Starman_ The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin - Jamie Doran [62]
Early on the morning of April 14 Gagarin left for Moscow. He climbed the gangway of a large Ilyushin-18 airliner capable of long-distance flights. In a few weeks’ time he would no longer think of this sturdy machine as an IL-18 any more; with weary humour he would be calling it ‘home’.
Much of his time during the flight to Moscow was taken up with journalists’ questions. Messages of congratulation were coming in via the radio in the cockpit, and the aircraft’s crew took turns coming into the passenger cabin for a few words. As the plane approached its destination after four hours’ steady progress, Gagarin took time out to gaze through his window. He saw his old life shooting past him in the sky, and a new and more complex life waiting on the ground:
We were escorted towards our landing in Moscow by a squadron of fighter planes. They were lovely MiGs, just like the ones I used to fly. They came in so close to us that I could clearly make out the pilots’ faces. They were smiling broadly, and I smiled back. Then I looked below and gasped. The streets of Moscow were flooded with people. Human rivers seemed to be flowing in from every part of the city, and over them, sail-like red banners waved on their way towards the Kremlin.8
The Ilyushin touched down at Vnukovo Airport earlier than expected. Gagarin had to stay aboard for a few minutes until the pre-planned schedule of celebratory events was due to start. He felt happy but nervous.
Down on the ground, Valentin, Boris, Zoya and Alexei had met up earlier with Nikita Khrushchev and his wife Nina in Moscow, where they had already caught up with Anna and Valya. Zoya remembers a great deal of kindness from the First Secretary and his wife. ‘He was very simple and down-to-earth with us, and she spent all her time with us. We spent four days in Moscow, and every morning Nina would come round to us and only leave in the afternoon. It was a very liberal situation.’
The first formal event took place at the airport. ‘We stayed in Moscow to have some rest, and then on the fourteenth they took us to Vnukovo to meet Yura. We had just arrived, and we saw a plane with an escort of fighters, and they told us it was Yura’s. But when it landed he didn’t come out for some while, so we started to worry. Nina Khrushcheva said, “Don’t worry, the plane arrived a little earlier than planned, but as soon as the time comes, your Yura will come out.” And truly, in a few minutes he came out.’
They had laid out a long red carpet. (Nina Khrushcheva told Valentin, ‘Usually it’s a blue one.’) Yuri walked down the gangway and onto the carpet, looking every inch the hero in his brand-new Major’s uniform and greatcoat, but Zoya immediately noticed something terrible. ‘I saw something dragging on the ground behind him. It was one of his shoelaces.’ Gagarin noticed it too, and spent the interminable ceremonial walk along the carpet silently praying that he would not trip over and make a fool of himself on this of all occasions. He told Valentin later that he had felt more nervous on the carpet than during the space flight. But he did not trip. Incidentally, the shoelace can be seen in the many commemorative films of the day’s events. The cosmonauts’ official cameraman, Vladimir Suvorov, noted in his diary the endless discussions later about whether or not to edit the film and remove the scenes showing the untied shoelace. Eventually, at Gagarin’s insistence, the shots were preserved as a sign of his ordinary, lovable humanity. The ‘mistake’ turned out to have