1) The Communists lied and exaggerated, aided by the mainstream press.
2) Notice the Kruschev's son is in a position at an Ivy League school?
Cheers!
If their first attempt at human space flight had ended in death for the occupant of the vehicle, then we would not have heard of it until now.
Gagarin also did not land with his craft. The Russians did not have the technology (or the confidence!) in their vehicle to insure that the occupant in the craft would land safely. At a predetermined altitude, Gagarin was ejected from the craft and parachuted to earth. The Russians continued to use this type of “safe landing” system for a number of years until they employed a better way to slow down returning craft by a means of parachutes and rockets that fired just prior to touchdown.
Sergey Khrushchev has been a naturalized American citizen since 1999. So teaching at an American university is not all that amazing. He also teaches at the Naval War College.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Khrushchev
His father Nikita admitted to Nelson Rockefeller when he visited the United States in the fifties that prior to the revolution in Russia he considered emigrating to the United States. I imagine his life would have been much different if he had done so.
What you make of these facts is, of course, up to you.