Allegations Concerning Cosmonaut Losses, Gagarin's Role Refuted

This document is a JPRS report from September 22, 1990, containing an article from the Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. The article, written by correspondent Ye. Chernykh, addresses and refutes claims made in a book recently published in Hungary titled 'Gagarin--kosmicheskiy lozh?' (Gagarin--a Space Lie?) by author I. Nemere. Nemere alleges that Yuri Gagarin was not the first human to orbit the Earth on April 12, 1961. Instead, the book claims that the son of the famous aircraft designer Ilyushin had flown the Vostok spacecraft into space several days earlier. According to Nemere's account, the younger Ilyushin returned from the flight in a physically incapacitated state, described as a 'human wreck,' and was subsequently kept out of public view. The article characterizes these claims as a 'shabby canard' and dismisses the narrative surrounding the alleged secret flight.