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I wonder how the letter become publicly known?
https://www.space-collectibles.com/blog/youri-gagarin-s-lett...
There were also the other words of Yuri Gagarin, on the way back from space: "Я горю, прощайте товарищи" ("I'm on fire. Farewell, comrades"). The capsule somehow managed to land successfully, and he ended up being alive.
Wow, such wide-ranging cognates!
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Eur...
("warm", "thermal", "furnace", and even the "garam" in "garam masala")
I'm glad he made it back to Earth safely.
I wonder how the letter become publicly known?
According to this random website, the letter was opened in 1968 on the actual event of Gagarin's death and declassified in 2011 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his flight. https://www.space-collectibles.com/blog/youri-gagarin-s-lett...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s happening here is that /tɕ/ is a single sound — I’d transcribe it /t͡ɕ/, with a little tiebar to make that clear. This sound is an ‘affricate’, meaning that it’s pronounced by starting with a /t/ and releasing it with the tongue so that it finishes with a /ɕ/ sound. /ɕ/ alone would be the sound written in Russian as ⟨щ⟩, which is of course different. Incidentally English ⟨ch⟩ is also affricated, although it’s…
> This sound is an ‘affricate’, meaning that it’s pronounced by starting with a /t/ and releasing it with the tongue so that it finishes with a /ɕ/ sound. I don't agree. I don't start with a /t/ when I'm about to say any Russian word that starts with ч (ch). The tongue is in a different place altogether. With т, the tongue is closer to teeth than when I start with ч (ch). This should be true for all since we're talki…
That dental stop might or might not be exactly the same sound as any of those that are written with Russian or English (which, per Wikipedia, are themselves slightly different in place of articulation). English-speakers might be misled into thinking the is a familiar English sound if it's transcribed as [t͡ʃ]; Russian Wikipedia, for example, suggests it's actually [t̠̪͡ʲɕ̪] (different in three different respects from [t͡ʃ]!). But /t/ is also the closest we can probably get in English to what may be actually be, say, [t̪ʲ], even though it does have a slightly different place of articulation.
I think it would be fair to say, considering evidence from both English and Russian Wikipedias, that the Russian does start with a "t-like" sound from the English perspective, yet that sound is at least not precisely identical to that written with English .
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope. It does not
Real letters to wives don't include patriotic and political phrases about children being raised in a new paradise to come, except those written by cult members and those (in this case) written under duress.
That he felt need to include such blatant political statements in a letter like this is telling.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What blatant political statement?
The political organization of my local region of Earth wouldn’t be top of mind for my last letter to my family, personally.
That he felt need to include such blatant political statements in a letter like this is telling.
If he were a doubter, it would still make sense to include that to potentially make it easier for his family to obtain or preserve a decent position in the Soviet society. These sorts of heroes were supposed to be idols and demigods of the country. This wasn't a society that would respect you having a private apolitical part of life, especially for a man of such a position.
I almost wrote how people are clueless about living under totalitarianism, where there can really be no such thing as truth or honesty. Except maybe heavily drunk in a small company in a dacha, if you're feeling adventurous. But really I think people would often pay lip service to any social orthodoxy in such a situation (contrary to what you might think), because of the benefits of psychical comfort and fitting in.