The Clarity and Mystery of Yuri Gagarin

  1. Lemma
  2. Ясность и тайна Юрия Гагарина
  3. Russian
  4. Asliturk, Miriam
  5. Co-existence - Orthodox view on technology and engineering
  6. 04-12-2017
  7. Шумский, Александр [Author]. Ясность и тайна Юрия Гагарина
  8. Русская народная линия информационно-аналитическая служба. Православие Самодержавие Народность.
  9. Outer Space - Cosmonaut - Russian Orthodox Church - Yuri Gagarin
  10. Click Here
    1. <p>Шумский, Александр (2011). Ясность и тайна Юрия Гагарина. <em>Русская народная линия информационно-аналитическая служба. Православие Самодержавие Народность.</em> Retrieved from: <a href="http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2011/04/12/slava_i_yasnost_yuriya_gagarina/">http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2011/04/12/slava_i_yasnost_yuriya_gagarina/</a> </p>

    1. This article is part of an online opinion forum which discusses space, the cosmos, and Orthodox Christianity. The author, Priest Alexander Shumsky, stresses the great simplicity of Yuri Gagarin, the fact that he had no star fever once he became world famous. Shumsky believes that this quality was inborn and can be explained by Gagarin’s deep religiousness, his “Orthodox foundation.” He also argues that the Russian, the Soviet and the Orthodox were “inextricably linked” in the first cosmonaut.

      Shumsky believes that Gagarin went to the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra after the flight in order to thank God. Another fact which the author views as proof of Gagarin’s faith is a letter to his wife, penned two days before taking flight. In this letter, Gagarin wrote that he might die and asked his wife to take care of his parents and begged everyone for forgiveness. According to the author, Gagarin was not an individualist. He always thought of himself as part of something bigger, a representative of the great people, which also proves his belonging to Orthodoxy. There was both clarity and mystery in Gagarin: a secret strength that came from God. It is this secret strength that helped him during his visits abroad to bring together irreconcilable geopolitical opponents. Shumsky perceives Gagarin’s visit to England as representing a true triumph of the Russian and Orthodox spirit.