Monument to the first dog cosmonaut. Bright star among space dogs

Dogs have served man faithfully for many centuries. People, in turn, as a token of gratitude, erected monuments to their four-legged friends, which stood in the center of the city, pleasing the eyes of passers-by. It's nice to realize that in the life of dogs there is a place for feat, heroism. We should not forget about all the merits of the shaggy people, and therefore now we will plunge into history, when this or that monument was erected and what was the reason for its creation.

Many historians believe that the very first monument in honor of the dog was erected in the 4th century BC. BC. near the city of Corinth. According to one legend, a dog named Soetr woke up the whole city with his loud barking when enemies were silently approaching him. The enemies were defeated, and Soetre was awarded a silver collar with the inscription "Defender and Savior of Corinth" and a monument was erected.

The most famous monument was erected in Paris, on the Seine River, dedicated to St. Bernard Barry. The inscription reads: "Barry, who saved forty people and was killed forty-first." There is a legend that Barry, who served in one of the Alpine monasteries, saved people from avalanches. On account of Barry was only forty saved human lives. When the St. Bernard again went in search, he found a frozen traveler under the snow mass. Trying to warm him up, Barry began to lick the man's face. He, arriving in shock and an eclipse of reason, mistook the dog for a wolf and killed it.

But there is another point of view. This forty-first person was a child who got lost in the forest and lost consciousness. But Barry found him, warmed him up, tried to take him to the monastery, but the child was too weak to walk. Then he wrapped his arms around the dog's neck and climbed onto its back. Barry delivered the baby safely to the monastery, where he received needed help. Saint Bernard lived 12 years and died.

Another monument is dedicated to the equally famous sled dog named Balto. The event took place in 1925, when a diphtheria epidemic broke out in the cold town of Nome, almost remote from communication with the outside world. A team of dogs led by leader Balto successfully delivered anti-diphtheria serum, which saved the lives of many children. Balto is most familiar to us from the wonderful cartoon and the famous story about the hero dog. In memory of Balto's dog feat, two monuments were erected, one of which is located in Nome itself, and the other in New York (in Central Park).

There is an unusual monument in Nesvizh park. A greyhound sits on a stone and carefully looks into the distance. The most interesting thing is that there are no inscriptions on the stone slab, only the date is 1896. Perhaps we will never know for what merits such a memorial was erected to this dog. They say that the dog was the favorite of a rich man and the owner, experiencing the loss of his faithful four-legged friend, decided to at least somehow perpetuate her memory. Looking at this building, you only think about how, it turns out, people know how to appreciate and be grateful for what dogs do for them. And the monument in Nesvizh is not the only proof of this.

Dogs can forgive, but not forget. In Japan, a farmer decided to give a puppy to Professor Hidesaburo Ueno, who worked at the University of Tokyo. The professor gave the puppy the nickname Hachiko (Faithful). The dog lived up to its name. Every day at the same time, the dog went to the bus stop to meet his owner. But one day he didn't come. A man died of a heart attack at the university, but you can't explain it to a dog, you can't tell it. Yes, and Faithful would not understand or would not want to believe it. For several years, until the end of his life, he came to the bus stop every day and waited. He was waiting for his beloved owner to run up to him, hug him, scratch behind his ear and stroke his tummy. But no one ran up, no one called him by name in that native and painfully familiar voice. Verny died in 1935. After his death, the inhabitants of the city collected money and erected a monument on which he also patiently sits and waits for the owner.

There are many monuments dedicated to dogs that have been waiting for their dead owners throughout their lives. This is a monument at the Shabuya station near Tokyo, in Edinburgh to Bobby the Skye Terrier, in the USA, on the river. Missouri - dog Shep, in Krakow - faithful Jack and many others.

In the mountains of Duckstein (Austria), an unexpected snow avalanche overtook 11 schoolchildren and two teachers. Together with a group of rescuers for 96 hours in a row, with short breaks, a specially trained shepherd dog Ajax also worked. The dog tore apart the compressed snow with its paws until it was exhausted. Rescuers carried Ajax to a hut, where she was warmed up and brought back to consciousness. After a short rest, the dog went back to work. With frostbitten, bloody paws, Ajax continued to tear up the snow, helping rescuers find injured children and adults.

Sheepdog named Leo is considered the most famous dog in Holland. She honestly worked at the Amsterdam airport for 9 years. With the help of Leo, customs officers arrested more than 300 people carrying drugs in umbrellas, suitcases, wristwatches, etc. From the luggage, she helped confiscate a total of three tons of hashish, a ton of marijuana, 28 kilograms of heroin and 18 kilograms of cocaine. As a reward, Leo received a state pension, and received a well-deserved rest in a hotel for senior dogs.

In South Africa (Cape Town) in the Central Square of Cape Town, on a small pedestal made of a rock fragment, a monument to the Great Dane, cast in bronze, is erected. His paws have a sailor cap and a collar. The plate reads: "Sailor of the first article Great Dane "Just Nuisance, 1937-1944". The dog was for many years the favorite of the sailors who served at the naval base in Simontown.

There is a monument to the dog Fram, which belonged to the famous polar explorer Georgy Sedov. During a heroic attempt to reach the North Pole, the scientist fell ill with scurvy and died on February 20, 1914. The companions buried their captain and moved on. But Fram did not go with them. He lay down on the owner's grave, and no persuasion, no attempt to take him away had any effect. The dog remained lying on Sedov's grave and died on it.

In Izhevsk, a monument to the astronaut dog, a husky named Zvezdochka, was unveiled. The star is famous for the fact that it was after her flight, which took place on March 25, 1961, that it was decided to send a man into space for the first time.

During the experiment, the husky climbed to a height of about 250 kilometers, spent two hours in orbit and returned safely to Earth. A monument to her was erected on the site where the runway of the Izhevsk airfield used to be and where the capsule with her landed 45 years ago.

In Togliatti for seven years German Shepherd, whose owners died in a car accident, was waiting for them on the side of the road. After the death of a faithful dog, people erected a monument to her, which they dedicated to loyalty. As residents of the city say, in 1995, a young couple died in a car accident on the Southern Highway of Tolyatti. There was a dog with her in the car, which miraculously survived. Since the day of the tragedy, she, apparently hoping that the owners would return, in any weather, all year round, was waiting for them by the side of the road. Faithful, as the people of Togliatti called him, tried to be taken home by compassionate townspeople, but each time he returned to his post. Several times a booth was built for him right by the road, but he ignored the conveniences, getting wet in the rain and freezing in the wind for seven whole years. Probably, when he was dying, he still hoped to see people close to him. After the death of the dog, the townspeople immediately put up a shield by the road with the inscription: "To the dog who taught us love and devotion." Two years after the death of the dog, a bronze pedestal appeared at the intersection, where only two words were written: “Monument of devotion.” 250 thousand rubles were spent on the one and a half meter monument to Verny, which were collected by the whole city. Mounted on a granite pedestal, the statue of a dog was made by the Ulyanovsk sculptor Oleg Klyuyev in such a way that it seems to those passing along the road that the dog turns its head following the passing cars, as if still hoping to see its dead owners. The most difficult, according to Klyuev, was to convey the character faithful dog. According to the author of the sculpture, “everything that I tried to embody in my work was boundless devotion.”

A monument to Bim from the book of the Voronezh writer Gavriil Nikolaevich Troepolsky "White Bim Black Ear" was installed in Voronezh in early 1998. The dog sits right on the sidewalk and waits for its owner.

An unusual monument to a dog, the heroine of I. S. Turgenev's story "Mumu", was recently erected in St. Petersburg. The figures are cast iron. The sculptural composition with Gerasim's boots and a mongrel with a sad look is located at the entrance to the club-cafe "Mumu" on Turgenev Square.

"A dog is a man's best friend!" - this catchphrase from the Soviet film has been relevant for many millennia. Since ancient times, it is dogs that selflessly and faithfully serve man, so people erect monuments to them in gratitude.

To date, similar sculptures have been installed in different countries all over the world. is also a very common occurrence. They are established in honor of dogs with special merits to man and society.

Consider the most famous of them, which always evoke tenderness and deep respect for the most faithful and reliable friends of a person in the audience.

According to the features of their execution, the sculptures are different. In addition, they are made from various kinds materials - bronze and other types of metals. But at the same time, the idea of ​​erecting each monument is based on admiration for four-legged friends and human gratitude to them.

For example, in Paris erected a monument to St. Bernard Barry who saved several dozen people from snowdrifts in the Alpine mountains. In gratitude for this feat, this sculpture was installed in 1989.

In Berlin there is a monument to guide dogs blind people. These dogs are specially trained to help people with handicapped move freely around the city, cross the road and find the way to the house. For this purpose, dogs with a calm character are specially selected, which listen to commands and obediently carry them out.

In Alaska, in the town of Nome, there is also a monument to the dog Balto, erected in honor of the dog team leader who, during a deadly epidemic of diphtheria that broke out in the area in 1925, delivered the necessary medications and thereby saved the lives of many residents of the village. And although this was a rather difficult task, because the nearest settlement was at a distance of more than a thousand kilometers, the dogs coped with it and provided invaluable help to people.

In Russia there is also a monument to the dog, installed on the territory of the Institute of Experimental Medicine near St. Petersburg. However, this monument was erected not in honor of any particular dog, but as a general monument to all dogs that serve science. After all, it is on dogs that scientists test the effect of many drugs before using them to treat people.

Dogs have been helping humans for centuries in many areas of life. For example, in the far north, goods are still transported by dog ​​sleds, because only they can successfully cope with this task in difficult to access areas where there is practically no way for other modes of transport.

In the Italian city of Borgo - San Lorenzo erected a monument to a dog named Fido, who every evening for 14 years went to meet his master by the train, although he had long been dead. People erected a monument to this dog as an example of unparalleled devotion to his master.

BUT in the Scottish city of Edinburgh there is a monument to a dog, which after the death of the owner continued to live on his grave for five years, and died there. All these cases testify to the extreme fidelity of the four-legged friends of man, who continue to retain affection for people even after their death.

There is another modest monument at the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv. And although it is very old, rough and green with time, you can still see the image of a man on the tombstone, and two of his dogs lie on both sides.

Local residents pass this touching story, more like a beautiful legend, by word of mouth. Once the owner of two dogs died, they continued to go to his grave every day, until one day they were found dead, lying on the grave of the deceased owner. Subsequently, caring people erected a common monument to this trinity, and now stone dogs continue to guard the peace of their master in the next world.

Biological experiments, including research on the possibility of flights on geophysical and space rockets of living beings, observation of the behavior of highly organized animals under the conditions of such flights, as well as the study of complex phenomena in near-Earth space, were carried out in different countries.

During the selection of candidates, it was found that outbred and stray dogs, which have passed natural selection in the conditions of the street, are the most suitable among the higher mammals. It was they who, taking into account the serious experience of using dogs as experimental animals in the Soviet Union, became participants in experiments to launch dogs into the upper atmosphere and into space.

The flights of dogs on satellite ships into space were supposed to prove the safety of orbital space flights for humans.

Not all dogs returned safely to Earth. Laika (the first in space, 1957), Chanterelle and Chaika died during rocket takeoff (1960), Bee and Mushka when the system of automatic detonation of the object was triggered (1960).

There are monuments and commemorative signs both to the dead dogs and those who returned safely, and not only in Russia...

Monument to Laika in Moscow

The first dog in space (1957) was a little mongrel Laika. A monument was erected to her in Moscow on Petrovsky-Razumovskaya Alley.

The sculpture was installed on the territory of the State Research Institute of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It was here in 1957 that Laika was prepared for flight into space, knowing that she would not return to earth (Laika died in orbit, a few hours after launch, from overheating) .

The monument is a rocket, turning into a palm, on which Laika proudly stands, it was installed in April 2008.

Prior to that, in Moscow in 1997, a memorial plaque was opened on the building of the laboratory of the GNIII VM, where Laika was being prepared for flight.

The first monument to Laika was erected in Paris in 1958. A granite column was erected in front of the Paris Society for the Protection of Dogs, in honor of the animals that gave their lives in the name of science. Its top is crowned with a satellite directed upwards, from which the muzzle of Laika peeps out. The inscription reads: "In honor of the first living being to reach space."

Laika was also captured in the sculptural group of the monument in honor of the conquerors of space at VDNKh in Moscow.

On the island of Crete (Greece), on the territory of the Museum of Homo Sapiens, next to the memorial signs to Gagarin, Neil Armstrong and the deceased cosmonauts of the Shuttle, Soyuz and Apollo projects, a monument was erected to dogs - Laika, Belka and Strelka.

Monuments to Zvezdochka

In Izhevsk, on March 25, 2006, a monument to the dog-cosmonaut Zvezdochka was unveiled in the park on Molodezhnaya Street. A monument to her was erected on the site where the runway of the Izhevsk airfield used to be and where the capsule with her landed 45 years ago.

The sculpture, about half a meter high and made of metal, engraved the history of the astronaut dog and for the first time inscribed the declassified names of the specialists who paved the way into space (the so-called "Asterisk List" of 50 surnames). The text is duplicated in Braille (for blind people).

Asterisk was the last astronaut dog to return safely to Earth. After her landing on March 25, 1961, the final decision was made on the flight of the first man into space.

There is a monument to Zvezdochka in the Tchaikovsky district of the Perm Territory.

On April 12, 1986, near the landing site of the fifth Vostok satellite ship, on board of which were an astronaut dog named Zvezdochka and a rubber mannequin named Ivan Ivanovich, a monument to the fifth satellite ship of the Vostok series was unveiled. And a few years later, in 2011, the dog Zvezdochka was also immortalized.

Monument to the dog Chernushka

The monument to the dog-cosmonaut Chernushka was erected in December 2012 in the small town of Tatarstan - Zainsk.

A dog named Chernushka on March 9, 1961 visited the orbit of the planet Earth. The capsule with the animal landed near the village of Stary Tokmak. After completing the combat mission and research, the dog was sent to rest. From the laboratory, Chernushka moved to live with one of the professors of the institute, where cosmonauts were made from mongrels. She died a natural death, having lived a long, by dog ​​standards, life ...

Residents of Zainsk are proud of this architectural masterpiece and are happy to show it to the guests of their city.

Monument to Belka and Strelka in Chelyabinsk

The monument to Belka and Strelka was located at the intersection of Elkin, Vorovsky and Timiryazev streets for a long time. In 2012, Belka and Strelka changed their registration. The sculpture in honor of the first flight into space was moved to the territory of one of the schools.

Monument to Belka and Strelka in Lyubertsy

The monument to Belka and Strelka, the legendary dogs that were the first animals to fly into space and safely return to Earth, was opened in June 2017. The sculptural composition appeared on the territory of the Tomilinsky forest park.

The bronze Squirrel and Strelka, according to the author's idea, are made in a cartoon style, so that the monument would primarily appeal to children.

They wanted to erect a monument to Belka and Strelka in Tomilin for a long time. After all, it was here, at the Zvezda scientific enterprise, that spacesuits for dogs and a trolley were made, on which they were rolled into the spacecraft capsule. In addition, according to legend, it was in Tomilin that they found mongrels who became astronauts.

Perhaps these are not all monuments to astronaut dogs. We will be grateful if you share new information in the comments, or leave a link to material on this topic.

The development of the space industry was the hallmark of the USSR, an indicator of the power and progress of the state. Children were brought up in the spirit of patriotism, from an early age imbued with distorted facts of "decency and humanism." The image of the country was above all, for the sake of glorifying the merits of the state and its rulers at the same time, laboratories, engineering bureaus and research centers mercilessly destroyed animals, astronaut dogs were no exception. The study of the process of overloads, vibrations, the state of weightlessness and radiation was carried out on four-legged friends, and the patriotic people shrugged their shoulders, it must be so.

It was not for nothing that dogs were chosen for experimental launches of spacecraft. According to the PR managers of that time, rats, mice and monkeys did not make a proper, positive impression, but it was easy to make a hero out of a best friend and ally.

The selection for preparation for a space career was held exclusively among the "mutts". Pedigree dogs, according to the experimenters, would not have withstood the loads and tests. Exclusively for "practical" reasons, small dogs from shelters, with a light color or white spots, were selected for training. Small because fewer resources are needed to sustain and maintain them. Light color is the key to successful photo shoots, almost all published photos were black and white. The image makers of the country wanted the whole world to know and remember the name of the first astronaut dog and whose “merit” its feat was.

The price of a hero title

Laika is a member of the Sputnik-2 space project, the first dog put into the interplanetary orbit of the Earth. Prior to this, only one launch had been made, an “empty” simplest satellite was launched into orbit. The decision to fly the animal was made just 12 days before the start, it was the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, Khrushchev was in a hurry to spur the world community with a daring breakthrough. Flaws in the calculations and tight deadlines led to overheating and Laika died. The device returned to earth with the lifeless body of a dog, the fact was concealed from the public. On an emergency basis, tests were carried out within the framework of the institute, the result was minus two more lives. After a clear failure, the institute admitted to euthanizing the dog, the real facts of death became known after the completion of the program.

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Squall negative reviews, allegations of cruelty to animals, proposals to send Khrushchev into space and depression scientists who prepared Laika for flight led to the undermining of the authority of the USSR. In order to smooth out the conflict, the Laika brand of cigarettes was released. However, this move was regarded as cynicism.

Chanterelle and Seagull- were supposed to fly on the Sputnik-5-1 apparatus. The destruction of one of the blocks of rockets immediately after the launch, led to a fall and an explosion. Affectionate and trusting Chanterelle was Korolev's favorite, but both dogs died.

Belka and Strelka- a pair of tailed astronauts who managed to return to Earth. The dogs made 17 full revolutions around the Earth, successfully withstood the overload and the effects of radiation. After the flight, the dogs stayed in the design office and died at a ripe old age. One of the Strelka puppies was presented to the Presidential Kennedy family.

Bee and Fly- made a daily flight around the Earth. At the reentry stage, due to a systems failure, the landing trajectory was distorted. The device was destroyed by an automatic system, the animals died.

Zhulka (Comet) and Pearl (Alpha, Joke)- the satellite "Sputnik 7-1" did not go into orbit. The automatic emergency release of the cabin saved the dogs, although they were not found until 3 days later. Zhulka lived 14 years after the flight and became part of the family of one of the institute's doctors.

Nigella- the first dog launched into a single flight, her company was Ivan Ivanovich - a human dummy. The dog was successfully returned to Earth, as was its "guide".

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Asterisk (Luck)- The dog received the "cosmic" name from Gagarin. In company with an experienced Ivan Ivanovich, Luck made one revolution around the Earth and successfully returned home. 18 days after the landing of Zvezdochka, the first, short-term launch of a man into space was made.

Wind and Coal (Snowball)- participated in the preparation of a long-term human space flight, the flight lasted 23 days. The dogs survived, but on landing it was found that the animals had lost their hair, were extremely dehydrated and could not stand on their feet. The employees of the institute, who surrounded the wards with care, quickly put them in order. Dogs lived at the institute until old age and even got offspring.

It is interesting! The general designer, Korolev, was very fond of dogs. Each death was perceived by him as a personal tragedy. During the "non-working" hours, by order of Korolev and the desire of the rest of the employees of the design bureau, the dogs were provided with comfortable living conditions, constant attention and leisure. The dogs were not kept in cages or separate rooms, they had complete freedom of movement and the "internal status" of employees.

Memory for the ages

Successful flights and the tragic fate of dogs riveted the attention of the people and other countries. The whole world immortalized hero dogs in cinema, music and works of literary art, later in cartoons and computer games, their images appeared on brands and company logos. Monuments to cosmonaut dogs were installed on the territory former USSR and several powers that actively followed the research.