Fallen Idol: The Yuri Gagarin Conspiracy

In 1961 JFK started the U.S. on a path of discovery and exploration that captured the best of mankind's spirit. On April 12th, the Soviet Union reported the successful launch, orbit and reentry of the first man in space, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, pushing the cold war into a space duel. With the collapse of Soviet communism and the rise of the Russian Federation, recent access to documents in the Kremlin archives reveals a story intended to remain buried forever. Yuri Gagarin, the icon of triumphant communism known the world over, was not the first man in space. He was preceded by Vladimir Ilyushin, an unsung hero and the man at the center of this decades old conspiracy.