The Science of Astropolinautics:

...When Gagarin visited the big CKD Stalingrad factory in Prague, he said he was pleased to learn it "produces much output of excellent quality, part of which goes to the Soviet Union and other countries of the Socialist camp...

...And Americans will shortly have a chance to observe Yuri Gagarin in operation at close hand when the first man to return from outer space journeys to Cuba to receive a hero's welcome from the regime of Fidel Castro...

...Colette Blackmoore, a former Moscow correspondent for United Press International, is a freelancer...

...By Colette Blackmoore The Science of ASTROPOLINAUTICS Soviet propagandists launch Yuri Gagarin in new role as super-salesman for Communism Ever since the first cosmonaut returned from outer space, the "Yuri Gagarin Story" has provided reams of copy for the Soviet press...

...In reality I am just like millions of Soviet people," he added...

...This theme has been treated to a number of significant variations in the Soviet press over the last three months...

...They received some favorable responses...

...his success is less the result of good fortune than of persistence, dedication and daily hard work...

...Youth looks to the sky and wants to become astronauts, Pravda said recently, "but nothing is accomplished easily and fame does not tumble from the sky into your hands...

...I promise you that I will try, that I will try very hard...

...But in Czechoslovakia, this theme received special emphasis and elaboration, probably to assure the Czech people that the integration of their well-industrialized economy with the economies of the less-industrialized Socialist countries is to Czechoslovakia's benefit...

...Over and above the obvious emphasis on Soviet rocket supremacy, the long columns of purple prose contain many clues to the current objectives of the Kremlin's policies at home and abroad...

...Yuri Gagarin's exploit was accomplished on the wings of intellect and religion is always a suppressor of intellect...

...Gagarin's trip to Czechoslovakia at the end of April—not counting outer space, his first trip abroad— was undoubtedly timed to coincide with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Czech Communist party...

...But after all, we are accustomed to having everything grand and mighty begin here with the Russians and the Soviet people...

...Since many Soviet young people resent having to take a job before finishing high school, Gagarin has said that he decided to work in a factory and to acquire a trade first and then continue his education, because "this was what the older generation had done...

...To prove how much the Communist party cares about the common man, Gagarin several times has thanked Khrushchev publicly for the "fatherly attention" he has received, and for the "loving human concern" which he says the Party's Central Committee and the Premier personally have for the simple people of the Soviet Union...

...One variation glorifies Gagarin as a "common man," like millions of others in the Soviet Union...

...In his April 14 welcoming speech to Gagarin in Red Square—and many times since— Premier Nikita Khrushchev drew a clear-cut analogy between achievements in outer space and the Soviet economy...

...To counteract such negative attitudes, the Soviet press portrays Yuri Gagarin as a young man who had to struggle hard to get where he is now...

...I want to put myself to the test...

...Particularly in areas where the influence of religion is still very strong, radio broadcasts have stressed that the first man in space is a "Communist atheist...

...His personal biography has been widely publicized at home and abroad...

...As Pravda put it, everyone who has seen and heard Gagarin understands "that in the Soviet Union the road to the cosmos is not closed to anyone...

...He is a gregarious person, thoroughly at home in the collective, who lived contentedly for many years in crowded student dormitories and military barracks and never in his life had a room all to himself...

...But last week the cosmonaut was in London actively promoting a Soviet trade fair sponsored by the British Industrial Group...

...The Communist party newspaper, Pravda, has carried long and frequent installments of his "autobiography," written by two of its special correspondents...

...Either in response to or in anticipation of similar reactions to Gagarin's flight, Komsomohkaya travia recently braved a short discussion of this delicate subject...

...Some of the young people from these countries may see and hear Gagarin at the World Youth Forum in Moscow later this summer...

...Gagarin's influence has been actively projected to the outside world through all the Kremlin's propaganda media...

...In Eastern Europe, it is using· Gagarin to promote greater solidarity of the Communist bloc...

...Soviet newspapers have also announced that unofficial groups in Greece, Cyprus and Italy have invited Gagarin to visit their countries...

...He has already publicly endorsed the Forum, assuring those abroad who fear it will just be another front gathering that everyone will be free to speak his mind...

...The writer believed Vanya would answer: "I love to dress well and my wife, Sveta, likes to dress well too...

...Soviet newspapers often compare Gagarin's space flight with the everyday achievements of the most productive workers in factories and on the farms who set up Communist labor brigades...

...Last year, the Soviet press published at least one letter from a young Russian asking why the Communist party spends so much money on sputniks when housing and consumer goods are still in short supply...

...As yet no formal plans for visits to any of these nations have been announced...

...One program said it is understandable that Gagarin's flight has confused religious believers...

...Documentary films about the Soviet space feat are now being shown in many Communist and nonCommunist nations...

...The space hero also remembered being told as a student pilot that a strong will is not hereditary, but can be developed, and said that after personal experience he concluded this to be true: Will power, he noted, "is the result of deliberate effort...

...One of its commentators wondered publicly how a certain Vanya who lives in Siberia would reply if someone were to say to him: "You don't have a television set or the car that you dream about...

...The first cosmonaut gives Khrushchev full credit for Soviet space supremacy: "Soviet astronautics is the favorite child of Nikita Sergeivich," he told one audience...

...In Bulgaria, Gagarin's visit was used to play up the Soviet Union's efforts to preserve world peace...

...Taking account of youth's universal desire for unusual and exciting adventures, he recalled a discussion with some friends about the different kinds of exploits that man can undertake...

...A girl worker in a textile factory wrote that since Gagarin has proved what he can do, she now wonders what she is capable of...

...The Soviet press gives the impression that this young man, idealized or not, has had a strong influence on Soviet youth...

...To this justification for the heavy Soviet investment in space exploration, the newspaper added that the science which has made possible space flights is the same science which will ultimately make it possible to produce beautiful and cheap suits, television sets, automobiles and the like...

...Just as he knows the names of the miner, Nikolai Marnai, the textile spinner, Valentina Gagnova, and the master of the cornfield, Evgenii Doliniuk, Nikita Sergeivich knows by name the people who create, construct and launch into the cosmos sputniks and spaceships...

...The idealization of Yuri's pristinepure character has been carried so far in some Soviet writing that, as Gagarin himself told a group of Soviet journalists, "you don't recognize yourself...

...In sending Gagarin to these two countries rather than to others in the bloc, Khrushchev may have thought that there was a particular need to reinforce Czechoslovak and Bulgarian ties to the USSR and felt that the first man in space would serve as an unusually appealing spokesman for solidarity...

...Some books and articles "make you look so good, not at all like an ordinary person...

...He reminded the Soviet people of the considerable work that must be done to surpass American industrial and agricultural production, and advised them not to let success in one area weaken their will to work in others...

...Recent public discussions in Russia and in particular the published replies to a public opinion poll in Komsomol· skaya Pravda, the Young Communist League newspaper (see "How Russia Samples Public Opinion," KL, June 5), have scored indifference and a lack of purposefulness and self-discipline as the principal negative traits of the young Soviet generation...

...Maybe we ought to hold off on the sputniks and spaceships until everyone is given a television and a few expensive suits...

...In addition to plugging such themes as economic productivity, the concern of the party for the people, and good character among Soviet youth, Gagarin has also been used' to bolster the Soviet anti-religion campaign...

...Spartan-like personal habits are attributed to Gagarin: He does not smoke, "never had a passion for wine," played sports the year round and loved to take cold showers while in the Air Force...

...To judge by a page of their letters published in Pravda, all young children in the Soviet Union want to grow up to be like Yuri...

...In Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, Gagarin is held up as a symbol of what can be achieved if the newly developing nations follow the Soviet pattern...

...I ask you to send me to construct the sovkhoz named after Gagarin...

...Another variation on the theme that space triumphs must be matched by economic victories is tailored especially for Soviet youth...

...About a month later, he visited Bulgaria during a holiday celebrating Bulgarian literature and culture...

...In both countries, as in the Soviet Union itself, Gagarin's flight was interpreted as an achievement for the whole Socialist bloc, not just the Soviet people...

...Man's first space flight was made "for the benefit and in the name of peace," Gagarin said, and he assured the Bulgarians that "all my efforts and all my knowledge will be devoted to strengthening peace among peoples...

...He has devoted much energy and effort to this new field...

...Many Czechs may resent having to export to the Soviet Union considerable amounts of machinery and some consumer goods which would otherwise go to raise their own living standard...

...These are the people of big stature, the blood brothers of Yuri Gagarin," Pravda, recently declared...

...After awarding Gagarin the Czech title of Hero of Socialist Labor, Premier Viliam Siroky stated that "it is being graphically demonstrated what an important weapon the colossal development of Soviet science and technology is in the fight for the victory of Socialism and Communism, for the victory of peace, and how strikingly it is influencing developments in the international arena and is strengthening the progressive and peace-loving forces of the world...

...He has spoken extensively on radio, television and in public meetings about his peasant origin, his childhood on a farm near Gzhatsk and his early work as a foundry technician before he took up flying...

...The Communist propaganda machine is milking the space hero for all he is worth, with results almost as interesting as the historic flight itself...

...To its own people, the Soviet regime is stressing the need for better economic performance to match the space victory...

...If the Czech people could be made to believe that Soviet achievements in space are beneficial to the entire Communist bloc, the reasoning apparently went, they might contribute more willingly to the growth of the Soviet Union's economy...

...Immediately after Gagarin's flight, eight secondary school graduates near Moscow appealed in Komsomolskaya Pravda for volunteers to accompany them to the Virgin Lands to build a new state farm named after the cosmonaut...

...Some require an instantaneous decision between life and death, Gagarin said, "but we preferred the kind about which people say that a person's whole life is one great long exploit," and he cited Lenin's life as an example...

...They never rest on what has been achieved, but everywhere and always act as initiators of new and progressive ideas...

...The lesson for the public in all this is that under Soviet Socialism there is equal opportunity of advancement for all...

...Internally, the primary function of Soviet propaganda has been to help raise labor output...

...Two weeks later, President Antonin Novotny said that the supreme position of Soviet science and technology "has been the greatest attraction of the entire world Socialist system...

...A recent article in a Slovak newspaper, the Bratislava Pravda, criticized "the rising desire of the people to live frivolously, to have luxuries, cars, weekend cottages, furnished apartments and so forth...

...Can I overcome difficulties and adversities, have I the strength of will...

...They come to the Central Committee of the Party and to Nikita Sergeivich Khrushchev with their joys and when they need help, and they always receive the warmest support...