‘Atheist’ Soviet cosmonaut Gagarin supported Church says
colleague 

Ecumenical News International 
Daily News Service 
20 April 2006   

By Jonathan Luxmoore 
Warsaw, 20 April (ENI)–The world’s first person in space, Soviet
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, publicly advocated rebuilding Moscow’s
destroyed Christ the Saviour basilica despite being depicted as a
committed atheist by the Soviet regime, a former friend has
revealed. 

"Like every Russian, Gagarin was baptised – and, as far as I
know, he was a believer," said Colonel Valentin Petrov, an
associate professor at Russia’s Gagarin Air Force Academy.
"Gagarin’s motive was very simple: patriotism cannot be promoted
without knowledge of one’s roots."   

In an interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency on 12 April,
Colonel Petrov said he became aware of Gagarin’s interest in the
Christian faith while visiting Moscow’s St Sergius Laura
monastery and Church Archaeology Museum on the cosmonaut’s 30th
birthday in 1964, four years before he died.   

"When we came to the model of the Christ the Saviour church, Yuri
looked inside it and then said to me, ‘Valentin, look what a
lovely thing they’ve destroyed!’ He kept looking at it for a long
time," Petrov added. "Some time after our trip, speaking at the
[Communist Party's] Central Committee plenary session on youth
education, Gagarin openly suggested the church of Christ the
Saviour should be restored as a monument of military glory and
outstanding Orthodox work." 

The church was opened in 1883 as a memorial to the defeat of
Napoleon in 1812 by the Russian Army. It was blown up in 1931 on
the orders of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. 

Born at Klushino, near Moscow, Gagarin trained at Saratov and
Orenburg, and became the first human being in space on 12 April
1961 aboard his Vostok 3KA-2 spacecraft. 

The cosmonaut was often quoted as stating "I don’t see any God up
here" after exiting the earth’s orbit, although the remark did
not appear in verbatim transcripts of his flight. 

In his interview with Interfax, Colonel Petrov said the statement
was made, not by Gagarin, but by the then Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev, during a Communist Party meeting on anti-religious
propaganda. "Khrushchev gave the party and Komsomol [the
Communist youth organization] the task of engaging in this
propaganda and said, ‘Why should you clutch at God? Here is
Gagarin who flew into space but saw no God there’," Petrov said.

"Some time later, these words began to be presented in a
different aspect. References were made not to Khrushchev, but to
Gagarin, who was, indeed, the people’s favourite. Such a
statement from his lips could be of tremendous importance. They
said few would believe Khrushchev, but everybody would certainly
believe Gagarin. But Gagarin never said that – he just couldn’t
utter such words." 

Gagarin, who made a statement in space praising the Soviet
Communist Party as "organiser of all our victories", later toured
as a celebrity. He returned to the Soviet space programme after a
brief spell as a Supreme Soviet deputy, but was killed when his
MIG-15 aircraft crashed near Kirzhach on 27 March 1968. [500
words] 

All articles (c) Ecumenical News International 
Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and 
provided ENI is acknowledged as the source. 

Ecumenical News International 
PO Box 2100 
CH – 1211 Geneva 2 
Switzerland 

Tel: (41-22) 791 6088/6111 
Fax: (41-22) 788 7244 
Email: eni@eni.ch