Yuri Gagarin in triumphant return to London

Jacko's Statue

Er no, the idea is to IMPROVE Anglo-Russian relations.

Looks like he's

Dancing with the Stars.

Y=U

it means "for Gagarin"

explanation is from of my missus

thumbs up cause the statue is very nice

dative case

It's dative case, if that helps impress your mates down the pub.....

Ga-gar-inu (roll the R a bit for extra poncey points)

Sticking people on top of an ICBM

And barring minor improvements in various components, basically the same design of ICBM launched from the same pad. Sergei Pavlovich Korolev designed well.

Selectve Memory?

In any major conflict there are events that the eventual "winners" prefer to airbrush over.

If I recall correctly the USA only joined WW2 in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Prior to that Joe Kennedy, the US Ambassador to the UK actively sought a meeting with Hitler "to bring about a better understanding between the United States and Germany."

Don't get me started about the Middle East - King David Hotel anyone?

The Cold War is over folks, lets move on please.

'And this is the time to proclaim our faith!'

Would WWII have been won without the Soviets? Possibly not, and certainly not by 1945. The cost of that was enormous and dwarfs the UK and American losses.

Was Stalin an evil bastard? Yep, but for a few years he was on our side and even right wingers like Beaverbrook were happy about that. If someone can find an online copy of his 'faith in Stalin' speech, do let me know.

Not so simple

You should take the time to read about the crazy diplomacy at the end of the 1930s - the Soviet Union was desperate to create an alliance against Nazi Germany as early as 1938 to prevent the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. The response was lukewarm from the UK, France and Czechoslovakia, hesitant from Romania, and outright hostile from Poland. The Soviets were, to a certain extent, backed into a corner and worked with Germany to buy time.

Complements on your historical knowledge, Mark Jan,

but perhaps you should have added that both Britain nor France were happy to acquiesce in allowing the Nazi machine to dismember Czechoslovakia (Agreement in München, 30 September 1938) or gobble up the rest in March a year later (it should be noted that the very same day that the München Dictate (as it was called in Czechoslovakia), Poland's Józef Beck demanded that the Czechs withdraw from the Zaolší region, which was occupied by Polish troops the very next day - a month later the Hugarian dictatorship also got into the act and annexed Czech territory). Why, then,did Britain and France decide to go to war when Poland was attacked on 1 September 1939, when they had been more than willing to sacrifice Czechoslovakia - a far more democratic state than junta-led (Sanacja) Poland ? The whole thrust of these two countries' foreign policy during the period was not to stop Germany, but rather to encourage that country to attack eastward and make war on what was regarded as the real enemy, the Soviet Union. The difference between 15 March 1939, when the remainder of Czechoslovakia was invaded by the German army, and 1 September 1939 was, of course, that in the meantime, a non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union had been signed on 23 August 1939, which made evident that the old policy had failed and that Germany would attack westward before it turned its attention to the East. If, during the period from 1933 - 1938, the governments of Britain and France had accepted the proposals on collective security for which the Soviet foreign minister Maxim Litvinov laboured so tirelessly, Germany could have been contained and the horrors of WW II avoided - but that was not the road that men like Arthur Neville Chamberlain or Édouard Daladier chose to take....

Henri

Re: Superb

Not really, shouldn't that be something British?

Yes, the father of Black Arrow...

...John Scott-Scott.

Black Arrow launched the UK's first and only satellite, Prospero, in 1971. We are the only nation that has developed the ability to reach orbit and abandoned it.

And let's face it, do you know anyone else with a double-barrelled name where the two barrels are both the same? Fantastic!

Salute the Cosmonauts!

Both the USA and the CCCP could be seen as menaces to Europe as they prepared to fight each other across Europe. The prospect of the war was terrifying. The news of Gagarin's flight was exhilarating. The fear has mostly gone now that the CCCP has crumbled and pulled it's occupying forces out of Europe. It's a pity that we're still waiting for the USA to do the same. I still remember going abroad on holiday in 1968, in fear, as the tanks were rumbling into Czechoslovakia and thinking that I'd never see my family or friends or London again. I expected nuclear devastation across Europe when the USA retaliated.

You asked about Gagarin? Well I was a schoolboy who was thrilled to watch Sputnik 2 with a Laika on board, burning bright in the night sky over London in 1958 - that must have been bright to penetrate the polluted atmosphere and glow of the old fashioned sodium lights! In 1961 I had no idea that the USA was trying to put men into space, but I followed every detail of Gagarin's voyage in newspapers, magazines and radio news. Suddenly our world had a new kind of person in it - the cosmonaut! Only two years later and I was reading about Valentina Tereshkova - cosmonauts were here to stay! Then there were grainy pictures from the far side of the moon. Frankly, as a young scientist, working in Britain I took little notice of the USA space effort until it put a man on the moon. That was a brilliant achievement, but even then I thought they were unchivalrous to name their crew anything but cosmonauts. Why couldn't the USA accept the normal rules of precedence in naming?

My recollection is that Gagarin came to Britain for the Soviet Exhibition in London. Did I imagine seeing him there when I was a schoolboy?

Anyway, Gagarin and Tersechkova were two of the big heroes of my youth. And yes, they were very exciting! Cosmonauts beat the pants off lesser heroes like Bob Dylan, Giacomo Agostini, Christopher Cockerell and John Lennon. This statue will make a stroll down the Mall something to put a spring in my step and warmth in my heart. Yuri Gagarin was one of the great heores then and still is now.

Beer, because there's no Vodka to toast Yuri with.