LOT #50023 |
Starting Bid: $900
General Nikolai Kamanin: Original Eight Page Handwritten Report on Yuri Gagarin's 1961 Visit to Cuba, Canada, and ...
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Description
General Nikolai Kamanin: Original Eight Page Handwritten Report on Yuri Gagarin's 1961 Visit to Cuba, Canada, and Brazil. A remarkable original report handwritten by Kamanin, the senior Soviet Air Force officer responsible for cosmonaut training and Yuri Gagarin's direct superior, documenting Gagarin's historic goodwill tour to Cuba and Canada following his Vostok 1 flight. Addressed to Chief Marshal of Aviation Konstantin Vershinin, the report provides a detailed, first-hand account of the journey and Gagarin's public receptions abroad. This report written in green ink in Russian and is entitled, "Report on Gagarins Trip to Cuba" addressed to "Commander of the Air Force Comrade K Vershinin." Light age wear, very fine.Highlights:" "I report on the trip of Yuri Gagarin to Cuba, Brazil and Canada from the 23rd of July to the 8th of August 1961... We took off from Vnukovo airport... Besides me, Major Gagarin is accompanied by reps... KGB officers... newspaper reporters from Pravda, Novisti... We landed in Gander (Canada) and almost all the citizens of the city were there... We landed in Cuba in a heavy tropical shower... Fidel Castro and Dorikos (president of Cuba) meet them warmly at the airport... despite the rain there were huge crowds... Most significant event during our visit... Castro spoke for 4 hours and 30 minutes... American monopolies are against the revolution... They (Cubans) love and trust their talented leader Fidel Castro and are ready to follow him... Gagarin was awarded with the highest order of the Cuban Republic... During numerous meetings that Gagarin and I have with Fidel Castro, President Dortikos and other statesmen of Cuba only questions about his flight and his life were asked... not a single political question was asked concerning the relationship between our countries had been mentioned... 28th of July we took off for Brazil... landed in Rio... landed in San Paulo... Huge crowds of people lined the streets to welcome Gagarin... flew to Brasilia... It is significant that even the deputies of the Congress crowded Gagarin asking him for his autograph... President of Brazil Cuadros was handed a letter by Gagarin from N. Khruschev... Gagarin asked Cuadros if the letter from Khruschev could be published in the papers... No objections, the letter must be published... Gagarin was then awarded the highest Brazilian award..."
In addition to the eight numbered pages is one page handwritten on both sides by Kamanin. It includes a list of nine notes of the events with President Dorticós, Premier Fidel Castro, and other dignitaries at Gagarin's speech upon arriving in Cuba. "Fidel Castro badly wants Gagarin to attend the festivities where the battles of Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) were fought for a mass meeting -on the 27th of July, in the morning". "Canada- main Airport-Gander". On the verso of this page: "Cyrus Eaton asked Arytunian (Canadian Ambassador) to the Pugwash Meeting... in Halifax... It is likely that the meeting will take place on Gagarin's way back." Also, a list of the nine participants of Gagarin's entourage including KGB agents Barashev and Baranov, and journalist author N. N. Denisov, who helped write Gagarin's first book Roads to Space. Included is a word for word translation into English of the ten page report.
As Deputy Commander of the Soviet Air Force for Cosmonaut Training, Nikolai Kamanin personally supervised Gagarin's selection, flight, and subsequent international appearances. His private reports and diaries, long classified, provide the most candid and authoritative record of early Soviet space operations and propaganda strategy. Most of Kamanin's manuscripts remain held in Russian state archives, with only a handful of examples surviving in private hands. This exceptional report stands as a rare and historically important primary source, offering both documentary and autograph significance. It provides a direct contemporary account of the Soviet Union's use of Gagarin's world tour as an instrument of Cold War diplomacy, and of the first encounter between the world's first cosmonaut and revolutionary Cuba's new leadership. From an important collection of Soviet-era Space history
Auction Info
2025 December 11 - 12 Space Exploration Signature® Auction #6326 (go to Auction Home page)
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December
11th
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December
11th-12th
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