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Rev. Bras. Polít. Int., 63(1): e004, 2020 Caterina flight in April 1961 sparked admiration, respect, joy and surprise throughout the world. In Brazil, it would be no different. Hailed as the “Columbus of the Cosmos,” the cosmonaut began an intense international tour. Until April 1962, Gagarin would visit Czechoslovakia, Finland, England, Iceland, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, France, India, Afghanistan, Cuba, and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) (Chertok 2009). Only between April and early August 1961 the cosmonaut visited ten countries (including Brazil) (Singh 2011).

For each of these trips, the Presidium issued “specific behaviour guidelines” and “talking points” for the cosmonauts. According to Gerovitch (2011), the director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, Lieutenant General Nikolai Kamanin, drafted these guidelines and, once approved by the CPSU leaders, he was also responsible for ensuring that they were obeyed.

While visiting the UK in July 1961, for instance, Gagarin attended all the events accompanied by Kamanin and journalist and translator Boris Belitzky. In London, the engagements included a meeting with the mayor, an appointment with Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and a meeting at the Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II. During his stay, Gagarin repeated the mantra peace, friendship, and cooperation among peoples in virtually all his public appearances (Singh 2011).

His charisma, openness, and friendly tone contrasted with the earlier perception of Soviet man abroad – and therefore of the USSR itself. As Gerovitch (2011) points out, the old depictions of a threatening dictator like Stalin, a dogmatic Party bureaucrat, or a stern Soviet soldier have been replaced by that of a “cheerful and charming young man” (Gerovitch 2011, 89).

Gagarin’s tour would make its first stop in Latin America on July 26 in Cuba. Although Fidel Castro had not yet declared himself Marxist-Leninist – he would do so in December 1961 – the proximity between Cuba and the USSR had intensified. Recent memories of the failed U.S. invasion in April aided the rhetoric grounded in the idea of a common enemy to the Cubans and the USSR. Gagarin delivered a more political speech than in the UK, criticizing the ‘imperialists’, underscoring the role of the CPSU in the USSR’s space program Gagarin in Brazil: reassessing the terms of the Cold War domestic political debate in 1961 7