Allegations Concerning Cosmonaut Losses, Gagarin's Role Refuted

This document, a JPRS report from 1991, compiles articles and commentary regarding persistent rumors that the Soviet Union concealed cosmonaut fatalities and that Yuriy Gagarin was not the first human to orbit the Earth. The primary focus is a rebuttal of claims made in a book by Hungarian author I. Nemere, titled 'Gagarin--kosmicheskiy lozh?' (Gagarin--a Space Lie?), which alleges that a cosmonaut named Vladimir Ilyushin flew before Gagarin but was injured upon landing. The report features the perspective of Karel Patsner, a Czechoslovakian journalist who defends the official Soviet account, arguing that he never encountered evidence of such cover-ups during his extensive travels and conversations with Soviet scientists and cosmonauts. Patsner notes that rumors of 'lost' cosmonauts were largely propagated by Western writers like D. Oberg, who himself later emphasized that such reports were false. The document also references assessments by Dr. C. Sheldon of the U.S. Library of Congress and F. Klass, who both concluded that there was no evidence of secret Soviet space catastrophes. The report suggests that these rumors were often driven by anti-Soviet sentiment or a desire for financial gain through sensationalism. Finally, the document includes a brief anecdote about S.P. Korolev, the chief designer of the Soviet space program, who expressed frustration with the 'veils of secrecy' surrounding his work and dismissed the interest in topics like UFOs as 'outdated sensationalisms' that were only of interest to individual groups.