This Soviet propaganda film, featuring English narration, covers the Space Race from the perspective of the Soviet Union (USSR), highlighting the career of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the landmark spaceflights of Sputnik, Vostok, and Voskhod (TRT 48:29).

Media res opening montage. A rocket ready for launch (0:08). Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in a still closeup. The 1961 launch of Vostok 1 with Russian title overlay (0:29). Credits over newspaper printing, switchboard operators, typists (0:52). Gagarin in the news (1:42). Scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in a still closeup. Engineer Valentin Glushko speaks from his award filled office (1:53). The Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory (2:56). A Soviet liquid-propellant rocket engine burns fuel. Modern rocket thrusters (3:12). Sergei Korolev and other rocket enthusiasts of the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD). Biplanes. Farming. Mining cars. Early aviators (3:29). Tsiolkovsky speaks. Headlines. The 1934 sinking of SS Chelyuskin. The rescue mission and victory parade. Nikolai Kamanin and others with Joseph Stalin (4:20). Klushino in Smolensk. The birthplace of Gagarin (6:25). Leningrad. The Academy of Sciences. The 1934 Conference for the Study of the Stratosphere. Korolev and his rocket plane (7:02). The first Soviet jet fighter. The Battle of Stalingrad (8:34). Katyusha rocket launchers fire M13 rockets. Scenes of victory, postwar rebuilding (9:26). Moscow Kremlin exteriors. Glushko stands and speaks (10:14). Barren lands. Building the rocket test grounds of Kapustin Yar in Astrakhan Oblast. Dimitry Ustinov in portrait (11:26). The R-1 rocket in 1948. A long-range ballistic missile (12:28). Korolev writing. Leonid Brezhnev (13:03). Sliding doors open on Sputnik 1. An R-7 rocket launch (14:19). Young Gagarin as a foundryman, pilot. Orenburg Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (14:53). Northern landscapes. A remote air force garrison (15:24). POV the cockpit of a fighter jet (15:49). Aviators in a briefing (16:29). Engineer Konstantin Bushuyev and scientist Oleg Gazenko speak (17:05). Laika and other space dogs. Vostok space capsules (18:24). Konstantin Feoktistov speaks (18:49). Inside a capsule. Korolev at work, on two phones (20:33). Capsules under construction (21:16). An assemblyman speaks (21:40). Blastoff (22:28). Fighter jets and airmen on a runway. An officer speaks (22:49). Interview continues from a convertible car. A cosmonaut training center. Black and white footage of 20 cosmonauts including Gagarin (24:37). Back to color. Montage: Cosmonauts in training (25:30). Ejecting from a fighter jet with a parachute. Touchdown in water (25:51). Trainees inside a spaceship. Oleg Gazenko in a lab (26:29). Gagarin dons an orange flight suit. Korolev on radio (27:25). Vostok 1 launches. Mission control. Gagarin in orbit and upon his victorious return (28:30). Numerous celebrations of Gagarin. His adoring comrades around the world in extended montage (29:39). Spaceman Gherman Titov speaks. Cosmonauts play ice hockey. Gagarin trains future cosmonauts with the aid of a globe. Gagarin on radio and at a 1966 press conference (32:41). Titov’s victory parade. Andriyan Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich. A large banner of Lenin (34:22). Valery Bykovsky aboard Vostok 5. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (34:53). Korolev, Feoktistov, Vladimir Komarov, and Boris Yegorov (35:12). Voskhod 1 and the first spacewalk of Alexei Leonov (35:25). The spaceship Soyuz. Komarov says goodbye to his wife and prepares for launch (36:03). A multi-stage rocket separates (36:59). The Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. Gagarin lectures (37:13). Gagarin’s funeral (39:15). Film director Nikolay Makarov reminisces in a screening room (39:42). Gagarin’s family reads fan mail at home on modern red furniture. Gagarin in his office (40:42). Laying out Gagarin’s empty uniform (43:35). Vladimir Shatalov speaks (43:59). A Soviet helicopter takes off. Fighter pilots and jets in montage. Children at play and at school in Star City, an area in Zvyozdny gorodok. Views of modern 1960’s architecture (44:36). Cosmonauts from other countries accept congratulations and medals from Leonid Brezhnev, others (46:14). A modern mission control center (47:02). The new head of Soviet space flights encourages future cosmonauts (47:06). A rocket launches at sunset (47:44).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com