Did Gagarin say I see no God up here?

“I see no God up here.” These are probably the most famous words Gagarin spoke while in space, words that obviously are quite striking but profound. To understand this first we must understand the man, A simple Russian citizen would would rise to height none had ever achieved. Yuri Gagarin: the first man in space. Gagarin become something much more than a man and more than a Cosmonaut, his trip (the first of its kind) made him a god. The likes of which had not been seen since Stalin but this was no artificial popular movement. Gagarin did something that then was profound, amazing, and some thought was impossible. Today we take this for granted but believe it or not people feared space, and wondered what was up there. Before he left our world here on the ground some that he would go mad once he left our atmosphere and many even thought he would see God. This man of humble beginnings who rose through the soviet system like a prophet would leave our world and become an idol to many. So much so that idol-like paintings were made of him leading the Soviet people, like the one above. (Take a look at some more here.)

A re-colored photo of Gagarin after his flight in his military uniform

The capsule that Gagarin returned to earth in on April 12, 1961 

Gagarin became more than just the first man to enter space he became what the Soviet Union wanted to be. He was a man of humble beginnings who had survived the war and embodied the qualities of the perfect comrade. Statues were made of him like this one, his home town would even be re-named after him. Honestly while researching this topic I found myself amazed by this man, I cant quite express just how profound this was. This was genuine, real, Gagarin was and is a true hero, an explorer and pioneer no matter who you are. Please take the time and watch this video about this amazing man, and maybe you too will be in awe too.

This documentary by Russia Today (a state-run media for non-Russian speaking countries) captures the essence of what this man and the space program meant to the Soviet people. This moment in history embodied what the Soviet people wanted and needed, purpose and success. This moment in history and the years following captured the essence of Soviet power and pride, and Gagarin personified it.

Sources:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/223517752/book-about-gagarin-the-son-of-russia (photo)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)

http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/43729333605/did-you-see-those-amazing-colorized-portraits-of (photo)

Roughly 50 years ago, the Russian cosmonaut Yury Gagarin—the first human launched into space—reportedly returned to Earth with a simple, Soviet-style message: “I looked and looked and looked, but I didn’t see God.”

Gagarin was allegedly a believer, and there’s some debate about whether he actually uttered those words. But a Kremlin propaganda poster produced at the time featured an image of the cosmonaut floating in space and the slogan, “There is no God.”

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Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet cosmonaut and the first human in space (12 April 1961).

I am a friend, comrades, a friend!

• Let's go! (Russian: Поéхали, Poyekhali!)
  • Uttered during the launch of Vostok 1 (12 April 1961); quoted by Sergey Viktorovich Novikov, in Большая историческая энциклопедия (The Greater Historical Encyclopedia) (2003) by Olma Media Group, p, 943
  • Variant translations: Let's ride!
  • Let's drive!
  • Off we go!

• I am a friend, comrades, a friend!
  • First words upon returning to Earth, to a woman and a girl near where his capsule landed (12 April 1961) The woman asked: "Can it be that you have come from outer space?" to which Gagarin replied: "As a matter of fact, I have!"
    • Quoted in The Air Up There : More Great Quotations on Flight (2003) by Dave English, p. 118

• Dear friends, both known and unknown to me, fellow countrymen, men and women of all lands and continents!
  In a few minutes a mighty spaceship will take me into the far-away expanses of the Universe. What can I say to you in these last minutes before the start? I see my whole past life as one wonderful moment. Everything I have experienced and done till now has been in preparation for this moment. You must realise that it is hard to express my feelings now that the test for which we have been training ardently and long is at hand. I don't have to tell you what I felt when it was suggested that I should make this flight, the first in history. Was it joy? No, it was something more than that. Pride? No, it was not just pride. I felt very happy - to be the first in space, to engage in an unprecedented duel with Nature - could one dream of anything greater than that?
  But then I thought of the tremendous responsibility of being the first to accomplish what generations of people had dreamed of, the first to show man the way into space... Can you think of a task more difficult that the one assigned to me. It is not responsibility to a single person, or dozens of people, or even a collective. It is responsibility to all Soviet people, to all mankind, to its present and its future. And if I am nevertheless venturing on this flight, it is because I am a Communist, because I draw strength from unexampled exploits performed by my compatriots, Soviet men and women. I know that I shall muster all my will power the better to do the job. Realising its importance, I will do all I can to carry out the assignment of the Communist Party and the Soviet people.
  Am I happy to be starting on a space flight? Of course I am. In all times and all eras man's greatest joy has been to take part in new discoveries.
  I would like to dedicate this first space flight to the people of communism, a society which our Soviet people are already entering, and which, I am confident, all men on earth will enter.
  It is a matter of minutes now before the start. I say to you good-bye, dear friends, just as people say to each other when setting out on a long journey. I would like very much to embrace you all - people known and unknown to me, close friends and strangers alike.
  See you soon!

• If all those people are getting wet to welcome me, surely the least I can do is get wet too!

• Many people are interested in my biography. I have read in a newspaper that some irresponsible persons in the United States of America, who are distant relatives of the Gagarins princes and think that I am one of their offsprings. I have to disillusion them. I am a simple Soviet man. I was born March 9, 1934, to the family of a collective farmer. The place of my birth: Smolensk region, Gzhatsk district, the village of Klushino. I’ve never heard and don’t know any princes or nobility in my family tree. Before the revolution my parents were poor peasants. The older generation of my family, my grandfather and grandmother, were also poor peasants.

• Rays were blazing through the atmosphere of the earth, the horizon became bright orange, gradually passing into all the colors of the rainbow: from light blue to dark blue, to violet and then to black. What an indescribable gamut of colors! Just like the paintings of the artist Nicholas Roerich.
  • Statement of April 1961, as quoted in Warrior of Light : The Life of Nicholas Roerich : Artist, Himalayan explorer and visionary (2002) by Colleen Messina, p. 46

• Ведь главная сила в человеке — это сила духа.
  • Translation: The main force in man — is the power of the spirit.
  • Variant translation: The main human strength is willpower.
  • As quoted in Essays on Marxist-Leninist Ethics [марксистско-ленинской этике] (1962) by Simon S. Utkin [Семен Семенович Уткин], p. 180

• Our people, with their genius and their heroic work, created the Vostok spaceship, wonderful in the world, and its very smart, very reliable equipment. From the start to the very landing, I had no doubt about the successful outcome of the space flight. I would like to sincerely thank our scientists, engineers, technicians, all Soviet workers who created such a ship which allows to confidently comprehend the secrets of outer space. Let me also thank all the comrades and the whole team that prepared me for the space flight. I am convinced that all my friends, pilot-cosmonauts, are also ready to fly around our planet at any time. It is safe to say that we will fly on our more distant routes on our Soviet spacecraft. I am immensely glad that my beloved Motherland was the first in the world to make this flight, the first in the world to penetrate the Cosmos. The first plane, the first sputnik [satellite], the first cosmic spaceship and the first space flight — these are the stages of the great path of my Motherland toward the mastering the secrets of the Nature.

• Облетев Землю в корабле-спутнике, я увидел, как прекрасна наша планета. Люди, будем хранить и преумножать эту красоту, а не разрушать её!
  • Translation: Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!
  • Russian phrase, handwritten and signed after his historic spaceflight, photo of facsimile published in Syny goluboi planety 3rd.edition (1981) by L. Lebedev, A. Romanov, and B/ Luk'ianov; the first edition was translated into English as Sons of the Blue Planet (1973) by L. A. Lebedev

• What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth.... The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots.... When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth's light-colored surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich color spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquiose, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.
  • As quoted in Earth's Aura (1977) by Louise B. Young

• When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!

Disputed[edit]

• I looked and looked but I didn't see God.
  • As quoted in To Rise from Earth (1996) by Wayne Lee; some websites quote him as saying "I looked and looked and looked but I didn't see God." on 14 April 1961, a couple days after his historic flight, but the authenticity of such statements have been disputed; Colonel Valentin Petrov stated in 2006 that the cosmonaut never said such words, and that the quote originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the state's anti-religion campaign, saying "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there." Gagarin himself was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.
  • Variant: No I didn't see God. I looked and looked but I didn't see God.
    • As quoted in What's Missing Inside You? (2006) by Paul Schlieker, p. 17

Misattributed[edit]

• I see no God up here.
  • This has been reported as a remark Gagarin made while in orbit aboard Vostok 1, but there is no indication of it in the official transcripts of his communications. It is similar to the above statements he reportedly made after his return to earth, which might have given rise to this account.

Quotes about Gagarin[edit]

He was like a sound amplified by a mountain echo. The traveller is small, but the mountains are great, and suddenly they merge into a single whole. Such was Yuri Gagarin. ~ Valentina Malmy

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