ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE

GARDEN COMPLEX "MAN IN THE UNIVERSE"

On October 10, 2021, the inauguration of the unique garden complex "Man in the Universe" took place in Alexei Leonov Square in Gagarin, Smolensk region.

The urban garden complex "Man in the Universe" is dedicated to the memory of the outstanding pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of Aviation, laureate of the USSR State Prize Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov.

Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov, an honourary citizen of the town of Gagarin, made a significant contribution to the development of the city and the perpetuation of the memory of the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. He has been for 43 years a permanent chairman of the organizing committee of the International Social Science Readings, annually held in the homeland of the first cosmonaut.

The garden complex "Man in the Universe" was created on the initiative of Vladimir Ivanov, Alexei Kalinin, Vyacheslav Zarenkov and Olga Evdokimova with the participation of members of the family of A. A. Leonov with the support of the Creative World Foundation and a group of private investors.

The implementation of this project is intended to contribute to the patriotic education of the younger generation and the preservation of the people's memory of Alexei Leonov’s legendary spacewalk and the outstanding achievements of our country in the field of space exploration, in which Russia was the first.

Visitors to the urban garden complex in Gagarin at the same time will be able to see the diagrams of the Galaxy and the Solar System, to compare the earth's dimensions and planets’ sizes and distances between them, to feel and appreciate the scale of the world around us and the place of man in the Universe. Design solutions are aimed at creating a comfortable urban environment where residents and guests of the town may not only relax, but also get information about the role of our country in the history of space exploration, about the contribution of Russians to the development of cosmonautics, comprehend the greatness of the feat of a man who, for the first time in the world, performed a spacewalk.

The garden complex "Man in the Universe" along with the Yuri Gagarin United Memorial Museum will contribute to the strengthening and development of the town of Gagarin as the main Russian centre of the history of cosmonautics.