April 12, 2019, the 58th year of Yuri Gagarin's entry into space, is a day when the whole world celebrates this feat of humanity. The Vostok spacecraft carried the first astronaut in human history to an altitude of 327 kilometers above the ground and sailed around the earth for a week before successfully landing north along the original planned point in the wilderness south of Engels, three kilometers from the village of Smelovka in Saratov Oblast.
Little Rita Nurskanova, a resident of the village, became the first witness to Yuri Gagarin's successful landing. At that time, she and her grandmother went to the field to grow potatoes. Out of boredom, the little girl kept looking up at the sky. Suddenly, she saw something extraordinary. Rita Nurskanova shared her memories in an interview with Russian media.
"I feel like this was a very lucky moment in my life. That day, I finally came to this place. My grandmother and I planted some potatoes in the field. I was just a kid at the time and I really didn't want to grow potatoes. I kept looking around and looking up at the sky. In fact, there were no lights and no radios where we lived. Of course, we haven't heard of or know that someone flew into space. Suddenly I found two red balls. I said to Grandma, "Look, two red heads are flying." But she didn't turn around. Then, after a while, I looked away. On the farmland, I saw something beautiful, bright, orange rising. Something came running toward us, and I didn't know it was Gagarin. I think it's a fabulous hero. Ms. Rita told reporters.
The reaction of the grandmother and the little girl was very obvious: they were frightened and ran to the house. Then Gagarin shouted, "Old mother, stop, I am your man." ”
"I said to my grandmother, 'He speaks Russian.'" We stopped and turned around, but we didn't take a step forward while waiting for him to approach us. When he came to us, he begged his grandmother to untie his helmet. When a human face emerges from the helmet, it is clear that it is a man. Grandma asked him where he was from. He said, 'I'm coming from the ship.' Grandma said, 'There is no water near us.' He said, 'I came from heaven.' Rita recalled.
Grandma interrogates Gagarin if she can see what the ship looks like. Gagarin readily agreed and took her there, while Little Rita was left by her grandmother to watch over the potatoes.
Grandma asked him to show himself the ship. Either don't believe him, or just want to see. They walked toward the cockpit of the spaceship. I stood by the potato pile as the calves ran over and started eating them, when potatoes were more important. They walked toward the cockpit of the spaceship. Then, the villagers of the collective farm ran from the field. Rita said.
As a child, Rita didn't understand what was going on. Therefore, Rita was afraid of the whole scene at that time.
"I was scared because I didn't know who the man next to my grandmother was, and everyone ran to him like crazy. The crowd ran around him. Then the helicopter flew over as well. I walked through the crowd to my grandmother, where I saw people remove a spacesuit from him. Later, we learned from the newspaper the next day what had happened. The woman recalled.
Yuri Gagarin continued to exchange letters with the Nurskanova family. Letters received by Rita's grandmother from legendary astronauts were taken to school by Little Rita and read aloud in front of the class.
On April 12, 1961, the world's first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, boarded the Vostok spacecraft. Subsequently, Vostok landed on Earth after 108 minutes in Earth orbit. This operation is not only one of the greatest actions of the 20th century, but also one of the greatest in the entire history of mankind.