Yuri Gagarin belied the West's austere impression of the Soviet Union – a charming, easygoing Russian with a ready smile. The first man in space became a powerful propaganda tool.

“Yuri Gagarin was a hero of mine when I was a kid,” she says, even though she was born years after Gagarin’s tragic death in a plane crash in 1968. “He was handsome, kind, down-to-earth ...

Yuri Gagarin is greeted by Nikita Khrushchev on the cover of this April 21, 1961, issue of Life magazine. Life devoted 19 pages on the flight in a special issue -- and pondered what impact this ...