p I realise that on this happy day what I am going to say will sound badly out of tune. But how can I help it? At my advanced age and with my somewhat conservative cast of 120 mind I imagined, until a few days ago, that we, men, were the “rulers of the minds”, the fighters, and altogether the salt of the earth in this sublunary world of ours.

p And what do we have now? A woman in space! It’s inconceivable, whatever you say. It goes contrary to all my settled views on the world and its possibilities. I’d gladly hug Valery Bykovsky for his feat, after all he was born a man to perform feats. But it’s quite another matter with Valentina Tereshkova.

p She is receiving thousands of proposals, and I, who have been bearing the cross of matrimony for forty years, can offer her neither my heart nor my hand, and all I can do is embrace her with fatherly affection and wish her the best of everything in life. It goes without saying that I also embrace Valery Bykovsky.

1963