I’m glad the traditional Cold War is over. Celebrating this achievement used to get you branded a traitor by idiots. Regardless of which nation succeeded in getting a person into Space first, the world should rejoice at the accomplishment. It only sucks when Gagarin’s flight is put into context with the larger picture: the Soviet Union and the US only kept sending people into Space for military advantages. This continues today, there’s just more participants in the contest.
Yuri Gagarin was a brave guy. The whole flight was on autopilot and he was the Soviets’ third attempt. Number one died sometime along the flight and number two crashed in China which held him as a “guest” for about a year.