books on the subject. Nevertheless, we know we have uncovered some important events that Golovanov himself may find surprising.

Sergei Belotserkovsky, a crucial figure in the academic training of all the early cosmonauts, knew Gagarin very well and provided us with valuable personal anecdotes and fascinating documentary evidence surrounding the investigation into Gagarin’s tragically early death.

The diaries of the late Nikolai Kamanin,