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April 13, 2001

Taking the first picture of Gagarin after landing

By Vladimir Konoplitsky

Photo by Anatoly Pekarsky Vladivostok resident Anatoly Lugansky, who captured the photo above, recounted that he had taken the first photograph of Yury Gagarin after the cosmonaut's post-orbital landing.

As the nation celebrated 40 years since humankind's first flight into space on Thursday, a Vladivostok resident recounted that he had taken the first photograph of Yury Gagarin after his post-orbital landing.

Anatoly Pekarsky, now a professor and lawyer, served in an army unit in western Russia, near the area where the cosmonaut's spacecraft happened to return to earth on April 12, 1961.

He cherishes the memories of that day. His anti-air defenses unit near Saratov was alerted early in the morning and soldiers were told to watch the skies. No one was surprised at the rush because of the Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. The previous year, another Russian unit shot down an American U-2 spy plane in a neighboring area.

But later the superior headquarters transferred a modified command: watch the space. A few more minutes afterward the national radio broke out the news that a man, a Soviet man, was flying in space.

Pekarsky recalled that an excitement came over everyone but they had to compose themselves. Before long, they heard a snap as if a huge balloon had burst. Pouring outside, they saw an enormous parachute steadily descending with an object that turned out to be a spacecraft. Next to it, there was a smaller parachute floating down carrying a person in a chair that had been catapulted from the craft.

"That is the cosmonaut!" someone exclaimed.

It was later revealed that Gagarin was initially designed to land in another location, but during the flight the trajectory pointed to another spot for the touchdown. He however, landed in a third, unexpected place, which explained the absence of state officials at the site immediately after the landing.

The commander of the unit and his officers drove to the landing venue. On seeing the military, Gagarin, who had packed his parachute by that time, ceremonially walked up to them and introduced himself. He also asked them to arrange a liaison with Moscow for him.

When Gagarin arrived at the unit, the soldiers didn't believe their eyes, said Pekarsky. "Among us was the first person who had flown into space."

When he walked out from the command facility after a conversation with Moscow, "we dashed to Gagarin, we wanted to lift him up, but were stopped by an imperious order from the commander," Pekarsky continued. The commander was afraid, as he later confessed, that the soldiers could harm the sensors with which the cosmonaut was covered.

Someone asked to take photos. "Why not," Gagarin replied. And Pekarsky leaped at the chance clicking the shutter of his camera almost without stopping.

Photo by Anatoly Pekarsky Yury Gagarin surrounded by excited soldiers after landing.

At one point, everybody was stunned by a question that the mother of one of the officers asked.

"Did you happen to see God there?" she wondered.

"No, I didn't," he replied softly.

Photographing was over when top brass and high state officials arrived by helicopter and took Gagarin away. For security reasons, an officer from the higher command seized the camera film from Pekarsky, but the soldier was able to recover it over time.

After the service, Pekarsky entered Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok and stayed in the city after graduation, gradually winning promotion to prominent offices. One of his recent jobs was director of the Primorye Regional Justice Department. He is currently the head of a sub-department at Vladivostok State University of Economics and Services and a director of a Business Consulting legal firm.