Polls show that Yuri Gagarin is the main hero of Russian history of the 20th century. It is all the more surprising that for many years in Russia an adequate - frank, objective, tied to modernity - biography of the first cosmonaut has not been created. “Yuri Gagarin” by Lev Danilkin is an attempt at a “final”, if possible, closing all the gaps in the biography of the “red Icarus”; the most complete chronicle of life to date - and an understanding of what the myth of Gagarin and the idea of “Gagarin” represent. Interviews with eyewitnesses and a total revision of Russian and foreign sources helped the author answer basic questions. Is Gagarin just an embodiment of Soviet design - or did he actually have some unique qualities? What really happened on April 12, 1961? How did the first cosmonaut cope with “gagarinomania” - the status of the most famous person on the planet? What is Gagarin: a product of the system and era - or its mirror and justification? Was there a conflict between him and the political leadership of the USSR? What is the real reason for his death? Was his success just luck, the result of deliberate life-building - or the implementation of some higher plan? What would have happened to Gagarin and the USSR if the “first citizen of the Universe” had not died in March 1968 and had he lived to this day? The book is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first space flight.