Cosmonautics Day in Tiraspol

On April 12, 1961, 61 years ago, Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This date is remembered in Tiraspol. Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic Galina Antyufeeva and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Social Policy Ilona Tyuryaeva laid fresh flowers today at the granite portrait sculpture of Gagarin on the boulevard named after Gagarin.

The tradition to come to Gagarin Boulevard with deputies and representatives of the Republican Renewal Party immediately after the laying of flowers at the Memorial of Glory is very old. Even though Yuri Gagarin himself has never been to Tiraspol, he is still remembered here.

Tiraspol has its own history of relations with space and astronauts, said Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Social Policy Ilona Tyuryaeva. She has been studying the history of cosmonautics for many years, and it was on the initiative of Ilona Tyuryaeva that an 11-meter banner with the image of the first cosmonaut appeared in Tiraspol last year. The capital's Metallithography plant produced tubes for space food in the 1970s. "White Stork" Cognac from our "KVINT" was in space. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov participated in the creation of the label for "Space Balm". The Elektromash plant produced parts for the Russian radio telescope RT-64, which is designed for astronomical research, receiving signals from space and controlling spacecraft in deep space. Honorary citizen of Tiraspol Viktor Gorbatko flew into space three times, and before that he served in the Pridnestrovian capital for several years. Like other future cosmonauts who served at the Tiraspol airfield in the 412th Fighter Aviation Regiment: Evgeny Khrunov, Anatoly Berezovoy, Vladimir Dezhurov, Yuri Malenchenko, Yuri Gidzenko, Vladimir Dzhenibekov and Anatoly Filipchenko.

By the way, the Boulevard named after Gagarin received the name of the first cosmonaut exactly 61 years ago, on the very day when Yuri Gagarin first went into space. All the children of the Soviet Union from that day on began to dream of traveling to distant stars and being like Yuri Gagarin.

The monument to the first cosmonaut on Gagarin Boulevard was built in 1977. And since then, fresh flowers are always brought here despite the coincidence of two important holidays at once, the Day of the Liberation of Tiraspol and the Day of Cosmonautics in memory of a man who pushed the boundaries of human possibilities.