

Tereshkova made history in 1963 as the pilot of Vostok 6 by becoming the first woman in space. The photographs contained within this album include a number of portraits of Tereshkova, in addition to photographs of Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Fidel Castro, fellow cosmonauts Bykovsky, Titov, and Nikolayev, and photographs documenting her reception back on earth. The handwritten captions accompanying each photograph often emphasize traditional notions of womanhood, for example "A bouquet of flowers is the best gift for a woman!" or "The tenderness of motherhood".