There was also another issue - Gagarin did not land with the capsule, but ejected during the landing as expected & both the and the capsule landed under (separate) parachutes. This was because the capsule landing speed was higher than what could be achieved if only the kosmonaut parachuted down, making the landing safer.
But the FAI guidelines for for space records at the time were based on normal aircraft flights & expected the crew to board the craft & only disembark on landing.
Also the orbital booster used (R7) was also still an active ICBM (even sometimes holding combat readiness with a live nuke on top on the same launch pad) so that was IIRC secret as well. :)
But the FAI guidelines for for space records at the time were based on normal aircraft flights & expected the crew to board the craft & only disembark on landing.
So soviets just lied about Gagarin landing with the capsule up until 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_1#World_records
Also the orbital booster used (R7) was also still an active ICBM (even sometimes holding combat readiness with a live nuke on top on the same launch pad) so that was IIRC secret as well. :)