Memorial of the GT
This unique photograph captures one of the two “memorials of the GT”, which used to stand in Baikonur. This particular one was erected in front of a service hall in the spaceport area by laboratory workers to celebrate Khrushchev’s unseating in 1964. Barely six months later, though, government orders had it adapted into a “memorial of space conquerors”. After 2000, it was made into a monument of Russian-Kazakh friendship.
A view of the installation of “The Gagarin Thing” in a neo-classicist niche of the White House from July 1962. Printing Section of the White House
The archives of the KGB, which are gradually made available, allow researchers with a special authorization to look for information about the GT. Several of these newly found documents are rather surprising and cast new light on events that had happened in the history of the iron curtain and which are little known or purposely obstructed. The publishing of this information influences the interest of the more thoughtful part of the public – about Gagarin himself, but also about the “Gagarin Thing”. Such interest is also notable about the Russian new youth, a social group supported by the government seeking lost patriotism. The interpretation of these young people creates a specific type of myth, exclusivity and fashion, which, however, has little in common with actual historical reality. The photograph shows the Russian new youth partying in one of Moscow’s clubs.