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

the MUSIC OF MeMOrY aND FOrGettING:
GLOBaL eChOeS OF SpUtNIK II
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seems to have accelerated since the end of the last World War while at the
same time historical memory has become less stable and, in many contexts,
less valued. Where the cultural legacy of the frst space dog is concerned, the
inherent atemporality of the media-mediated images, sounds, and messages
that have played an increasingly dominant role in framing social and cultural
memory over the last 50 years seem to be critically important. 13 So, too, are the
converging infuences of globalization and the digital technologies that have
transformed the production, distribution, and consumption of music since the
late nineties. 14 With the rise of relatively small digital audio fles, such as the
Mp3, the global internet became the ideal forum to facilitate the exchange
and distribution of music, a creative medium uniquely suited to conveying the
emotional charge of the Laika story. as the song cited for this essay’s second
epigraph suggests, by 2005 that story might sound more like a funeral for a
friend than an early episode of the quest to send humans into space.
Laika’s current visibility in various aesthetic and creative realms extends
and expands on the celebrity status accorded her in the early years of the space
race. Like several other dogs sent into space by the Soviets between Laika’s
voyage and Yuri Gagarin’s manned fight in 1961, Laika became the subject
of a sophisticated, anthropomorphized celebrity. 15 photographs of the canine
cosmonauts were printed on front pages around the world. reporters focked to
their “press conferences,” and millions tuned in to hear their barks transmitted
on radio “interviews.” Fame was feeting for most of these dogs as the world’s
attention quickly shifted from their exploits to the more compelling drama of
human space travel and exploration. Laika, however, proved to be the exception.
the signifcance of her voyage and the fact that she was deliberately sent to her
death inspired a number of commemorative projects in the Soviet Union and
other countries as well.
Soviet tributes to the canine pioneer began within a year of her journey.
Soon after her fight, a brass tag was attached to her kennel with the inscription
translated here from the russian: “here lived the dog Laika, the frst to orbit our
planet on an earth satellite, November 3, 1957.” 16 In keeping with the tradition
of commemorating historic events and individuals, the Soviet mint issued an
enamel pin of “the First passenger in Space,” showing the dog’s head and a
rocket hovering over earth on a feld of stars. Ofcial commemorations in other
countries soon followed as stamps bearing the dog’s likeness were issued in
13. Gross, Lost Time, p. 123.
14. timothy D.taylor, Strange Sounds. Music,Technology & Culture (New York, NY: routledge, 2001).
15. I examine the history of the space dog program and the dogs’ celebrity in: Laikas Vermächtnis: Die
sowjetischen raumschifhunde” in Tierische Geschichte: Die Beziehung von Mensch und Tier in der
Kultur der Moderne, eds. Dorothee Brantz and Christof Mauch (paderborn: Schöningh, in press).
16. a. Golikov and I. Smirnov,“Chetveronogie astronavty,” Ogonek 49 (1960): 2.