Today marks the birthday of deceased Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. He was born on this day in 1934. He would have turned 89 had he lived.
Gagarin became the first man to go into space in April of 1961, and the first to orbit Earth, under the Soviet banner. This has come just a few years after the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik I, which became the first human designed satellite to successfully launch into space. Two years after that, The Soviet space program also launched Luna 2, which became the first probe to reach the moon. So when Gagarin went into space and orbited the Earth, and then came back down safely, the Soviet Union appeared to be winning every significant phase of what came to be known as the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. This was another aspect of the Cold War, of course.
Many Americans were shocked and even embarrassed that the Soviets had scored so many early successes. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) obviously felt pressure to respond. They launched Explorer I, which was the first American satellite into space. Then, they had the mission that got John Glenn to orbit the Earth in 1962, less than one year after Gagarin and the Soviets had orbited the Earth.
Of course, the major accomplishment, the one that many Americans feel "won" the space race, was when the United States landed men on the moon in July of 1969. That young American president of the early 1960's, John F. Kennedy, had set the goal clearly for the country to aim for the moon and get a man there and back within a decade. This was indeed achieved, and seemed to be one of the last major triumphs for the United States during an era where most people now will acknowledge seemed to mark a decline.
However, I personally view all of these landmarks as huge, historic level achievements not just for individual countries, but for humanity more generally. Those early victories by the Soviets only mark a failure by the United States if one is determined to view it as such. In fact, these were tremendous achievements and triumphs for all of humankind. Frankly, even if we were not able to do so back then, we should now be able to recognize each of these events as almost mind-boggling leaps in human technological ingenuity and understanding. Both countries push the other to achieve greater things in the space race, even if the motivation behind these were not always incredibly noble. Indeed, we are likely a better world more generally as a result of them.
To that end, I honor the achievement of sending an American to orbit the Earth on this day 60 years ago, as the country prepared or the ultimate challenge of making good on Kennedy's stated goal of putting a man on the moon and bringing him back safely to Earth within a decade.
Again, perhaps the reasons that drove the two nations to such achievements often tended to be selfish and petty. Indeed, often times they were. However, if it is like a high stakes chess match, only using space as the board, and perhaps differing ideologies as strategies, maybe we would best remember these words by a famous French essayist, which should put into perspective that each of these landmark achievements were a victory for all of humanity, and not for a single country and/or political ideology:
It seems to me safe enough to suggest that the progress in the space race decades ago belongs to all of humanity now, regardless of the individual country that managed to achieve it at the time. All of it marked human progress.
Today, Russians appear to be the target of mean-spirited hatred in much of the world. That, of course, includes right here in the United States. where people are apparently pouring Russian vodka down gutters, an act that reminds me a little too much of when Americans were similarly pouring French wine down the gutters at the height of the ridiculous French-bashing of 2002 and 2003. It revealed a very ugly side to American nationalism and intolerance back then, much as it reveals basically the same ugly side of Americentrism and hyper nationalism today. However, there is one difference. While this hatred was not specific to one side of the political aisle, it felt like French-bashing was particularly prevalent among those who identified with conservative politics back then, while the Russia-bashing today seems to be more common among the liberal side. Just so that it is clear that both sides of the present day political divide in the United States can be equally stupid.
While I vehemently oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and view Putin as an unofficial dictator and tyrant (and now, a war criminal), I abhor this idiotic hatred of all things and all people Russian that seems to prevail. Hatred and petty acts to show you are in lock step with this wave of hatred does not make us better or a stronger or more unified nation. Instead, it reveals just how petty and pathetic we can be.
At the height of the Cold War, less than one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis and just months before he was assassinated, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech at American University, where he talked about the significant contributions to history, to the arts, to science, to music, and to humanity more generally. In that spirit, I wanted to acknowledge this day, which is the birthday of a man who should be considered a hero around the world. Yuri Gagarin became the first man in outer space, as well as the first man to orbit the Earth. He did not do it alone, as it was obviously a victory for the Soviet space program. And whatever their motivations, however narrow or selfish or petty some of their motivations for doing that may have been, it was nevertheless an undeniably great accomplishment, and deserves to be honored by all of us today.
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