Episode 42: April 12th 2011: Rare video of Yuri Gagarin in Manchester

Scroll down for the audio and video. On a cold, bright Wednesday
morning, fifty years ago, in the Soviet town of  Turatam, a
rocket launched a man into space. A critical initial step for
any civilisation that eventually travels to the stars. Any first is
both special and trivial. Special because, by definition, it only
happens once and arises from a complex set of circumstances that
come together at that point in time.  It is trivial in the
sense that there is nothing inherently unique about the individuals
involved. They, too, are chosen by circumstance largely beyond
their control. Driven perhaps by a desire for personal glory, an
overwhelming sense of duty or an innate curiosity to explore, the
early space travellers and those who facilitated it overcame
personal challenges, exhaustive training and exposure to unrivalled
grave danger to bring a new experience to mankind. Less than a
month after his 27th birthday, Yuri Gagarin was launched into space
aboard Vostok 1. Fifty years on, there are now around 550 human
beings to have experienced spaceflight in Earth orbit. Of all the
orbital spaceflights, Gagarin’s 108-minute flight is the shortest.
It was his only spaceflight. He died in an air crash in 1968 whilst
training to return to spaceflight. In the immediate aftermath of
his flight, Gagarin embarked on what turned out to be pretty much a
world tour. In July 1961, he came to Britain at the invitation of
the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers because, prior to joining
the Soviet Air Force, Gagarin had trained and worked as a
foundryman. He ended up meeting the British Prime Minister in
London and the Queen invited him for lunch at Buckingham Palace,
but he came to Manchester first because that is where the union was
based. Gagarin visited the union headquarters where he was made
their first honorary member and awarded a gold medal inscribed with
the word “together moulding a better world”. He went on to
visit a foundry in Trafford Park (the world’s first
purpose-built and largest industrial estate) and then Manchester
Town Hall for a civic reception where he met Sir Bernard Lovell,
director of Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope, who had assisted in the
tracking of Soviet satellites and spaceships. This week’s episode
is the story of a short, originally 16mm cine film, partially with
audio recorded during Gagarin’s visit to Manchester on 12th July
1961.  The film shows Gagarin’s arrival at Manchester Ringway
Airport, the presentation ceremony at the union office in Old
Trafford, his visits to the foundry workers in Trafford Park and
the Manchester Town Hall. The roll of film was discovered
unlabelled in a cupboard in 1986 as the union prepared to move out
of the building that Gagarin visited to another.  The
discovery was made by Alf Lloyd, a Union Regional Officer and
colleague. It had no label and was almost discarded.  Alf
Lloyd presented the film to the Manchester-based North West Film
Archive in 1987. In early 2011, by chance, I had been in contact
with space historian Francis French, who is from Manchester but is
now the Director of Education at the San Diego Air and Space Museum
in California. In 1987 he was researching Gagarin’s visit to
Manchester when he was shown a cine film in a Manchester union
office on a cine projector. During the screening, a part of
the film broke off, and he was given the broken segment as a
gift.  Fortunately, Francis kept that segment safe and
recognised that his segment was part of the same roll of film.
Almost a quarter of a century later, the two sections have been
once again digitally reunited, and an edited version is available
online at Astrotalkuk.org.  The original film resides with the
Northwest Film Archive. Not least because of his humble family
origins but also because of his deep communist principles, the
empathy and warmth Gagarin experienced during his meeting with the
foundry workers in Trafford Park was genuine and sincere. On 12th
April 1962, the first anniversary of his flight, Gagarin sent a
message to the Foundry Workers in Manchester via Moscow Radio’s
English service. The message starts with the words “Dear Brothers”,
and goes on to recall his experience of his visit to Manchester and
includes the moving statement “The firm handshakes of my fellow
workers in the moulding workshops were dearer to me than many
awards”. The original recording had audio on only two sections. The
first audio section is a record of the presentation of the honorary
membership at the union office by the AUFW president, Fred
Hollingsworth. In the second audio section, Gagarin fields
questions at the reception in Manchester Town Hall. Gagarin did not
speak English; his translator was Boris Biletsky.
________________________ Today’s quote is from Yuri Gagarin
himself. When you read the text of his speeches, reports in
newspapers and his formal messages, one reoccurring topic is about
peace and friendship. Much is, no doubt, simple rhetoric, a
response to the prevailing Cold War uncertainties, and even
political propaganda. On reflection, however, I think much of it
was honest, heartfelt and a genuine expression of his personal
desire for peace and friendship. In a New Year’s greeting message
of 1962, he states “May this year be a year of peace on Earth and
may the friendship between the British and Soviet peoples develop
and grow stronger”.