Northern (N): Soviet Union (NS). World Tour of Soviet Cosmonaut, Major Gagarin and Visit to London

A file of correspondence, reports, and press material concerning the reaction to Yurii Gagarin becoming the first man in space. The documents discuss how each of the leading Soviet newspapers has devoted an entire issue to space flight, publishing an address by the Soviet government, photographs and biographical profiles of Gagarin and his family, and a personal message to Gagarin from Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader. The documents also cover the organisation of a reception at the Kremlin for Gagarin, to which the entire foreign diplomatic corps in the Soviet Union has been invited; and the view of the British embassy in Moscow that reports in the Soviet press of "spontaneous excitement and demonstrations in Moscow" have been exaggerated, and that the public response to Gagarin's flight was "more restrained than might have been expected". Other documents comment on the sending of letters congratulating Gagarin by several leading international politicians.