On April 12, a card with the original stamp in the series "Conquest of Space", dedicated to the first human flight into space, was published in the postal circulation

 

On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin discovered the space age and made the first orbital flight around the Earth.

Two years before the launch of the spacecraft, chief designer Sergey Korolev began selecting the first group of cosmonauts. The requirements were tough: excellent health, age up to 30 years, weight up to 72 kg, height up to 170 cm. Fate decreed that they decided on Gagarin's candidacy, and his name was forever inscribed in the history of cosmonautics.

Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, overcame the earth's gravity and flew around our planet in 108 minutes. After making a circle around the Earth, the spacecraft landed in the Saratov region. Gagarin himself ejected not far from the device. On April 14, 1961, the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. By order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Senior Lieutenant Gagarin was awarded the extraordinary military rank of "major".

Cosmonautics Day is celebrated annually on April 12. In 1962, on the first anniversary of the human spaceflight, a government decree was signed on the establishment of a new holiday in the USSR — the Day of Cosmonautics. After 6 years, the event received an international status, and the Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics was established. On April 7, 2011, at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, the holiday acquired another name-the International Day of Human Spaceflight.

The original stamp depicts a symbolic image of a launch vehicle launched into outer space; the main image is a collage of postage stamps from 1961, dedicated to the first human flight into space.

In addition to the issue of the postcard with the original stamp, special postmarks were made for Moscow, St. Petersburg, Engels, Saratov region, Baikonur, Penza, Krasnoyarsk, Kaluga and Yevpatoria of the Republic of Crimea.

Artists-designers: A. Drobyshev (stamp), S. Kapranov (illustration).
Circulation: 22 thousand.

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