Legendary Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's rides in a car to the Communist Party's central committee or the OKB-1 rocket design bureau (now space corporation Energia) were classified, but still, traffic police officers might have occasionally guessed that he was inside the vehicle and gave their salutes, Isfat Minnizyanov, a former head of the cosmonaut training center's garage, who sometimes drove Gagarin's car, has said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2021) Legendary Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's rides in a car to the Communist Party's central committee or the OKB-1 rocket design bureau (now space corporation Energia) were classified, but still, traffic police officers might have occasionally guessed that he was inside the vehicle and gave their salutes, Isfat Minnizyanov, a former head of the cosmonaut training center's garage, who sometimes drove Gagarin's car, has said.
Following Gagarin's pioneering space flight, the cosmonaut was awarded a personal car, a black Volga M-21. Later, Gagarin also had his own service vehicle, also a Volga M-21.
"During my time [in office], Yuri Alexeevich's personal driver was Boris Babkin, although I did drive Gagarin on occasion. The drives were work-related: to the central committee, to OKB-1. We did not talk about such trips, that was classified information. But when we drove on the highway, traffic police officers gave their salutes. They knew what kind of car that was and who might be inside," Minnizyanov said, as quoted on the training center's website.
When asked if the cosmonaut was afraid of traffic accidents or assassination attempts, Minnizyanov answered that as a military man, Gagarin always kept his guard.
On April 12, Russia and the rest of the world will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Gagarin's space flight � the first in human history.
