Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev at Moscow Vnukovo 1961

Description

Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev at Moscow Vnukovo 1961, Photo; Licensed article; Original: 5740×4315; Photographer: Unknown; requiring a license; Rights: a9 Bleek/zb Media. The photo shows Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow on April 12, 1961, during the official reception following Gagarin’s historic spaceflight with Vostok 1.
Scene: Gagarin is wearing his dark officer’s coat and a peaked cap, his face beaming with joy. Khrushchev, in a dark coat and hat beside him, with a gesture of triumph.
Significance: This moment was a political staging of the success of Soviet space travel. Khrushchev used Gagarin’s triumph as propaganda for the superiority of socialism in the Cold War.
The photo underscores the enormous symbolic significance of Gagarin’s flight, which made him a national hero and brought international fame to the Soviet Union.