61 years ago, Gagarin became the first man in space. It's still worth celebrating

Gagarin was a poster boy for the Soviet Union. Photo by Prado on Unsplash

These days, it’s thought to be in bad taste to praise Russia or Russians for anything at all, but perhaps we should suspend such sentiments on April 12, the 61st anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man in space.

That would be appropriate, considering Gagarin is a popular hero everywhere. A 2010 survey by the non-profit Space Foundation found him to be the sixth-most-popular space hero, tied with the fictional character James Kirk from ‘ Star Trek ‘.

In Russia, April 12 is known as Cosmonautics Day and Russians are sincere in their admiration for their favourite son. In Russia, a mountain, a glacier, a square in Moscow, the cosmonaut training centre, the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad and the Air Force Academy are named after Gagarin. So are lots of Russian babies, especially those born in the 1960s and 1970s.

Gagarin’s name lives on in Warsaw, Poland, which has Yuri Gagarin Street; in Armenia, which has a…