Anna Takhtarova and her granddaughter, Rita, were weeding potatoes near the village of Smelovka on 12 April 1961 when a man in a strange orange suit and a bulging white helmet approached across the field. The forest warden's wife crossed herself but the girl was intrigued.
"I'm a friend, comrades. A friend," shouted the young man, removing his headgear. Takhtarova looked at him curiously.
"Can it be that you have come from outer space," she asked. "As a matter of fact, I have," replied Yuri Gagarin.
Fifty years ago with a rousing cry of “ Poekhali!” ( “Let’s Go!”), cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin raced skywards to become the first human in space.