Every year as the anniversary of the first human spaceflight approaches, I receive calls inquiring about the validity of Yuri Gagarin’s claim as the first human in space. The legitimate questions focus on the fact that Gagarin did not land inside his spacecraft.
Kinda sums up the Soviet space program perfectly. NASA spent millions to make a pen that worked in space, the Soviets just brought a pencil.
That did not happen.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-write-stuff/
Graphite dust is a bitch in zero G