The origin of cosmic rays (Forty years later)

Forty years ago the author published in “Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk” the article “The origin of cosmic rays and radioastronomy”. In it the galactic model of the origin of cosmic rays was developed. With this was associated the assumption of the small intensity of cosmic rays in the Metagalaxy. Such an assumption indicating the lack of validity of metagalactic models of the origin of cosmic rays has been confirmed only very recently. This has been accomplished with the aid of measurements on the gamma-observatory of the flux of gamma rays from the Magellanic Clouds. In this article the corresponding results are quoted and discussed.