Yuri Gagarin’s daughter: ‘It wasn’t enough for him, it was too quick!’

To mark the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man in space, his elder daughter Elena gave her first ever interview for Western media about her father to Andrea Rose of the British Council . This is the complete transcript The interview was conducted for a BBC Radio 4 Random Edition Special which is broadcast at 11am on Monday Andrea Rose: Do you have any memories of April 12, 1961, the day your father was the first man to fly into space? Elena Gagarin: No, I was too young, I was only two years old, and don’t have any recollections of the day itself. AR: So when was the first time that you knew what your father had achieved? EG: Well, it was just a part of my life and growing up. He was always the First Cosmonaut of the World for me, and his whole life was connected with space and space exploration. There wasn’t a before and after for me. AR: Did he talk to you as you grew up about taking that first flight? EG: No. He talked about it so often, and with so many people, that it seemed to me he was rather tired of talking about it. What he talked about to me was his childhood – about what it was like to grow up in Smolensk, and about the war. His family lived under German occupation for three years, and he talked to us a great deal about that. AR: What did he tell you about growing up in Smolensk? EG: That life was extremely

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