The first photograph of Yuri Gagarin after landing 60 years ago took Private Anatoly Pekarsky. "New" talked to him

If 60 years ago, 22-year-old Private Tolya Pekarsky did not violate military discipline in a rude way and did not carry into part of the air defense, where he served, his “Zenit-S”, we would never see the first photographs of the smiling Yuri Gagarin after the very 108-minute flight.

Today, the former head of the Department of Justice of the Primorsky Territory, the candidate of legal sciences, the professor teaches at the Department of Criminal Law Disciplines at the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, and every year holds meetings dedicated to the first person in space.

We even meet with him in the training room of court hearings. And he, taking out the photographs from the envelope, grins, grins for order: “I am just a witness, you don’t have to make a hero out of me! The hero is Gagarin. " And it complains that the same camera is locked in a safe, which for some reason has stopped opening.

"YOUR, comrades, their own!"

Anatoly Pekarsky bought “Zenit-S” shortly before the draft. I did not really learn to shoot - and they took it into the army. From the Kokchetav region in the north of Kazakhstan - to the Saratov region. The anti-aircraft missile part of the air defense No. 40218, where the Pekarsky began to serve, was based on a mountain in the eastern part of the village of Podgornaya, 35 km from Saratov. There, not far (about 12 kilometers from Podgorny) is also the village of Smelovka, which was considered for a long time the place of landing Gagarin.

At one time, they wrote that cars with soldiers were accidentally driving around the field, they saw an astronaut. He really landed there - near the Volga, on the collective farm field of Podgorny two kilometers from the military unit.

But there were no “random soldiers” there. The first to meet Gagarin's wife Anna Akimovna Takhtarova with her six -year -old granddaughter Rita.

-They saw how something slammed and moves in their direction. A man in a helmet and an orange spacesuit, says Anatoly Pekarsky. -And this was time, the year passed after Powers (an American shpion pilot, whose plane was shot down on May 1, 1960 over Sverdlovsk.- V.F .). Then everyone talked about spies, they were afraid. But Gagarin opened it with Harkoshlet: "His comrades, his own!" And on his helmet he has an inscription: USSR. I later found out that this inscription was actually made before the start, to somehow indicate: it never know where it would land.

... The machine operators working on the field fled to Gagarin. And soon a car arrived with a group of soldiers, led by Major Akhmed Nikolayevich Gassiev, the commander of the unit.

"I think that he smiled in flight"

The military, of course, no one warned that an astronaut could appear somewhere nearby. The day in the unit usually began: lifting, charging, breakfast, morning procedures ... And suddenly: "Anxiety!" In fact, after landing the American spy there were many such anxieties-but educational, training ...

-I still remember how 60 people flee in Kirsz boots on concrete: top-top, top top! And the point is our combat, anti-aircraft missile system of air defense is in constant readiness. I was sitting in the hardware then, and one of the officers immediately said: "We work on space!" After that, I heard ... You know, there is a cotton when the balloon bursts - and then the cotton is like a thousand balls, ”recalls Anatoly Borisovich. - The people rushed from the caponiers to the parapet, up! They threw everything - any Powers at that moment could fly in our direction, no one would even see.

Everyone raised and shouting: "In, in!" We were ready for a person in space. Already, the squirrel and the arrow landed, and Like visited there. Everything was, but they were waiting for a man! We watched the sky: we see the first two parachutes - we think. It turns out that no - the east of the ship is descending. There Gassiev sent a political officer with soldiers. He understood as an experienced officer that the capsule should be guarded. We see another parachute-also not him, a catapult chair. And again the major sends the car. And then a person is already: you can see - it wriggles like a worm, pulls the slings. And there are no more cars! Then Gassiev jumps onto the tractor, Tzm (the transport-commercial machine.- V.F .) , and right along the field, by plowing. Instantly rushed!

Gagarin, seeing the Major field in uniform, approached a drill step towards him - with a report: “Comrade Major! Senior Lieutenant Gagarin ... ”Gassiev stops him:“ What is the senior lieutenant, major! ” Returned to the unit. After a couple of minutes, everyone fled. The soldier was struck by how their “guest”, jumping from a tall footboard, several times, like a ball, pushed away from the ground. Then it turned out that the boots of the astronauts are special, springing, to land with a parachute, it was more convenient. Well, training, of course.

Gagarin requested a connection - to report to the authorities of landing. In the same place, on the checkpoint, he was helped to remove the spacesuit-it is a pity that black and white photographs cannot convey the lazored color of the overalls of the first Soviet astronaut. But they can convey emotions: glee, amazement, pride!

The first, the most famous picture-hugs the hero from behind the frame, hands stretch, a woman in a handkerchief in a handful ... And Gagarin himself is a disheveled, smiling, also spread his hands for a hug. This is twelve after landing.

To talk about this meeting to everyone who served in that part of the air defense, the KGB banned strictly for 20 years in advance.

But this will not forget this after 120 years. In 1983, Akhmed Gassiev literally handed over for the Central Studio of Documentary films and the main archival management under the Council of Ministers of the USSR the same report by Gagarin on the checkpoint in his parts: “Senior Lieutenant Gagarin. He landed safely. I have no bruises and injuries. ”

“And now he went out with the checkpoint after the communication session - there was such a moment, 20-30 seconds, no more,” continues Pekarsky. -I sat down on a bench and closed my eyes, relaxed ... I also took a picture of it then, one of the guys sent a picture to the Komsomol truth. And instantly he gathers, rises from the checkpoint to the site where it was possible to withdraw. All! Again he is the same Gagarin, full of readiness for everything! These shots are Yuri Alekseevich surrounded by warriors of the Air Defense Zenitite-Rock Complex, with their smile. I think he smiled in flight.

Soviet mail saved

Everything happened quickly. After a couple of minutes after the report, Gagarin is asked about the general photograph, he agrees with pleasure - and now Pekarsky again “cleanses” his “Zenith”. By the way, a lot of things hit the frame by military standards: a planned wall, a checkpoint window, part of the concrete platform. It’s funny for us now - and there is almost a military secret!

Each picture was worth its weight in gold, and to this day they would have reached much less, and not everything would have appeared in the newspapers. But the soldiers showed ingenuity: the entire photo paper, the developer, the fixer that were in the unit were collected (for the new ones they would have to go to Engels, but they had no time).

“We were warned: if in the morning the individuals come up, everyone confiscates,” the Pekarsky shrugs. - I generally violated military discipline with my camera. But they saved me, of course. Here is the gratitude of Marshal Malinovsky for this photo, ”the professor shows a large copy of that telegram. - And look, it is finished by hand: "But a great nose was wiped with all sorts of American brags!"

They printed photos all night. By morning, a postman with a full bag of pictures left from military unit No. 40218: relatives, friends, in newspapers. And all that remained was confiscated on April 13.

Anatoly Pekarsky regrets about one: he captured, he says, as his grandmother, Major Gagarin gives a bouquet of daisies and asks if he saw that God. He sent this photo to his mother to Kazakhstan, and someone had stuck it with her.

And another detail - our interlocutor with legal accuracy says that it is impossible to write about it at all, because this contradicts all the facts already published. It is well known that Gagarin's landing time is 10:55. But the Private Pekarsky at that very moment looked at the watch - they were 10:52. These watches are sports, 17 stones donated by a mother at the graduation - Anatoly Pekarsky is still constantly wearing, and they work without fail.