Yuri Gagarin

[megri]

Yuri Gagarin was born in Klushino near Gzhatsk, a region west of Moscow, Russia, on March 9, 1934. The adjacent town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in 1968 in his honor. His parents worked on a collective farm.[1] While manual labourers are described in official reports as "peasants," this may be an oversimplification if applied to his parents—his mother was reportedly a voracious reader, and his father a skilled carpenter. Yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped raise him while his parents worked. Like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered great hardship in World War II. His two elder siblings were "taken away" to Germany, apparently as conscripts, in 1943, and did not return until after the war. His teachers described Gagarin as intelligent and hard-working, if occasionally mischievous. His mathematics/ science teacher flew in the Red Army Air Force during the war, which presumably made some substantial impression on young Gagarin