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Amid the Cold War’s fierce space race, his triumph wasn’t just a scientific leap; it was a victory for the Communist project, proving its potential to the world.
Gagarin himself tied his achievement to the collective strength of the socialist system:
"I am very happy and extremely grateful to our Party and our government for entrusting me with this flight. I carried out this flight in the name of our country, in the name of the whole heroic Soviet nation, in the name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its Leninist Central Committee."
