Soviet Star is Launched: Space Propaganda
- Jee Efraimidou
- Mar 27
- 2 min read
Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963, flying 48 times in low-Earth orbit on the Vostok 6 manned spacecraft. The world audience greeted her with admiration under impression of the victory of socialism and gender equality, but this event can only be assessed as such from a superficial level.
Before her remarkable conquest of space, Valentina worked in a textile factory and was also a parachutist, as you can understand, she had no professional experience as a pilot. Sending a woman into space was a symbolic step by the ruling structures, rather than a practical introduction and normalization of gender equality in the field of space development and exploration. The Soviet Union needed this step to project the superiority of its own ideology and the level of development of society in a competitive battle with the United States during the Cold War (S. Gerovitch, 2014).
Even despite a long and intensive training course, Tereshkova faced several problems during her flight, such as difficulties in communicating with the Earth station, as well as technical problems during her return to orbit, but state censorship covered up this information so as not to spoil its reputation in pursuit of achieving the championship. They were not interested in meeting all the necessary criteria for the safety of a space flight, just as they were not concerned about the fate of the cosmonaut herself. Valentina was used to obtain the very fact that they were able to send “even” a woman into space.
It was Tereshkova's first and only time in space, but she became an influential political figure. Academics have noticed that she is more like another woman symbolically exploited by the state machine, rather than a figure of empowerment. She is not an autonomous individual, primarily a woman who has achieved recognition of her agency, but rather another flower in a bouquet of propaganda to maintain the image of the regime (Matthew Wills, 2018).
Valentina Tereshkova is an example of how unprecedented cases that convey the seemingly feminine independence and solidarity of society can be constructed models that are used by government forces for personal gain. She opened space for women symbolically, not as an institutionalized legal act of freedom.
Bibliography:
1963: Vostok 6 (USSR). (2008). International Astronautical Federation. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWECFrhBzBI [Accessed 27 Mar. 2025].
S. Gerovitch (2014). Voices of the Soviet Space Program. Springer.
Matthew Wills (2018). Valentina Tereshkova and the American Imagination | JSTOR Daily. [online] JSTOR Daily. Available at: https://daily.jstor.org/cosmonaut-valentina-tereshkova-and-the-american-imagination/.
1977: Tonight: Valentina Tereshkova. (2021). BBC Archive. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3899161060181413 [Accessed 25 Mar. 2025].
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