SUMMING UP THE RESULTS OF THE “VOICE OF
RUSSIA”
SPACE QUIZ
The year 2001 has been marked as the 40th anniversary
of man’s first-ever space flight in the history of civilization. The flight
was made by Yury Gagarin of Russia on April 12, 1961.
To honor the event, the Russian state radio company
“The Voice of Russia” has offered an international Space Quiz to its listeners.
The questions of the quiz have been read out in “The Voice of Russia” broadcasts,
and have also been made available on the station’s web site.
Curiously, just two years after Yuri
Gagarin had made his space flight, he visited this station and granted
us a large interview that was broadcast to all of the world nations. During
that visit the world cosmonaut number one wished our first space
quiz every success, and when the quiz was broadcast, it evoked an enthusiastic
response from listeners.
“The Voice of Russia” listeners from 70 countries
have taken part in this space quiz. Listeners began to send in their answers
by E-mail on the next day after the quiz questions had been read out over
the air. In all, 11,000 people have used the Internet, E-mail and the regular
post to respond to the Space Quiz questions. The Panel of judges under
the Russian cosmonaut and Deputy Head of Russia’s Mission Control Centre
Vladimir Solovyov have chosen 1,000 letters in 30 out of the 32 languages
that “The Voice of Russia” beams its programs in. The participants’ ages
range from 7 to 80 years, and they make their home anywhere from Australia
and New Zealand to Liberia, and from Norway to Chile. Very active in answering
the quiz questions have been listeners of “The Voice of Russia” Russian
Service who make their home in the former Soviet republics.
Answers to the quiz questions have been sent in both
by individual listeners and groups of people, such as families, clubs or
classes. A case in point is a letter from a group of students of a technical
school in Santa Fe, Argentina. The school teacher Lilian Orelano arranged
for the group to listen together to “The Voice of Russia” programmes of
the “Russia in Space” series, and then the children tried to give their
answers to the quiz questions and illustrate the answers with what drawings
they could manage.
Some of the participants displayed their creativity
and originality when illustrating their answers. The message of Alina Ignatova,
a schoolgirl from Ukraine, proves that she has excellent taste in art.
A number of listeners from the United States, Germany, Sweden, China and
Vietnam used space-related postage stamps. Istvan Dereky, a songwriter
in Britain, has sent us a CD with a song about Yuri Gagarin and space.
It took him two years to compose the song he himself performs , and the
CD release was timed for the 40th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight.
Pensioner Diego Roig of Spain has added to his answers an animated cartoon
on video and a CD. Geoffrey Lund of Great Britain has included in his message
part of his own translation into English of a book by Yuri Gagarin “The
Way to the Cosmos”. Many participants in “The Voice of Russia” quiz have
sent in the poems they wrote to mark the important event.
This year “The Voice of Russia” received a number
of letters from people in different countries who welcomed Yuri Gagarin
and other Soviet cosmonauts many years ago. These listeners also sent us
photographs showing scenes of welcome. Very often the participants in the
quiz thanked the quiz organizers for an opportunity to share their
reminiscences and learn more details about the space flight of Yuri Gagarin
and other Soviet and Russian cosmonauts.
Here are just a few excerpts from letters received
by “The Voice of Russia”.
Enomoto Takashi of Japan writes that 40 years have
passed since the first successful manned space flight. The century-old
dream of humanity about a space flight came true thanks to Russia’s advanced
technologies in the field of space exploration and thanks to the Russian
people’s efforts to put these technologies into practice. The world shall
never forget Russia’s achievements in space exploration.
Fred Walker of the United States writes about the
space exploration areas that Russia was the first to embark on: “The first
satellite in orbit, the first living creature in orbit, the first human
being in orbit, the first woman in space, the first space walk, the first
device landed on the Moon, and the first device on Mars. You were also
the first in many space technologies. I believe you also were the first
to put people from other countries into orbit.”
“The first human in space (Russian) was Yuri Gagarin”,
writes Alec Azar of Canada. The world, especially the US, knew they couldn’t
build and operate the International Space Station without the Russian experience
from “Salyut” and “Mir”.
“The Voice of Russia” quiz has drawn approval by
and support from this station’s listeners. Lorne Sokoloff, who works for
Space.com, - a commercial advertising company, - has sent in several space
souvenirs, samples of his company products, that he feels could be used
as presents for quiz winners. The editor of a Britain-based English-language
magazine for radio listeners “The Radio Active Magazine” Elena Richards
has published the text and questions of “The Voice of Russia” Space Quiz
in her magazine. The panel of judges express their deep gratitude for Ms.
Richards’ assistance.
All participants in the space quiz will receive beautifully
painted diplomas that
“The Voice of Russia” has had specially designed
and printed for the purpose. The Association of Societies of Friendship
with the Peoples of Foreign Countries, the Moscow International Post Office,
Russia’s Federation of Cosmonautics and the Moscow-based factory “Pobeda”
are some of those who have offered prizes to award the winners.
So, the Space Quiz is over, and the panel of judges
have decided on the winners.
The first prize goes to: Diego Manzanares Roig, pensioner
and former TV cameraman from Cartagena, Spain; George Rothbart, Director,
Software Science Inc., San Rafael, California, USA; Luis Alberto Murillo
Arce, a 14-year schoolboy from Sinsilejo, Colombia.
The second prize has gone to six winners: Thomas
Kuca of Depew, New York State, USA; Ahmad Muhammad Rasul al-Haddad, student
in Aleppo, Syria; Mukund Bhujang, student in Aurangabad, India; a group
of teachers and students of the school named after Maxim Gorky in Lima,
Peru; Alina Ignatova, a school student in Apostolovo, Ukraine, Lee Guoqiang,
businessman in Tianjin,China.
The third prize has gone to the following six winners:
Filippo Ganetti, Professor, University of Pisa, Italy; Branko Jokic, pensioner
in Leskovac, Yugoslavia; Nikolai Prigodich, pensioner in Minsk, Byelorussia;
a group of primary school students in Dobrodzien, Poland; Adriana Bruna
de la Fuente and Joanna Tapia Bruna in La Calera, Chile; Amarjargal, university
student in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Four special prizes have been awarded to: Istvan
Dereky, a songwriter in London, U.K.; Geoffrey Lund in Preston, Lancashire,
U.K.; Howard Tuffrey in Bristol, U.K.; a group of school students in Santa
Fe, Argentina.
We offer all the winners of and participants in the
space quiz our heartiest congratulations!
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