Amid the Cold War’s fierce space race, his triumph wasn’t just a scientific leap; it was a victory for the Communist project, proving its potential to the world.
Gagarin himself tied his achievement to the collective strength of the socialist system:
“I am very happy and extremely grateful to our Party and our government for entrusting me with this flight. I carried out this flight in the name of our country, in the name of the whole heroic Soviet nation, in the name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its Leninist Central Committee.”
Yeah, you raise some really good points. It’s always annoyed me how much the show basically venerates great man theory and, as you said before, is the usual mix of propaganda writing that you’d see on any other Apple TV show. The show otherwise hits all the right notes for me as a fan of harder sci-fi, but as someone who has watched it all, I can tell you the geopolitics don’t get any better.
Season 4 is about mars unionization. Sure you can imagine how they butcher that.