"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
news
The second flight was flown by the son of a famous Russian aero designer,
I
do not recall which. More problems in the return from orbit left him very
severely injured.

Vladimir Ilyushin. The story does that the craft was only supposed to make
one orbit before re-entry. Soemthing went wrong and he ended up doing
three orbits before landing in China.

The "story" was that he was badly injured and spent months in a Chinese
hospital, the craft having come down in China. The unofficial (though it's
all unofficial) story was that he wasn't badly injured at all.
Russian/Chinese
relations weren't the best at the time and it's said he spent the months
(6 months? More?) in a Chinese prison.

Then came Yuri Gagarin, his flight went according to plan and it was
announced as the first human spaceflight afterward.

I'm not saying it happened this way, of course, but it is plausible.
After
all, the Russians didn't announce their flights beforehand, and there's no
reason to keep them secret if you intend to announce your failures anyway.

Paul