How are religion and Russian space science connected?
Pyotr Kovalev/ТASS
A nation with a past deeply rooted in the religious worldview, Russians happened to get to space first in 1961 – and Yuri Gagarin, famously, “didn’t see God”. But, religion and astronautics have always been close.
The idea of space travel was first created by a Russian Orthodox philosopher that was born with the last name ‘Gagarin.’
Portrait of Nikolay Fyodorov by Leonid Pasternak
Leonid Pasternak
A school teacher and librarian, Nikolay Fyodorov (1829-1903) opposed the idea of property of books and ideas and never published anything during his lifetime. He refused to be photographed and to sit for portraits and two of his depictions had to be made secretly. Most of his teachings he conveyed orally to his disciples and friends. The founder of the Russian cosmism philosophy, Nikolay was a bastard son of Prince Pavel Gagarin (1789-1872). It is considered a coincidence that the first man in space also bore this surname. During his life, Nikolay was known under the surname of his godfather, Fyodorov.