The rumors and the truth about the death of Gagarin

March 27, 1968 in the village of Novoselovo Vladimir region crashed MiG-15UTI, piloted by Yuri Gagarin and instructor Vladimir Seregin.

Everything about this tragedy, it was immediately classified. On the death of Gagarin and Seregin said only 29 Mar. But official documents of the government Commission set up to investigate the disaster, as well as correspondence on this issue and the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist party has long remained secret storage. This gave rise to many rumors.

After the death of Yuri Gagarin was declared national mourning and created a special Commission, which was to understand the causes of the death of the crew, — Gagarin was performing a training flight in a MiG-15UTI instructor, an experienced military test pilot 1st class Vladimir Seregin. Literally the Commission's conclusion was that the aircraft made a sharp maneuver associated with the lapel of irrelevant target — balloon or a flock of geese. The aircraft collided with the ground, the crew perished.

In aviation there is a lot of severe disasters, and in 10% of cases the causes remain unclear. Besides a long time, the information about the death of Gagarin and Seryogin were in a folder under secrecy, which gave rise to the emergence of numerous versions of the death of the astronauts, including completely delusional.

Large spread rumors that Gagarin and Seregin before the flight drank a glass of vodka. According to the official investigation, this version is refuted by the fact that alcohol in the blood of the pilots were not found.

There are also widespread allegations that Gagarin had a conflict with the country's leadership. After that, according to one version, was organized by the death of Gagarin, on the other — officially declared disaster was a falsification, and Gagarin was secretly arrested by the security services and after plastic surgery on face placed in one of the provincial psychiatric hospitals.

Conspiracy theories about the small "the Soviet lunar conspiracy" includes the rationale and some of the arguments that Gagarin was killed during a training flight training aircraft, and a few days earlier on working out in the rush of the lunar race new space ship Soviet lunar flyby trajectory one program in flight L1 "ZOND‑4".

There is also a version that Gagarin faked his own death, after which he also lived for many years under a false name in the village in the Orenburg region, where he died in an accident on the hunt already very old man.

Created to investigate the causes of the disaster, the State Commission came to the following conclusions: the crew due to changes in flight of the air situation (details not specified) made a sharp maneuver and fell into a tailspin. Despite efforts by pilots to bring the machine in horizontal flight, the aircraft collided with the ground, the crew perished. Failures or malfunctions of equipment was found. Chemical analysis of the remains and blood pilots foreign substances not identified.

In that ill-fated morning near the scene of the accident fated to cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, major General of aviation, hero of the Soviet Union. That he was able to learn, he told only in the 35-day anniversary of Gagarin died in 2003 at a press conference dedicated to the funeral date.

Five years ago, Alexei Leonov told reporters that gained access to secret materials of the Commission investigating the death of the first cosmonaut of the planet, which confirmed his version of the death of Yuri Gagarin.