A ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s space flight and visit to Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) was held at Russian House in Colombo on a grand scale recently.
The chief guest was State Minister of Skills Development Vocational Education, Research and Innovation, Dr. Seetha Arambepola.
Deputy Head of Mission and Counselor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, Alexey Budanov, State Minister of Education Reforms, Open Universities and Distance Learning Promotion and President of the Sri Lanka–Russia Friendship Society, Susil Premjayantha, Advisor to the Prime Minister and General Secretary of the Sri Lanka–Russia Friendship Society, Dr. Saman Weerasinghe, First Secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Federation and Director of Russian House, Anastasia Khokhlova and CEO, Russian House, Buddhapriya Ramanayaka were also present.
The event was organised by Russian House in partnership with the Sri Lanka-Russia Friendship Society in a collaboration with Anura Samaraweera, Member of the International Association of Philatelic Journalists and Assistant Treasurer of the Philatelic Society of Sri Lanka.
Photographs, newspaper articles and stamps issued to mark Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight in 1961 were on display.
One of the highlights of the ceremony was the presence of Magilin Nona, ‘the girl who garlanded Gagarin in 1961.
She was chosen for this honourable task due to her heroism in saving the lives of several people from drowning when she was a teenager. As she shared her experience of that memorable day 60 years ago.
