The Cosmonautics Day holiday was established in the Soviet Union, a year after the first manned space flight.

Cosmonautics Day (Russia)

Until today the commemoration ceremony on Cosmonautics Day starts in the city of Korolyov, near Gagarin's statue.

This is not just somebody's interpretation, it's our official state position," President Dmitry Medvedev told members of the ISS crew in a radio link-up on April 12 last year, Cosmonautics Day.

Despite having been chosen only second after Gagarin to fly into space, it was Titov who later proposed the Soviet Government regularly celebrate Cosmonautics Day on April 12, the day of Gagarin's flight.

On the Cosmonautics Day in 12 of same month, Putin suggested to name the town that will be built near the cosmodrome after Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, saying that there is not a single locality in Russia that would bear the name of the scientist.