RUSSIA paid tribute to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin today with ceremonies in St Petersburg and other cities to mark the 60th anniversary of the first human flight into space.

President Vladimir Putin travelled to the southern city of Engels, the site of Colonel Gagarin’s landing, where a memorial stands in honour of the historic space mission.

His spokesman said the anniversary is a “day of national pride for Russia.”

Col Gagarin’s successful mission turned him into a global hero, with millions of people lining the streets in Moscow to catch a glimpse of him after his return from space. He was seen as the iconic image of the Soviet Union, showing what those from humble backgrounds could achieve.

Col Gagarin’s parents were workers on a collective farm near the western Russian city of Smolensk, and he initially worked at a steel plant before joining the Soviet Air Force.

Selected for cosmonaut training, on April 12 1961 he became the first person in space, completing a 108-minute single-orbit mission in the Vostok 1.

Col Gagarin is reported to have said: “I looked and looked but I didn’t see God” after the mission.

He died in 1968 in a training jet crash.