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Cosmonautics day
Cosmonautics Day is a holiday celebrated in
Russia and some other former USSR countries on April 12. This
holiday celebrates the first manned space flight made on April 12,
1961 by the 27-year old Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin
circled the Earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes aboard the Vostok 1
spacecraft.
The holiday was established in the Soviet Union
one year later, on April 9, 1962. In modern Russia, it is
celebrated in accordance with Article 1.1 of the Law "On the Days
of Military Glory and the Commemorative Dates in Russia".
Gagarin's flight was an instant and surprising
success for the Soviet space program. Gagarin became a national
hero of the Soviet Union and eastern block and a famous figure
around the world. Major newspapers around the globe published his
biography and details of his flight. Moscow and other cities in the
USSR held parades, the scale of which were second only to WWII
Victory Parades. Gagarin was escorted in a long motorcade of
high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin
where, in a lavish ceremony, he was awarded the highest Soviet
honour, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, by the Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev.
Until today the commemoration ceremony on
Cosmonautics Day starts in the city of Korolyov, near Gagarin's
statue. Participants then proceed under police escort to Red Square
for a visit to Gagarin's grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, and
continue to Cosmonauts Alley, near the Monument to the Conquerors
of Space. Finally, the festivities are concluded with a visit to
the Novodevichy Cemetery.
On April 7, 2011 United Nations General Assembly
adopted a resolution declaring April 12 as the International Day of
Human Space Flight.
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