Gagarin First in Space - Full movie in Russian with English Subtitles

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Gagarin: First in Space – About the movie

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin performed the first space flight in the history of mankind. He was selected from over 3,000 fighter pilots throughout the Soviet Union.

Experience going to space together with Gagarin! Watch the full movie Gagarin: First in Space, a feature film based on real events during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s.

The movie describes in detail Gagarin’s training and rocket launch preparation. Some scenes feature historical footage (preparation, launch, and after-flight celebrations on the streets of the Soviet Union), audio recordings of in-flight communication, and post-flight Gagarin’s speech.

Not to mention, the movie is also biographical, this way you can learn what kind of man Yuri Gagarin was in his childhood, student years, and family life.

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Full movie Gagarin First in Space – Watch online

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🎬 GAGARIN FIRST IN SPACE FULL MOVIE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES 🎬

Our recommendation is to watch from the desktop / PC to be able to switch on subtitles.

“Gagarin First in Space” in other languages:

rent for a fee fully dubbed in German or fully dubbed in French

Here are some explanations for words, personas, and situations you will come across in the movie:

Phrases and people from the movie “Gagarin First in Space”

(in the order of appearance)

00:05:00 Sergei Pavlovich Korolev / Сергей Павлович Королев – Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer, named the father of Soviet astronautics.

ТДУ (тормозная двигательная установка) – braking propulsion system on a spaceship

Cedar / “Кедр” – callsign of Yuri Gagarin

Zarya-1 / “Заря-1” – callsign of Sergei Korolev

Vesna, Sever – callsigns of other Mission Control Center members. Full transcript of Yuri Gagarin’s talks during the flight

German Titov / Герман Титов – cosmonaut, the second choice of Control Center, was supposed to be Gagarin’s substitute

Gagarin sings Russian folk songs “Валенки, да валенки, ой да не подшиты, стареньки” and “Ой ты Коля, Коля, Николай, сиди дома, не гуляй“

00:33:00 Laika / Лайка, Zvezdochka / Звездочка – names of dogs used for pre-human trials

00:44:00 Levitan / Левитан – primary Soviet radio presenter during and after World War II. He announced on Radio Moscow all major events.

00:48:00 Fritz / Фриц – a common way to call a German man during WW2 and in the post-war period

00:51:00 «Родина слышит, родина знает»— a song written by Dmitry Shostakovich and Evgeny Dolmatovsky in 1950 to be used in a theatrical play. It became known in the performance of the soloist and choir, and even more popular after Yuri Gagarin sang it in his first space flight.

00:56:00 Kamanin / Каманин – Soviet aviator. From 1960-1971, General Kamanin was the head of cosmonaut training in the Soviet space program. Kamanin was the Airforce representative to the space program, a proponent of manned orbital flight and airforce influence over the Space Race.

00:56:00 Ada Ravgatovna / Ада Равгатовна Котовская – the leading doctor who overlooked and managed the health side of trials in preparation for the launch.

01:24:00 TASS (abbr. ) / ТАСС is a major news agency in the Soviet Union and now Russia, founded in 1902.

Curious to learn more about Yuri Gagarin?

Gararin’s Personality

In August 1960, when Gagarin was one of 20 possible candidates, a Soviet Air Force doctor evaluated his personality as follows:

Modest; embarrasses when his humor gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings; a well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends.

After the space flight

Gagarin’s flight was a triumph for the Soviet space program. The announcement on the Soviet radio was made by Yuri Levitan, the same speaker who announced all major events in the Great Patriotic War. Yuri Gagarin became a national hero of the Soviet Union and a worldwide celebrity. Newspapers around the globe published his biography and details of his flight. In addition, Moscow and other cities in the USSR held mass demonstrations, the scale of which was second only to World War II Victory Parades. Besides, children were let out of school soon after Levitan’s announcement, employees had a short day at work, and people were just outside on the streets celebrating.

Yuri Gagarin’s Career

Yuri Gagarin was awarded many medals and titles, including the Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation’s highest honor. Vostok 1 remained his only spaceship, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission (which ended in a fatal crash). Yuri Gagarin later became Deputy Training Director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow.

Gagarin’s death and theories about its causes

On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, he and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and the ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall on Red Square.

The cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is not entirely certain and has been subject to speculation about conspiracy theories over the decades.

Soviet documents, declassified in March 2003, showed that the KGB had conducted their own investigation of the accident, in addition to one government and two military investigations. The KGB’s report dismissed various conspiracy theories, instead indicating that the actions of airbase personnel contributed to the crash. Namely, the report states that an air traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information and that by the time of his flight, conditions had deteriorated significantly.

In addition, the ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin’s planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded that Gagarin’s aircraft entered a spin, either due to a bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the outdated weather report, the crew believed their altitude was higher than actual, and could not react properly to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin.

Other theories about Gagarin’s death

Another theory, advanced by the original crash investigator in 2005, hypothesizes that a cabin air vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving the crew incapable of controlling the aircraft.

A similar theory, published in Air & Space magazine, is that the crew detected the open vent and followed the procedure by executing a rapid dive to a lower altitude. Consequently, this dive caused them to lose consciousness and crash.

Then, on 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Government officials said that they saw no reason to begin a new investigation.

Personal Life of Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin was a devoted family man. Yuri and his wife Valentina were happily married for 11 years until Gagarin’s deadly air crash in 1968. The couple had 2 daughters – Yelena and Galina.