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I read that somewhere. I don’t know how true it all is.

But it all sounds entirely plausible to me. If one reads “The Gulag Archipelago”, the evil, and often mundane treachery that was inherent to communist societies (but particularly in the Soviet and East German societies) shows how callously they could set things up without a scruple.

So is it possible the whole story is true-with Gagarin turning into a ticking political time-bomb when he would get absolutely pie-faced around dignitaries and such, where there might be western reporters who couldn’t be strong-armed the same way...and they just made the decision to do away with him.

One can see this scenario (this is how I see it played out somewhere and it includes elements from the NPR account...it is fiction, but...since nobody knows that it is any more than a straightforward fatal plane crash, it is all just speculation. But it fits, I think):
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It is a state reception of some kind. Nikita Khrushchev is there, perhaps some western reporters and some political figures or functionaries as well, as Yuri Gagarin. Yuri had been drinking heavily for months, and it probably wasn’t hard to do. He was beloved and famous, and never had to buy a drink. And everyone knows how Russians can put away vodka, so he was drinking a lot.

And he was angry.

His good friend had been killed in a horribly botched, compromised spacecraft, and Gagarin not only knew full well how dangerous the Soyuz 1 was, he had written a ten page letter to Khrushchev that was poison to any bureaucrat who laid eyes on it. Khrushchev never actually read it, but word had made it back to Khrushchev who nearly had a stroke when he heard the gist of it.

Now, at this function, Gagarin was with a bunch of diplomats from a variety of African countries, and he had been drinking quite heavily. The diplomats were warily watching Gagarin as he gestured angrily towards Khrushchev and his group, his voice rising in anger.

The group of Soviets watched nervously, and Khrushchev glared at Gagarin who was acting as if Khrushchev wasn’t even there.

Khrushchev turned to the general next to him and hissed “That’s it. Get rid of him. Make him disappear. I don’t care how, just do it.”

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See, that doesn’t sound far fetched at all, to me. But it is fiction.