A. A. Friedmann (04.06.1888 -- 16.09.1925) proposed the first physical cosmological models in 1920s. Despite the fact that Friedmann's works were very famous soon after their publication, the study of dynamic models of the Universe in the USSR was actually banned in the 30s - 50s of the last century, and Soviet philosophers and propagandists wrote that models of the evolving Universe were invented by Lemaitre on the demand of the Roman Pope, because according to Soviet philosophers such the birth of the universe is very similar to the divine creation of the world described in the Bible. Thus, in the USSR, Friedman's works were in oblivion. Only in 1962, the Soviet Academy of Sciences held a special session dedicated to the 75th anniversary of A. A. Friedmann, P. L. Kapitsa in his speech noted that Friedman's mathematical works allowed us to understand the world in which we live. P. L. Kapitsa said that "... the name of Friedman has been in undeserved oblivion until now. This is unfair and it needs to be corrected. We must perpetuate this name. After all, Friedman is one of the pioneers of Soviet physics, a scientist who made a great contribution to domestic and world science." In 1963 , an article by Ya . B . Zeldovich was published, where he spoke about the significance of Friedman's work for cosmology, and in addition, in 1963 Zeldovich began to mention Gamov's work on the hot Universe model for the first time in Soviet scientific literature. Undoubtedly, the courage and boldness of Zeldovich for such actions were necessary for this, since Gamov was persona non grata for the official Soviet science of that time. We recall development of cosmology in Russia and in particular, achievements of Soviet radio astronomers in CMB studies. We discuss our recent results in gravitation and cosmology.