Yuri Gagarin joins the Communist Party

Gagarin in 1961

From the Soviet Press, November 1961:

Yuri Gagarin, known to people the world over as the first man to venture into space, was elected a delegate to the Party Congress from the Leningrad District of Moscow by acclamation.

The 27-year old cosmonaut is a newcomer to the Party, having applied for membership a year ago when he was training for his pioneering flight. At that time he wrote, "I ask to be enrolled in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It is my wish to become an active Party member and energetically participate in my country's life."

In their recommendations, his comrades noted that he was rated high as a flier, was a disciplined and competent person active in civic affairs, and was responsible in his personal and family relations.

At the meeting that approved him as a member of the Party, Gagarin said simply, "I shall do everything to justify your confidence. I am ready to accept any task the Party or the government may assign me." The task he was assigned had never been undertaken before. He carried it through with the courage and modesty that mark the true Communist.

Yuri Gagarin and his friend Gherman Titov, Soviet Cosmonaut No. 2, recently wrote in a letter to Izvestia readers, "We have occasion to meet and talk with many people and to read letters addressed to us from all parts of our homeland. Each of these talks and letters tells us again and again of the wonderful people around us and of the friendship that unites all Soviet people into one family. We are happy to belong to this great family."