First in Space: “Gagarin was met with enthusiasm and excitement everywhere”
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We spoke with Maria Stepanova, director of the Unified Yuri Gagarin Memorial Museum, about the upcoming “First in Space” campaign announced by the Russkiy Mir Foundation and preparations to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight.
– Your museum is called a unified museum… Why is this? Does it include several museum expositions?
– Yes, our museum, dedicated to the first cosmonaut, was created 20 years ago, and it includes a memorial complex, art gallery and specialized museum-club for children called Yuri Gagarin Games. Our museum is unique – we have unique documents, photographs, letters and personal affects of the Gagarin’s family. The museum exposition recreates the everyday life and atmosphere of the family in which he lived, the family that raised the future cosmonaut. We have the museum house of Gagarin’s family in the village of Klushino as well as the museum house of his parents. Memorial expositions, which generate great interest among visitors, illustrate in detail the main phases of the Gagarin’s life.
The exhibit dedicated to the first manned flight into space includes a broad spectrum of views on space exploration – academic, mythological, religious, mystic, astrological, literary…
The art gallery includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and applied arts dedicated to space. At the museum-club Yuri Gagarin Games children play games from the 1930s-1940s.
A major part of the exposition of our museum is composed of document, photographs and memories of those who were involved in the flight of the first cosmonaut. We also have rarities – a training chair and aerospace chamber (weighing more than seven tons) in which the first cosmonauts trained, geodesic equipment used in building the Baikonur launch site and much more – over 15,000 items.
The exposition can be seen not only here the city of Gagarin [named after the cosmonaut]. Yuri Gagarin visited dozens of countries during his lifetime, representing our country and cosmonautics. And he was met with enthusiasm and excitement everywhere he went. And our museum has also held exhibitions abroad. We have displayed our items at the Paris Air Show [Salon International de l'A