Page from Brothers of the Cosmos, 1969, featuring images of Laika, 1957 [top],by V.M. Baturin and N. K. Filippov; and Belka and Strelka, 1960 [bottom], by Baturin and V. Zhiharekno

V. M. Baturin Russian
 N. K. Filippov Russian
 V. Zhiharekno Russian

Not on view

This personal album, assembled by a cinematographer hired to document cosmonaut training, offers an intimate view of the triumphant visual culture surrounding the Soviet space program. Until the mid-1960s, the Soviet Union appeared to be winning the space race. Under the direction of the pioneering rocket engineer Sergei Korolev, the program achieved a string of headline-making "firsts." They were the first to send into orbit an earthborn creature (the canine cosmonaut Laika in 1957), a man (Yuri Gagarin in 1961), and a woman (Valentina Tereshkova in 1963). These and other Soviet space pioneers appear in the album's pages.

Page from Brothers of the Cosmos, 1969, featuring images of Laika, 1957 [top], by V.M. Baturin and N. K. Filippov; and Belka and Strelka, 1960 [bottom], by Baturin and V. Zhiharekno, V. M. Baturin (Russian, active 1960s), Gelatin silver prints

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