yuri gagarin was born in the village of klushino near gzhatsk (now in smolensk oblast, russia), on 9 march 1934. gzhatsk was renamed gagarin in 1968 in his honour. his parents, alexey ivanovich gagarin and anna timofeyevna gagarina, worked on a collective farm. while manual workers are thought as "peasants," this may be too-simple if applied to his parents — his mother was said to love reading, and his father was a skilled carpenter. yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped raise him while his parents worked. like millions of people in the soviet union, the gagarin family suffered during the nazi invasion in world war ii. his two elder siblings were sent out to nazi germany for slave work in 1943, and did not return until after the war. while a youth, yuri became interested in space and planets, and began to dream about his space tour which would one day become a reality. yuri was thought by his teachers, as smart and hard-working, sometimes mischievous. his mathematics and science teacher had flown in the soviet air forces during the war, which was said to make some impression on young gagarin.