Yuri Gagarin. Most people may not be too familiar with this Russian astronaut who actually died many years back. But just in case today if you’ve been to Twitter then you might have noticed that Yuri Gagarin is one of the trending topics on the microblogging website. Today Gagarin would not have been trending if he had not been a Russian. He is bearing the brunt of his Russian identity as the world turns his back against Russia for invading Ukraine.
Firstly, a little introduction on Yuri Gagarin and why he became so famous.
Yuri Gagarin was a Russian astronaut who achieved a worldwide fame in 1961 after he successfully orbited earth. By achieving this milestone Gagarin became the first human being to travel deep into the space and instantly achieved international celebrity status. Back in Russia he won many accolades including Soviet union’s highest civilian award.
He was widely credited for helping Russia to leapfrog the U.S. in the space war.
But why is Gagarin trending on Twitter
Well, Gagarin became a trending topic on Twitter on Sunday after several media reported that a space conference held in the name of Yuri Gagarin has been renamed simply because he was a Russian. This space conference has been organized by a prominent U.S. based non-profit space organization.
In a note uploaded on the organization’s official website, it said “in light of current world events, the 2022 space foundation Yuri’s Night is renamed ‘A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next.”
After this news started spreading on the internet netizens on Twitter began giving their reaction. Going by the Tweets, most netizens did not react favorably to this news. Most people were of the opinion that Gagarin was made to pay for the deed of Vladmir Putin.
Many other also argued that such arbitrary actions did not help Ukraine and brought bad name for America’s liberal and democratic values.
Shared below are some of the best tweets from the trending topic ‘Yuri Gagarin’
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