The first Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (right) and cosmonaut Herman Titov with Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, a school teacher, public figure,...

Yuri Gagarin taking out the Komsomol Banner at the closing ceremony of the XIV Komsomol Congress, April 1962 -- Daily LIFT #1553 Image...

Yuri Gagarin, mosaic portrait, Nadia Khodasevich Léger, France -- Daily LIFT #1467 Marvelous portrait of the Soviet cosmonaut icon. Nadia...

Remarkable photo of early Soviet cosmonauts Pavel Popovich, Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova, Valeri Bykovsky, Andrian Nikolayev and...

Mass rally in Red Square in celebration of Yuri Gagarin's historic first flight into space, Moscow, USSR 1961 -- Daily LIFT #906

Yuri Gagarin Portrait, Pyotr Tarasovich Maltsev, USSR -- Daily LIFT #876

Comrades Fidel Castro and Yuri Gagarin in Havana, July 1961 -- Daily LIFT #786

Nikita Khrushchev with Valentina Tereshkova, Yuri Gagarin and other Soviet cosmonauts in Moscow's Red Square on June 22, 1963 -- Daily...

Che greets Yuri Gagarin as he arrives in Cuba after his historic flight, 1961 -- Daily LIFT #733

Yuri Gagarin and Fidel Castro meet, Havana 1961 -- Daily LIFT #689

Soviet photos, statements and accounts of the historic launch and the days that followed. On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first...

Yuri Gagarin suited up as captain of the "Cosmonaut" amateur hockey team, USSR 1963 --Daily LIFT #688 Tomorrow, April 12, is the 61st...

Over the course of February we shared daily photos of Che Guevara, iconic revolutionary leader and hero. These came from a Soviet archive...

Comrades Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev embrace in Moscow days after Gagarin's historic flight into space -- Daily LIFT #668 Gagarin...

. Yuri Gagarin, his wife Valentina Ivanovna and Nikita Khrushchev during a parade after his triumphant flight. In honour of the birth...

Castro and Brezhnev meet with future cosmonauts at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre, 1972 -- Daily LIFT #571

A very young Yuri Gagarin at Lyubertsy trade school, USSR, learning foundry work, 1951 -- Daily LIFT #570 From the Soviet press, 1961:...

Yuri Gagarin enjoying a game of pool -- Daily Lift #544

Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman in space) sign autographs and chat with young people at a youth forum, 1964 As we all...

An in-depth look at the Soviet Artek Pioneer youth camp, a sprawling internationalist complex of ten sub-camps and various facilities...