The book reveals a touching letter Gagarin wrote to his family before the mission in which he pondered his own mortality, telling his wife not to “die of grief” if he never returned. “After all life is life and there is no guarantee for anybody that tomorrow a car might not end one’s life.”
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It’s a shame he died in a senseless accident a few years later.
btw, after he was out of power, Khruschev supposedly “learned the gospel of John”, and spoke in terms of eternity
to his fellow (former) Politburo members.
He is memorialized in many ways.
All Russian launch vehicles roll out at 06:30 as this is when Gagarin rolled out. The Gagarin Museum at Baikonur is of course named after him and has a section devoted to him.