Gagarin and Lincoln

By an interesting coincidence, two important jubilees took place on April 12. Year after year on this date, fanfares are heard in the countries of the former Soviet bloc to celebrate World Aviation and Cosmonauts Day in remembrance of Yuri Gagarin’s first flight to outer space in 1961. The other important historical event that started on that same date is the American Civil War, a fact far less popularly known in Bulgaria. The bloodiest conflict in American history began when Fort Sumter in South Carolina was attacked by Confederate forces in 1861.

These two events are an inseparable part of the identity of Americans and Russians respectively, and as such have been mythologized for a long time. I learned a lot about the Civil War when I came here. Also, however, I came face to face with completely different readings of the same episode in history.

The events of 1861-1865 often sounded extremely different when recounted in, say, Texas and Florida than when discussed in New York. One of the myths I heard in the South was that the Confederate States declared their secession from the North not because of slavery, but rather for unrelated economic and political reasons. That is, they claim that the war was started only for the redistribution of goods and resources.

That is plain wrong in this particular case. President Abraham Lincoln manifested serious hesitation before finally making the decision to start an open fight against his American brothers as a last resort for keeping the Union together. But his motive was at its roots ideological.

It’s interesting to note that a large number of people in the Southern States didn’t have slaves. Getting rich and receiving the right to ownership over human beings of a different race was part of the American dream for the white people in those areas, nonetheless. Thus, they de facto supported an institution that worked to their advantage only theoretically.

In the same way, many Americans today are against the increase of taxes for the rich because they believe they might be in their place some day.

At the same time, a lot of Lincoln’s soldiers were, at first, either indifferent or even against abolition. It was military discipline and not the ideology that first drove them to the battlefield. After having fought alongside the freed slaves, the Union soldiers started discovering something very simple: They were also people like them, who, on top of that, fought bravely for their freedom. Thus, by the end of the war, most people from the North were sworn enemies of slavery as an institution.

The racial controversies in the U.S. were settled an entire century after the end of the armed conflict, although ideological sparks still beget flames here and there today.

Gagarin, a figure from my childhood, on the other hand, was mummified into a mythological hero of the Soviet Union. Unlike most other “heroes,” he didn’t have the look of a constant martyr, but was instead smiling like a Hollywood star.

The official myth about him was that he was intrepid. Listening to the recordings of the radio communications from this historic flight, which the Russians made available about six years ago, however, we got to know a Gagarin who was actually very human, and understandably, given that he was sitting on tens of tons of explosives, a bundle of nerves. This, at least to me, makes him far more likable, even without that charming smile. If you’ve never read the transcripts in question, you can find them on Russian sites (for example at NewsRu.com).

Here is what the cosmonaut replied, when told what was on board to eat after landing: “The main thing to remember is that when you snack with homemade vodka, you should eat sausages, too!” The main constructor of Korolyov’s answer is also atypical and colorfully Russian: “You’ll get us into trouble; they are recording everything, the bastards.”

Such casual conversations are worth more than all the propagandistic efforts of the Soviet Union Telecommunication Agency. (I won’t translate the statements, as I don’t want to offend your ability to understand Russian or use Google Translate.)

The anniversary of Gagarin’s flight is not celebrated in the same festive way any longer, one of the reasons being that flights in outer space are now mundane events that don’t merit heroes. As to Fort Sumter, it would have been closed for the jubilant ceremonies had the Republicans and the Democrats not reached an agreement on the federal budget at the last minute.