1. SV PAN Women in traditional dress handing over bread and flowers to cosmonaut Berezovoy. 0.44
2. GV Military brass band marching and playing. 0.48
3. SV & PAN Laying flowers at the Lenin monument. 1.18
4. SV Lenin monument, officer watching. (2 SHOTS) 1.30
5. SCU Cosmonaut digging hole for chestnut tree. (2 SHOTS) 1.36
6. SCU Flowers handed over to cosmonaut Anatoly Berezovoy, crowd watching. (3 SHOTS) 1.52
InitialsSH/JRS/


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Background: MOSCOW, USSR

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin made history when he became the first man in space. The occasion is marked each year in the Soviet Union with a national holiday called Cosmonauts' Day. This is when Soviet cosmonauts meet the Moscow public in a series of specially arranged events. This year pilot-cosmonaut, Anatoly Berezovoy was the official guest. In 1982 Berezovoy and fellow cosmonaut, Valentin Lebedev, took part in the longest space flight in history when they spent 211 days onboard the Salyut 7 space station. During the celebrations, Berezovoy laid a basket of flowers at the monument of the founder of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin. He also took part in another traditional activity when he planted a chestnut tree in Star Alley. Over the years all the cosmonauts who attend celebrations at the alley, which is in the grounds of the national economics achievement exhibition, have planted a tree. There are now over 50 chestnut trees in the alley.

Source: TSS