Starman_ The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin - Jamie Doran [80]
Many people disapprove of this. They speak about it openly in buses, on the metro and on the streets. The destruction of Stalin’s prestige creates many problems. The young are losing their faith in authority . . . Stalin ruled the country for thirty years and turned it into a mighty state. His name can never be eclipsed by the pathetic pretensions of pygmies. Khrushchev is an envious intriguer, a cowardly toady. Everyone knows about his total diplomatic failures with China, Albania, the USA, France, England, and so on.
The irony is that no one in Stalin’s time would have dared put such words on paper, for fear of being found out and shot. It can be assumed that Khrushchev’s officials blamed Kamanin for not keeping his cosmonauts in order, so he vented his feelings in the pages of his diary; but he was not alone in his political opinions. It is hard for Westerners to understand the extent to which Stalin’s memory was revered. Kamanin may have had a variety of reasons for his bitterness in October 1961, but he was broadly correct in his assessment. First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev was heading for a fall, and so was Yuri Gagarin.
By December 1961 the world tour had resumed, with Gagarin’s slight scar carefully disguised by make-up. Delhi, Lucknow, Bombay, Calcutta, Colombo, Kabul, Cairo . . . Onwards, ever onwards. During the Ceylon visit, Gagarin carried out fifteen separate speaking engagements in one day. In Cairo a newspaper announced that he was nominated for election to the Supreme Soviet as a representative of the Smolensk region.4
Athens, Nicosia, Tokyo – and a loaded question about toys. A Japanese journalist wanted to know why Gagarin had bought a load of Japanese stuffed toys for his children. Could it be that Russian toys were not available back home? Gagarin replied, ‘I always bring presents back for my daughters. I wanted to surprise them this time with Japanese dolls, but now this story will be all over the newspapers and it’ll take away their surprise. You’ve spoilt a joy for two small girls.’ He made this speech with the most charming smile and the questioner conceded defeat. The other journalists in the room buzzed their approval. Game point to Gagarin.
Valya came along on this leg of the tour, but it was not easy to combine foreign trips with childcare. She preferred to stay at home in Moscow while her husband travelled. She was shy, and found her occasional public appearances very difficult. This was not the life she had expected.
Fyodor Dyemchuk drove Valya around while Gagarin was abroad. He could hardly fail to notice her intense dislike of publicity. If her occasional foreign trips were a strain, then the streets and shops of Moscow were no less of a burden to her. Dyemchuk escorted her during household shopping trips, and Valya would always take her place in the inevitable queues like an ordinary Muscovite, but the other women in the line usually recognized her straight away. ‘She would immediately turn around, get back in the car and say, “Let’s go. They recognized me.” Everyone would tell her to come to the front of the queue, but she would modestly come back to the car and go to a different shop.’
Nikolai Kamanin accompanied Gagarin on several more foreign trips. On December 4, 1961, during the visit to India, he wrote in his diary:
Thousands of people greeted Gagarin warmly. I was reminded of my naïve childhood impressions of Christ meeting his people. He needed a miracle with five thousand loaves and fishes, but our Gagarin satisfies the people’s thirst by his appearance alone. I’m the one writing these words, although I know better than anyone that Gagarin happens to be here only by sheer luck. His place could easily have been occupied by someone else. I remember writing on April 11 [the day before the space flight], ‘Tomorrow Gagarin will become famous worldwide’, but I could never have predicted the scale of his