Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

CreatING MeMOrIeS: MYth, IDeNtItY,
aND CULtUre IN the rUSSIaN SpaCe aGe
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Like any irrational construction that was to be believed rather than critically
examined, the myth of the cosmonaut was full of internal contradictions. the
cosmonauts were portrayed as both ordinary people and exceptional heroes.
all the frst cosmonauts had military ranks but their missions were presented
as entirely peaceful. their fights were praised as daring feats, while ofcial
reports of perfectly functioning onboard automatics did not seem to leave much
room for human action. 46
In July 1980, shortly before the opening of the Moscow Olympics, a monument
to Gagarin was dedicated in Moscow. Gagarin’s giant statue soars 40
meters above the crowd on top of a colossal pillar, evoking the image of a
rocket plume. the cosmonaut and his rocket are symbolically fused, presenting
Gagarin as a superhuman blend of man and machine. the insurmountable distance
between the statue and the viewer emphasizes the mythological
proportions of Gagarin’s fgure, which rises in its futuristic perfection far above
today’s all-too-human world.
CONStrUCtING the MaSter NarratIVe
Just like the cosmonaut myth in many respects resembled the astronaut
myth, the Soviet master narrative of space exploration mirrored essential features
of the american story of national exceptionalism, technological progress, and
continuous success. pervasive secrecy and centralized control over the media
further streamlined public discourse about space. Bound by secrecy on one
side and by propaganda demands on the other, Soviet-era space history was
reduced to a set of clichés: fawless cosmonauts few perfect missions, supported
by unfailing technology. all contingencies, failures, and alternative paths were
thoroughly purged from history books. entire programs, such as the manned
lunar program, were passed over in silence. the space industry itself, namely
its leading think tank, the Scientifc research Institute No. 88 (since 1966,
the Central Scientifc research Institute of Machine Building), was charged
with the task of clearing all space-related materials for publication in the open
press. 47 While Soviet propaganda cultivated an idealized image of the Soviet
space program for ideological purposes, space industry ofcials had their own
reasons for deemphasizing failures and contingencies before decision-makers in
the high echelons of Soviet power.
the cosmonauts resented the restrictions on information about their
fights, having to repeat the same platitudes if not outright lies over and over
again. In his private diary, Lieutenant General Nikolai Kamanin, the Deputy
46. See Slava Gerovitch,“human-Machine Issues in the Soviet Space program,” in Critical Issues in
the History of Spacefight, pp. 107-140.
47. See Yurii a. Mozzhorin, Tak eto bylo: Memuary Iu.A. Mozzhorina. Mozzhorin v vospominaniiakh
sovremennikov (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnaia programma obrazovaniia, 2000), p. 298.