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Rev. Bras. Polít. Int., 63(1): e004, 2020 Caterina would come two years later with Alexei Leonov (Gerovitch 2011; 2015). Thus, for some time, the Soviet space program seemed youthful, energetic, and boundlessly capable of dreaming of new and more ambitious endeavours (Andrews and Siddiqi 2011).

Brazilian authorities, eager for modernity, industrialization and raising the domestic living standards, were obviously impressed with Soviet space achievements. During João Goulart’s visit to the USSR, in August 1961, in a meeting with Brezhnev, the Brazilian Vice-President expressed ‘admiration’ for the ‘exceptionally great progress’ of the Soviet Union, a country ‘proud of its technical and scientific developments’, whose ‘grand expression’ were the cosmonauts Gagarin and Titov. After this meeting, the Brazilian delegation, led by the Vice-President, took part in an event at the Kremlin for welcoming Romanian officials, where they met Gagarin and Titov. Some days later, a picture of Goulart talking to Titov would be published in Pravda (Caterina 2019, 236-37).

The appeal of the Soviet space program “enormously enhanced the attractiveness” of the Soviet modernization model, which would “reach its peak” in African, Asian, and Latin American countries, especially after Gagarin’s trip in 1961 (Zubok 2007, 338). Brazil, seeking a diplomatic rapprochement with the USSR since the inauguration of Jânio Quadros in January, would be a natural target for this Soviet cultural offensive. Thus, with the negotiations for the resumption of relations with the USSR still not concluded, Yuri Gagarin arrived in Brazil on July 29, 1961. His visit will be thoroughly assessed in the next item.

Gagarin in Brazil: the enchantment with the Soviet modernization changing the terms of the domestic Cold War debate

The literature assessing Gagarin’s trip to Brazil is very limited. Vizentini (2004) alludes to it, but does not delve further into the meaning of the diplomatic endeavour for the Brazilian people and its understanding of the Cold War. In a recent article, Ribeiro (2017) argues about the importance of his visit as one of the factors that impelled Quadros to kick start space research activities in Brazil in an institutionalized framework. Her analysis, though, focuses on the outset of Brazilian space activities and does not assess how the change in the Soviet self-representation influenced the Brazilian political debate.

Rupprecht (2011) is the only author to assess Gagarin’s visit to Brazil as part of a Soviet cultural diplomacy effort aimed to present the socialist superpower as a technologically advanced state. His Gagarin in Brazil: reassessing the terms of the Cold War domestic political debate in 1961 6