Yuri Gagarin never said he did not see God in space, his friend, an Air Forces colonel, insists

Yuri Gagarin was a believer and could not say the famous words that he ‘flew in space but did not see God there’, Col. Valentin Petrov, associate professor at the Air Force Academy and close friend of the first cosmonaut, said in a interview to the Interfax news agency.

He said this phrase actually belonged to Nikita Khruschev and was said by the Soviet leader during the party plenum on anti-religious propaganda.

‘At that time, Khruschev set all the Party and Komsomol organizations the task to promote atheistic propaganda and said: why should you clutch to God so much? You see, Gagarin flew in space but did not see God there’, the colonel said.

But with time, he said, these words began to be deliberately attributed to Gagarin, ‘who was the the people’s favourate, and this phrase coming from his lips would be of tremendous importance’.

However, Petrov insists, ‘Yuri, just as every Russia, was baptized, and, as far as I know, was a believer’, therefore ‘he just could not say that’.