Gagarin Yury Alekseevich (1934-1968)

Soviet pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union. On April 12, 1961 he became the first person in the world to fly into space. Together with the first cosmonaut detachment, he was trained at a military airfield in Kirzhach, Vladimir region, where the flying test complex of the Research Institute of Automatic Devices was located. It was its specialists who created the parachute system for the landing of the first cosmonaut of the Earth Yu. A. Gagarin. One of the local legends contains a statement by Yury Gagarin that "the road to space lies from Kirzhach".  In March 1963, a famous meeting between Yuri Gagarin and the townspeople was held in the Kirzhach District House of Culture, as reported on the memorial plaque on the building. The last flight of Gagarin also ended on Kirzhach land.  On March 27, 1968 during the training flight near Kirzhach, the village of Novosyolovo, Yu. A. Gagarin and V.S. Seryogin tragically perished. On the site of their death a memorial was opened in 1975.