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The year of 1960 went down in world history as Year of Africa. Seventeen
new states sprang up on the world’s map in one year. One after another
went up flags of independent African countries by the UN headquarters.
The entire world was following the developments on the African continent.
The end of colonial rule was to the credit of the Soviet Union too.
People in Africa believed that the end of colonial rule would spell a new
and happier life. The African enthusiasm was picked up by Radio Moscow,
as it started broadcasting to Africa. The first broadcasts to Africa went
on the air in the late 1950s in English and French. In 1961 Radio Moscow
for the first time spoke in three African languages – Amharic, Swahili
and Hausa. Over time listeners in Africa got a chance to tune in to Radio
Moscow in another 8 African languages.
Indeed, few could believe back then that a space era had set in. Radio
Moscow told the world of the Soviet Union’s first steps in exploring the
outer space. October 1957 marked the arrival into orbit of a Soviet satellite.
Throughout the world the satellite was dubbed the Russian miracle.
A Belgian magazine, for example, wrote that the day was a special one.
People in all corners of the globe tuned in to Radio Moscow their ears
close to their radio sets listening to reports ‘from the skies”. The Russian
word “Sputnik” became international overnight.
On April 12, 1961, the world learned of the first manned spaceflight made
by Yuri Gagarin. That day introduced unexpected changes into the broadcasting
schedule of Radio Moscow’s Arabic Service. Moscow was rejoicing, the streets
were full of festive crowds. Caught in an endless maze of people, employees
of the Arabic Service failed to arrive at work on time and didn’t prepare
the program in time. Thus the world heard Nabikh Rusheidat, a prominent
Syrian public figure and a Radio Moscow announcer in the 1960s, who went
on the air live to tell the listeners of what was happening on the streets
of Moscow on the day of the first manned spaceflight.
Yuri Gagarin had special relations with Radio Moscow. Interpreting for
him at the news conferences was an English Service translator, Boris Belitzky.
Belitzky also interpreted for Gagarin when the he was received by Queen
Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Boris Belitzky always remembered how
Gagarin said on his way to Buckingham Palace: “Forward to the Queen!”
Boris Belitsky was a virtuoso interpreter, and some even say that the Soviet
delegation in Britain was greeted with both “Long Live Gagarin” and “Long
Live Belitzky”.
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