At the plenum of the Central Committee of the Komsomol on December 27, 1965, Yuri Gagarin, known as the "Komsomolets No. 1" of the Soviet Union and the first cosmonaut, expressed concern about the lack of respect for the heroic past and the preservation of monuments. He noted that the Triumphal Arch of 1812 in Moscow had been demolished and not restored, as well as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, built with funds collected from across the country in honor of the victory over Napoleon. Gagarin questioned whether the name of this monument overshadowed its patriotic essence and emphasized that, unfortunately, there are many examples of barbaric attitudes towards monuments of the past.

The reason Gagarin spoke about the monuments of the Patriotic War of 1812 is obvious. Born in Gzhatsk, on the Old Smolensk Road, he perceived the memory of those events as a personal heritage. His younger daughter Galina recalled that the Borodino field was particularly important to her father. They visited this place several times on their way to Gzhatsk, and there Gagarin told her about the War of 1812, the glory of Russian arms, and the valor of the defenders of the Motherland. On the way to Borodino, he sang her the song "Tell me, uncle, was it not in vain...".

These memories shed light on Gagarin's spiritual life and national-historical consciousness. In 1964, according to cosmonaut Valentin Petrov, they visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for Gagarin's thirtieth birthday. In the church-archaeological cabinet, they were shown a model of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and its beauty made a huge impression on Yuri Alekseyevich. He told Petrov: "Valentin, look at the beauty that has been destroyed!" The use of the theme of the Triumphal Arch to discuss the restoration of the cathedral was a personal and deeply considered decision for Gagarin.