January 04, 2020
Averyanova Sveta
Surely everyone knows who Yuri Gagarin is, his merits and achievements. The work required a lot of effort and time from him.
The cosmonaut was helped through these difficult times by his family, consisting of four people: his wife Valentina, two daughters Elena and Galina, and Yuri himself.
Elena
The first daughter was born on April 17, 1959. From childhood, the girl was attracted to sports and the arts. From an early age she tried her hand at being a gymnast (an artistic movement), a swimmer and a figure skater. She learned to play the piano.
Photo: youtube
Over time, I had to make a choice, since each of the areas requires a lot of attention and it is impossible to combine professional development in both sports and art at the same time.
After graduating from high school with honors, Elena decided to take up art seriously and get a degree in art criticism. She enters Moscow State University to study history. After graduating from university, she worked at the Pushkin Fine Museum for more than 20 years. Her responsibilities included storing graphics brought from England.
Photo: inosmi
In parallel with her work, Elena Yuryevna was diligently engaged in her scientific activities. A few years after successful defense, she received the title of candidate in the field of art criticism. In the 2000s, she was hired as Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museum. It still works at this location to this day. According to her, she loves her job and her position.
Photo: kp
He remembers his father as an active person who could easily organize himself.
Whenever possible, I spent weekends with loved ones: family or friends. Loved trips to nature. In the evenings after work I had time to play football. He knew how to manage his time effectively, spending every minute usefully. He felt the time exactly.
“I realized: everything is already predetermined, and it cannot be averted”
From Valentina Gagarina’s book “108 minutes and a whole life”: “One day (I don’t remember now what day it was and for what reason Yura’s workmates gathered with us) I involuntarily witnessed the following conversation:
“It’ll be soon now... Yura will probably go.” Or maybe Hera or someone else...
This was said by one of the guys, it seems, Boris Volynov . Yura answered:
- So what? Whoever they send will fly...
My heart trembled. The thought flashed like lightning: “He’s talking about this very calmly.” Probably everything has already been decided.”
On March 7, 1961, the Gagarins had a second daughter, named Galina. Yuri was happy, but Valentina saw that, besides his newborn daughter, his thoughts were occupied by something else.
Valentina Gagarina with her daughter Galya. Photo: RIA Novosti/Yuri Abramochkin
From the book by Valentina Gagarina: “I understood, or rather, felt where he was going and why, but did not ask him. He joked, chatted about different things, but he also realized the absurdity of this “hide and seek.” It was difficult for him to hide his direct involvement in the impending events...
“Take care of the girls, Valyusha,” he said quietly and suddenly looked at me very kindly.
I understood: everything is already predetermined, and it cannot be averted. A lump came to my throat, it seemed I couldn’t stop myself from crying. But I restrained myself."
Galina
Yuri's youngest daughter. Appeared 2 years after Elena on March 7, 1961. Lived and studied in Star City. Just a couple of days after the birth of his second daughter, Gagarin went into space. She was very different from her older sister. She was more practical, gravitating towards the exact sciences. She had completely different inclinations than her sister.
Photo: nazametke
After graduating from school, Galina enters the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy. She received a diploma and specialty in economics. Currently he has a doctorate in economics and a professorship. She remained to work at the university as a teacher. Currently holds the position of manager. Department of National and Regional Economics. In 2008, she received the highest title of “best employee of higher education.”
Photo: ria
In 2011, the youngest daughter filed an application to register her father's name as a trademark "Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin". She explained that she registered it 10 years ago. The reason for registration is to prevent unscrupulous people from making money on her father’s good name. There probably could have been attempts. However, history is silent about this.
Photo: gagarin
Galina Yuryevna told how her father first taught her to ride a bicycle. She also mentions, like Elena, that he was serious about time. Every minute was precious to him. I couldn't stand being late even by 5 minutes. Valued accuracy and punctuality. At the same time, he was a creatively gifted person. He loved to sing and did it beautifully. He had an ear for music.
Career
Valentina Gagarina did not pursue a career. At first, the woman worked as a laboratory assistant in the medical department of Star City. Returning home after the flight on April 12, 1961, Gagarin received a promotion. From a lieutenant he turned into a major and became the idol of millions. The astronaut gained a lot of privileges, a pass to significant events and permission to communicate with top officials of states. Being the wife of a man who was on the list of the most famous people of the USSR was an achievement that required following regulations.
Valentina Gagarina later combined raising her daughters with work at the Mission Control Center. She spent her free time doing needlework. Despite the fact that the family became famous all over the world, and photos of the spouses and children appeared in the media, the Gagarins did not change their lifestyle. Valentina still knitted warm clothes for her husband and kept house. An attractive woman of short stature, she often accompanied her husband at official receptions and on trips abroad, demonstrating to the world the standard of marriage.
Before his flight into space, Yuri Gagarin wrote a farewell letter to his beloved wife Valentina Ivanovna in case...
Published by Russian Seven Friday, March 9, 2021
Valentina Gagarina with children
The death of Sergei Korolev had a negative impact on the astronauts. Gagarin was protected as a national treasure, but he dreamed of continuing flights and exploring space. After the death of the pilot on March 27, 1968, on a training flight, Valentina found herself in a terrible situation: her loved one was gone, and she was left with children in her arms.
Forgetting about her personal life, the astronaut’s widow devoted herself to raising her daughters. She did not give interviews, avoided talking about her husband’s death with journalists, and continued to communicate with his colleagues in the first detachment and their wives. Valentina avoided new people. She was literally forced to write the book “108 Minutes and a Whole Life,” published in 1981. The woman did not want to continue sharing her experiences and information known to her with society.
Gagarin left the family a legacy of 2 apartments, in Moscow and Star City. He did not make a fortune or make financial reserves, so his widow and daughters did not have to live in luxury. Until the mid-1990s, Valentina Ivanovna worked in Star City. Television channels repeatedly offered her participation in talk shows, but Gagarina refused such invitations with dignity.
Catherine
Korovaeva Ekaterina, the very first granddaughter, was born in 1987. She followed in her mother's footsteps. I entered Moscow State University at the same faculty. Works together with his mother in the same museum. In 2011, a wedding took place with diplomat Pavel Vnukov.
Note: There is an assumption that after this significant event, she lived in London for 3 years.
Photo: fishki
Now he holds the position of director in the department involved in organizing and holding exhibitions at the international level. The year before last she published her own book, telling about life at the royal court of Henry VIII Theodore.
Granddaughter Ekaterina, daughter of Elena
Ekaterina Karavaeva, Elena’s daughter, was born in 1987. Just like her mother, she studied at the Faculty of History, then entered graduate school, and at the same time worked at the Kremlin Museum. In 2011, Ekaterina got married. Her chosen one was diplomat Pavel Vnukov. The young family left for London, where the couple spent several years. Then Ekaterina and Pavel returned to their homeland, and Elena’s daughter, like a mother, continues to work in the structure of the Kremlin museums, and is also involved in organizing international exhibitions.
Ekaterina Karavaeva. Photo: facebook.com/KremlinMuseums
Last message
This is an excerpt from the letter: “If something happens to me, I ask you, and first of all you, Valentina, not to die of grief. This is life, and no one has any guarantee that a car will not run over them tomorrow. Please take care of our daughters and love them as much as I love them. Raise them so that they are not foolish girls who are unable to do anything on their own, I want them to grow up to be good people, strong and no adversity can break them. Plan and build your life as your heart tells you, I don’t impose any obligations on you, I just don’t have the right to do this.”
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A neighbor spoke about the last day of Yuri Gagarin's widow
Valentina Ivanovna fell into a coma at the end of January this year. It happened unexpectedly, suddenly, nothing, as they say, foreshadowed.
That day she was going with friends and neighbors - Boris Volynov and his wife Tamara Fedorovna for a reception with the governor of the Moscow region. Valentina Gagarina, like Volynov, was a member of the Moscow Regional Duma.
– I remembered her so beautiful that day! — Tamara Fedorovna shares. “But not even four hours had passed since we talked, when a bell rang in our apartment, which is located on the same site as hers.” Our son Andrei opens the door and literally picks up the weakening and losing consciousness Valentina Ivanovna in his arms. They called an ambulance for us. So she ended up in the hospital, where she fell into a coma.
Yes, she did not like to talk about her husband’s anniversaries, about monuments and museum exhibitions dedicated to him. She liked the embodiment of his ideas, his aspiration to the sky in the young. “How nice it would be to preserve the “Gagarin Lesson”,” she said about the real international school movement born in Star City, and supported the “Gagarin Scholarship”, awarded once a year to the most talented students, future space technology engineers.
“She was a modest and at the same time very beautiful person,” recall her family, friends and acquaintances.
“The last of the Mohicans,” a member of the first cosmonaut corps, Boris Volynov and his wife Tamara Fedorovna are the Gagarins’ closest friends, neighbors with whom they shared all their troubles and joys.
“We had one large, united team - the first group of cosmonauts,” Tamara Fedorovna tells MK. “We all started together, we were passionate about the idea of space. The role of wives was also important in the training of astronauts. The management gathered us, they came to us from a special service, and held explanatory conversations about the great national importance of the work of our husbands and that we, as their companions, should take this into account and not demand from them any additional help in everyday life, in additional walks with children, as happened in other families. But at the same time, all the wives also worked. For example, Valentina Gagarina, in addition to raising two daughters, worked at the CTC, in a biochemical laboratory, and did very subtle research.
All the families of the first cosmonauts became acquainted with each other in 1960-61, when they were given two entrances at the Chkalovskaya station, next to the airfield, not far from Star City. They lived, according to Volynova, very friendly and fun. All holidays were celebrated together.
– Valentina Ivanovna always stood out among us for her inner composure. She was always calm, measured, and in some respects wise beyond her years,” says Tamara Fedorovna. — When we were all going to move to live in Star City, we were given a choice: two-story separate cottages for two families or one multi-story house, where we would all live together in one entrance. So Valentina immediately voted for the apartments, like many others. Only me and Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov were behind the cottages. Well, we were immediately nicknamed “kulaks” for this (laughs). In general, for many years we lived in a tower house as friendly neighbors in the same entrance and were very happy. I remember when the apartments were being distributed, Yura Gagarin came up to my husband and asked: “Do you mind if we live on the same site?” What objections could there be, because we were best friends! The family of Pavel Belyaev also lived on our 6th floor.
Yura and Valya often invited Boris and me to visit. We are Siberians, Valentina is from the Urals, and therefore we often made our common favorite dumplings and fried belyashi together. The Gagarins did not forget about us when Sergei Pavlovich Korolev or Joseph Kobzon came to visit them. Then our family gatherings ended with real concerts, at which everyone sang.
The cosmonauts and their families, according to Tamara Feodorovna, were happy people who could plan all their vacations in a large group - after all, the general program for preparing for a space flight covered the entire team, which means everyone was allowed to rest at the same time. The Air Force sanatorium in Sochi, Crimea, is where astronauts and their families spent their summer vacations.
Tereshkova and Rogozin came to the funeral of Gagarin’s widow: mournful footage
See photo gallery on the topic
