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Road to the Stars

Yuri Gagarin

3.76 · Rating details · 92 ratings · 11 reviews

The autobiography of the first cosmonaut.

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Paperback, 197 pages

Published March 4th 2002 by University Press of the Pacific (first published 1962)

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Nov 15, 2020 Marko K. rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Knjiga koja će biti interesatntna isključivo ljudima koji su zainteresovani za život prvog čoveka u svemiru i kako je sve to izgledalo. Žao mi je što je napisana kao školski sastav; Gagarinov život je bio dosta zanimljiv a nije ga baš takvim predstavio, mada opet, s druge strane, Gagarin nije pisac i nema potrebe očekivati vrhunsku književnost. Okej knjiga, informativna, ali ništa više od toga.

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Oct 13, 2015 Amanda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016

I am captivated by the story of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit Earth. I had first read of him in the biography Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin. Road to the Stars is an autobiography and, I'm not sure if it is due to the translation, or if Yuri Gagarin was such a charming storyteller that he was able to convey such a tender and touching recount of his life, but this book was such a beautiful story. To be able to glimpse into Gagarin's life through his eyes and memorie ...more

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Nov 22, 2018 Giada rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I was probably around 6 or 7 years-old. My mother brought me to an exhibition that was travelling through Italy and just recently arrived in my hometown, Padua.
For those who don't know Padua, it is a small and ancient town, with medieval architectures spreaded in its tiny but fancy city centre, but for me it has always been THE city, MY city, for knowledge and research, at least after I visited the above-mentioned exhibition: in the Specola, a nice ancient tower that arises in the beating hearth I was probably around 6 or 7 years-old. My mother brought me to an exhibition that was travelling through Italy and just recently arrived in my hometown, Padua.
For those who don't know Padua, it is a small and ancient town, with medieval architectures spreaded in its tiny but fancy city centre, but for me it has always been THE city, MY city, for knowledge and research, at least after I visited the above-mentioned exhibition: in the Specola, a nice ancient tower that arises in the beating hearth of Padua, Galileo Galilei built the telescope to gaze at the moon and discovered that the Earth was not still, but was indeed moving; letting some weights falling off from its roof, Galilei discovered some important physics laws that broadened the whole humanity understandings of the world we live in.
Well, I didn't know myself all of these things, which I learnt from the exhibition my mother brought me to: it was a really well-built, divulgative and kid friendly exhibition about the space race humanity has been into since humanity became a thing. It covered the most important scientific and phylosophical findings about the universe from the ancient cultures, such as Incas, Mayans and Egyptians, until our really present days, comprising of technical descriptions of the super technologic satellites and other space equipment I couldn't even understand.
I don't remember all the details, all the things that I've seen, but I do remember the deep emotions I felt while wandering among all those paper-made walls, filled with huge pictures of really far-away places, so far away that only a bunch of high-skilled humans ever managed to reach. That's how I learnt everything I needed to know about Galilei, the Moon landing and, of course, Yuri Gagarin.
I don't know why this person, who looked like the most normal nice guy on earth, left such a deep mark on me. I read the panels telling his personal story as the first cosmonaut as slowly as a 6 years old could, but I grasped all of it with amazement and admiration.
As soon as I left the exhibition, I said to my mum: "I want to become an astronaut". You know, those things you say when you are 6 years old and the world, the people and the future can still surprise you.
I've never even been close to becoming an astronaut, yet the memory of that exhibition and Gagarin's story stayed with me until today: I loved studting physics in high school and I specialized in Astronomy during my Phylosophical studies at the university; I attended meetings and conferences, as well as I have attended some guided star gazings using the huge and powerful telescopes a local association made available to subscribers. But that's the farest I got. Until now.
For my 27th birthday, occurred this last October, my husband, who knows my love for the universe and its mysteries, and who often listens to my solos about Eintein and Hawking and space and time without complaining, bought me a telescope. One of my own. And several atlas and books came along with it, including Yuri Gagarin's autobiography.
I think I cried a little, as the emotions were really strong there. Even though I never managed to get close to the space that fascinates me so much, Gagarin's experience has always accompanied me throughout the years, giving me a good example and a life model to point to. And now I could know more about him.
In fact, in our Western world, if Gagarin is still depicted as an iconic individual of the past century, who set milestones for humanity as a whole, not much has been said about him. Most of the documentaries, books and exhibition focus mostly on the American side of the space race, the moon landing in particular, and Yuri's story is almost unknown to the large public as a result. As a further note on this observation, it was impossible for me to find an English version of his autobiography and even the Italian one I got for my birthday has been edited by a really small publisher (with great titles I suggest you to check out, if you speak Italian!).
This book brought me into Gagarin's universe and filled me with wonder, once again: one could never tell that, behind such a no frills prose, filled with the ingenuity one could only encounter in children, the first cosmonaut is hiding in all its simplicity and greatness at the same time. The fluidity of Gagarin's narration is so straight to the point and yet exuding of details that the reader is just brought into the plot as he/she was reading a novel from a young and unexperienced author.
This simplicty is what really caught me from the first lines: Gagarin managed to tell the amazing things he did in his life, the most important milestones he set in the human history, in a simple and divulgative way that recalled me so much of that exhibition I told before.
Born in a small Russian village, he first became fascinated by the Russian airmen he saw flying in the neighborhood; they were defending the villages in that area from the German attacks during the War, and they appeared as special heroes to little Gagarin's eyes. Growing up, he engaged himself in an artisanal job, both to learn the business and to pay for his own studies as aviator.
From here to the last chapters of the book, Gagarin's tells his story of a young worker who also studied really hard to be able to pilot aircrafts and to help his nation, undergoing extreme and dangerous trainings both on the Earth and in the Air. All of this training and studying is followed by a hard selection that brought him and other 19 people into the Soviet space program, where they undergo more extreme trainings and exhausting selections towards the mysterious and wondrous travel that will bring the first man outside of the Earth safe roof.
The most emotional part of Gagarin's tale, however, lays in the last two chapters, dedicated to his trip to the space and his return: descriptions are still simple and straight to the point, but the reader can definitely feel the excitment of the author behind those patriotic insights and comments Gagarin never fails to put here and there.

I am going to leave a couple of quotes that brought me to the verge of tears as a final note on this review; it has been more of a personal tale than a professional review, but that is what I felt it had to be: a simple autobiography about my admiration for one of the most corageous and yet humble individual humanity has ever known.

"What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth.... The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots.... When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth's light-colored surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich color spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquiose, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black."

"Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!"

...more

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Mar 17, 2020 Kristen rated it really liked it

I’ve never read a book by a *man* that spoke of such friendship and community. At every turn, Gagarin mentions another family member or friend or advisor that helped him study or learn or took him in or inspired him in some way. And what a world he comes from—one where all the students at school are funded and fed and even have money to go to the opera! Though at a much higher latitude, the world Gagarin describes is one vastly warmer than the bleak landscape of the contemporary US, for example. ...more

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Apr 21, 2017 Davide rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

L'autobiografia in cui Jurij Gagarin, il primo cosmonauta, racconta della sua vita - dalla tenera infanzia fino all'impresa cosmica - è la storia di un amore profondo per la propria Patria, la propria famiglia, per il Cielo. Toccanti sono le pagine in cui Gagarin racconta il periodo della "Grande Guerra Patriottica", la nostra Seconda Guerra Mondiale, in cui, bambino, sogna i grandi viaggi cosmici e il trionfo della Pace sull'invasore nazista.
Ciò che di certo rimane dalla lettura di questo brev ...more

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Jan 09, 2021 Biljana rated it liked it · review of another edition

12. aprila 1960. godine, Jurij Gagarin postao je prvi čovjek koji je poletio u svemir, u letilici Vostok. Ovaj let trajao je 108 minuta, nakon čega se Gagarin bezbjedno prizemljio i ispisao važnu stranicu u istoriji istraživanja svemira.

A njegov poduhvat, koliko god to nevjerovatno danas zvučalo, imao je više odjeka u političkom svijetu tadašnjeg Sovjetskog Saveza, Komunističke partije i drugih komunističkih država tog doba.

Prvi put objavljena 1962. godine, knjiga ''Put do zvezda'' napisana je u 12. aprila 1960. godine, Jurij Gagarin postao je prvi čovjek koji je poletio u svemir, u letilici Vostok. Ovaj let trajao je 108 minuta, nakon čega se Gagarin bezbjedno prizemljio i ispisao važnu stranicu u istoriji istraživanja svemira.

A njegov poduhvat, koliko god to nevjerovatno danas zvučalo, imao je više odjeka u političkom svijetu tadašnjeg Sovjetskog Saveza, Komunističke partije i drugih komunističkih država tog doba.

Prvi put objavljena 1962. godine, knjiga ''Put do zvezda'' napisana je u prvom licu i predstavlja Gagarinove zapise, počev od njegvog djetinjstva u malom selu Klušinu, preko njemačke okupacije u Drugom svjetskom ratu, neumoljivog školovanja i sticanja diplome pilota, pa sve do istorijskog leta u svemir.
U poslednja dva poglavlja Gagarin se osvrnuo na brojne počasti koje je dobio, kao i na putovanja širom svijeta na kojima je govorio o svom iskustvu izvan Zemljine orbite.

Iako sam očekivala da će se njegovi zapisi većim dijelom baviti letom od 12.aprila 1960. godine, ova knjiga zapravo predstavlja odu Sovjetskom Savezu, njegovom tvorcu Lenjinu i tadašnjem predsjedniku Nikiti Hruščovu, pripadnicima radničke klase i komunistima koji su omogućili jednakost svih ljudi, vrtoglavi napredak ove ogromne države i sjajnu budućnost u kojoj više ni nebo nije bilo granica.

Zbog karaktera političkog pamfleta Komunističke partije, kao i zbog amaterskog stila pisanja, ''Put do zvezda'' predstavlja prilično razočaravajuće štivo, ali imajući u vidu vrijeme njegovog nastanka, socijalistički polet tog doba, funkcionisanje državnog aparata koji je nesumnjivo omogućavao napredak i kvalitetno školovanje svima koji su željeli da napreduju i uče, ne može mu se osporiti važnost pružanja uvida u društvo koje su generacije rođene krajem osamdesetih godina prošlog vijeka zatekli u plamenu, slušajući skoro bajkovite priče o ličnom napretku koji je skoro uvijek zavisio isključivo od ambicije pojedinca.
Upravo su beskompromisna ambicija, disciplina i ljubav prema Komunističkoj partiji, Gagarina vinula među zvijezde, ali je ipak ovu knjigu ostavila na Zemlji, na polici ideologije jednog vremena.

...more

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Jan 03, 2021 Sofija rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021

Veoma zanimljiva autobiografija Jurija Gagarina koja prati njegov život od najranijeg detinjstva, preko raznih završenih škola, do obuke za kosmonauta, leta u svemir, sve do putovanja po svetu nakon sletanja.

Znam da mnogi kritikuju način na koji je ova knjiga napisana, ali upravo to je meni dalo autentičnost i svidelo mi se što zvuči kao "običan čovek" koji je pisao dnevnik.

Iznenadila me je njegova opsednutost i posvećenost politici, Lenjinu, SS i zemlji. Smatrao je da je običan čovek i da sve ...more

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Dec 27, 2020 Richard Thompson rated it liked it

Shelves: biography, history, russian-lit-history-culture

The writing quality of this book is nil. It is pedestrian and plodding. No doubt it was ghost-written by a reliable party hack and was heavliy edited by the Soviet censors, though I think that Gagarin was truly a Russian patriot and committed communist so I doubt that he had to have to have his arm twisted to accept the suggestions of the censors.

But notwithstanding some of the occasionally irksome and ironic language where Gagarin toes the party line and extols the bright future of communism, h ...more

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May 22, 2019 Paul Mamani rated it it was amazing

Four days after Yuri Gagarin returned from his flight, the Soviet government held a press conference during which he addressed his country and the world. The speech, and his introduction by Soviet scientist A.N. Nesmeyanov were faithfully recorded by a NASA translator. We present an excerpt of the intro and all of Gagarin's speech below

A.N. Nesmeyanov: "Everything is symbolic in this achievement. The fact that the first cosmonaut is a Soviet citizen, the fact that the first cosmic spaceship carr ...more

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Feb 16, 2020 violacea rated it liked it · review of another edition

Conoscevo poco o nulla della storia di Gagarin, ma poco tempo fa mi è capitato di organizzare una rassegna cinematografica a tema Spazio. Gagarin, primo nello spazio era uno dei film e mi ha colpita tantissimo, un po' perché non ho molta cognizione di causa sulla Russia, la letteratura russa non è il mio forte e a parte qualche film ho solo qualche nozione di base storica, un po' perché Gagarin era una persona determinatissima, con un grande cuore, un eroe umano.
Il libro ti porta a conoscerlo an ...more

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Jan 01, 2021 Griffinbibliophile rated it liked it · review of another edition

ᴘᴜᴛ ᴅᴏ ᴢᴠᴇᴢᴅᴀ - ᴊᴜʀɪᴊ ɢᴀɢʀɪɴ

12. ᴀᴘʀɪʟ 1961. ɢᴏᴅɪɴᴇ

Datum koji je ušao u istoriju čovečanstva i zauvek promenio istu. Tog dvanaestog aprila ljudi širom sveta pomno su pratili prvi odlazak čoveka u svemir.
Tehnologija, naučna istraživanja, pripreme i ispitivanja, koja su godinama trajala, ugledala su svetlost dana.

Knjiga napisana šezdesetih godina prošlog veka, koja opisuje život prvog kosmonauta, Jurija Gagrina.

Čovek koji nikada nije napustio granice svoje zemlje, odleteo je u svemir i tim podvigo ...more

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About Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin

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Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.

Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.

Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission (which ended in a fatal crash). Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed.

On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, he and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and the ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square.

Gagarin also garnered a reputation as an adept public figure. When he visited Manchester in the United Kingdom, it was pouring rain. However, Gagarin insisted that the car hood remain back so that the cheering crowds could catch a glimpse of him. Gagarin stated, "If all these people have turned out to welcome me and can stand in the rain, so can I." Gagarin refused an umbrella and remained standing in his open-top Bentley so that the cheering crowds could still see him.

Gagarin was also honored by the American space program during Apollo 11 when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the surface of the Moon. On 2 August 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left the Fallen Astronaut on the surface of the Moon as a memorial to all the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts that died in the Space Race, with Yuri Gagarin listed among 14 others.

There were two commemorative coins issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: 1 ruble coin (1981, copper-nickel) and 3 ruble coin (1991, silver). In 2001, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness was issued in Russia: 2 ruble coin (copper-nickel), 3 ruble coin (silver), 10 ruble coin (brass-copper, nickel), and 100 ruble coin (silver). In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000 ruble coin (gold) and 3 ruble coin (silver) to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.

Gagarin Raion in the Sevastopol city (Ukraine) was named after him during the Soviet Union.

In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup.

In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Gagarin was ranked as the #6 most popular space hero, tied with Star Trek's fictional Capt. James T. Kirk.

In January 2011, Armenian airline Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in Gagarin's honour.

On 14 July 2011, a copy of the Yuri Gagarin Statue from outside his former school in Lyubertsy was unveiled at the Admiralty Arch end of The Mall in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook.

Swiss-based German watchmaker Bernhard Lederer created a limited edition of 50 Gagarin Tourbillons to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight. ...more