Source | WCML (Working Class Movement Library) web site |
Event referred to | 12th April 1961: Yuri Gagarin – First Man in Space |
Technological characteristics | Text and pictures available on line at above site |
Description of the source | News report, mentioning Gagarin as first man in space and quoting interviews with him from the Daily Worker as well as commenting on the response to his visit to Manchester. |
Contextualisation of the source | The site on which the report is published together with quotations used in the report from the Daily Worker have a working class, socialist/communist bias. The writer provides a view of the event and considers the long term effects of the visit, writing as he did after it had occurred. |
Interpretation of the source | The source provides an added dimension to the issue of the first man in space, showing a more human side to Gagarin. It is shows the difference in opinion between the public response to Gagarin, seen as something of a hero, and political response to his visit which was limited. The report is implicitly critical of the political response. The author suggest that the visit did little to change the political response to or view of Russia. |
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