Twenty cosmonaut candidates were selected from an initial pool of almost 3,500 military pilots, beginning training in spring 1960.
Sources
- How Yuri Gagarin Was Picked to Be First in Space (smithsonianmag.com)
- https://www.amazon.com/First-Soviet-Cosmonaut-Team-Legacies/dp/0387848231 (amazon.com)
- https://nasa.gov/history/60-years-ago-soviets-select-their-first-cosmonauts (nasa.gov)
- https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/declassified-sources-gagarin (russiamatters.org)
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