Gagarin is first among equals: Yura will definitely return

…Oh, I was born late. Still before my eyes are images of April 12, 1961: work was cancelled, studies at the institute and at school were cancelled, the best holiday in the world of disobedience under the leadership of the state, all of Moscow poured out onto the streets to greet their hero – this is happiness, this is fate.

Gagarin is first among equals. Even then, the USSR knew very well what PR was. Even then they believed perfectly that Yura would make it, he would return, he would definitely return. Among the contenders for the proud title of cosmonaut No. 1 were wonderful guys, athletes, excellent combat and political training, techies… But everyone understood that, other things being equal, the first man in space should have something else, perhaps most importantly, different from others , because he will represent our country all over the globe, which means we must show the product with its face, a new person, a better person, the cutest person. This famous Gagarin smile outweighed everything. Look at him in all the videos – Yuri Alekseevich simply glows from within. It breaks through the screen, it’s all somehow warm, familiar, close, you just want to come up and hug it. This uniqueness was not present among wonderful people – Titov, Bykovsky, Leonov… That is why Gagarin was the first.

But there was another view of him, Yuri Alekseevich. There is such a very famous Soviet film “Taming of Fire”, well, very Soviet. This is about the great space designer Sergei Korolev. He is played beautifully by Kirill Lavrov. So there’s not a word about Gagarin. There is a nameless pilot who is being trained, yes, and then put into the Salyut… “What are you, a parcel post, a parcel, a suitcase? Didn’t you realize anything?” – “No boom-boom” (“The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!”). This is how the hero of the world is presented here, the best of the best, in a landmark film, who suddenly became just a space passenger, and all the glory goes, of course, to Korolev, the genius. By the way, Yuri Loza expressed the same version in relation to Gagarin not so long ago. But it’s more expensive to listen to Loza; it’s better to sing about the raft.

They will be considered glory, the general designer and the astronaut. Only that smile of Yura is worth a lot, the most expensive thing. She means so much in this life. And it’s not artificially strained, like the Americans, but from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of my heart. She told the world so much about our people, about the best that they have, about the Motherland. Yes, Gagarin is a rare person, one of a kind, but he expressed all of us, that lofty dream that sometimes comes true. He made it, because when he took off and landed, he was 27, and when he left forever – 34 in total…

In these documentaries we see him alive. “Know what kind of guy he was…” Here he is at the Blue Light, here he answers questions from journalists… He always jokes, always smiles… Oh, that Gagarin smile that changed the world so much. It’s lucky that he was the first.

WE SPEAK YAKUTIAN

It seemed that the resumed “Closed Show” on the First had been given a long life. What is our new cinema, who needs this abstruse and sheer depression now? Life truth? Well, give it to her talentedly. Only new Tarkovskys and Sokurovs are not born so soon. If they are ever born at all.

And here’s a surprise: in the “Closed Screening” there is the Yakut film “Don’t Bury Me Without Ivan.” Yakut cinema is no less famous and popular in the world, just like Iranian or South Korean. Yes, ethnicity, exoticism, but there is something else that reveals all the poetry of the people.

Yakutia, let me remind you, is part of Russia, but still a unique separate country. Almost the entire film is in Yakut, with Russian subtitles.

One of the main religions there is shamanism. The main one is ayyy, polytheism, very close to Russian prehistoric paganism. And their cinema comes from the soil, from the land that gave birth to such a unique people, the people of the White Sun. So outwardly restrained, loyal, even quiet, but inside everyone has a storm, thunder and lightning, light at the end of the tunnel. Here Yakut cinema shows us the world, the essence of the people through individual people, in them like a drop of water…

First a film, then an argument, thoughts out loud. Gordon handled this brilliantly and with unusual tact. All the Yakuts and Russians gathered in the studio were so interesting to him, and he was careful about each of them.

Without pathos, this is the model of relations between peoples in such a complex country as Russia.

The national question is the most important, because it was on this that the USSR broke down. And there, too, not everyone spoke Russian, they didn’t even know Russian. Remember “Mimino”, when Valiko flew to the village to show an Indian film? He alone knows Russian, everyone else understands only Georgian. But this did not stop us from living together in one country.

I also remember the 1980 Olympics, the opening ceremony. All 15 republics began to spin in national round dances, and the Russian circle, the crown of creation—such a symbol, such a philosophy—bordered, framed, and connected all this motley spectacle. The ideal of life in the USSR, as it turned out, was unrealistic.

Russia is pregnant with national diversity. And that’s why here you need to act subtly and gently, as if working with a scalpel. A tilt either in one direction – Russification, or in the other – absolute priority for nationalities – and everything will fall apart. God forbid.

This is where we need a golden mean. And be like host Gordon: attentive to everyone, friendly, but guarding the balance of common interest.

After all, then each republic, region, autonomy will only complement and enrich the Russian World with its uniqueness, unite Russia, and the Russian World itself will not frighten anyone. Let a hundred flowers bloom.