VI World Festival of Youth and Students. The first world festival of youth and students in the USSR (1957)

Spectators of the carnival procession as part of the 19th World Youth Festival greet the Brazilian column. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta

The World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow opened with a carnival procession from Vasilyevsky Descent along the Kremlin, Prechistenskaya, Frunzenskaya and Luzhnetskaya embankments to the Luzhniki stadium, where a festive concert awaited the participants of the procession and guests.

It is expected that 20 thousand people from more than 180 countries will take part in the festival.

The first festival of youth and students was held in Moscow in 1957 and then 34 thousand people from 131 countries of the world took part in it.

We decided to compare these two holidays in our photo essay.

Participants of the festival are sent to the Central Stadium named after V.I. Lenin. British delegation during the festival procession. Moscow, 1957. Photo: Valentin Mastyukov and Alexander Konkov / TASS Newsreel
Spectators. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
A group of delegates from Indonesia and Tunisia among Muscovites at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition during the VI World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow, 1957. Photo: Emmanuil Evzerikhin / TASS
Indian procession column. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
Moscow. August 5, 1957 Performance by artists from Africa on the territory of VDNKh. Moscow, 1957. Photo: Evzerikhin Emmanuil / TASS newsreel
Participants in the carnival procession in Moscow as part of the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
VI World Festival of Youth and Students. Salute to Muscovites. 1957 Photo: Lev Porter / TASS Newsreel
Russian students on the procession. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
Muscovites greet the delegates of Jordan, heading to the Central Stadium named after V.I. Lenin. 1957 Photo: Nikolai Rakhmanov / TASS newsreel
Chinese procession column. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
A Russian student in a Chinese procession column. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
Moscow. Youth International Festival. All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. Hat dance performed by the Vietnamese Dance Ensemble. Moscow, 1957. Photo: Emmanuil Evzerikhin / TASS newsreel
Russian actors in the Japanese procession column. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
Family dance group Guney (Ceylon) in national costumes during a concert on Commune Square. Moscow. July 30, 1957 Photo: P. Lisenkin, Evgeny Shulepov / TASS photo chronicle
A RUDN University student at a concert that began after the procession. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
Participant of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students from Africa on Red Square. Moscow, 1957. Photo: Vasily Egorov / TASS newsreel
A Buryat actor removes a Chinese folk costume after the procession. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta
Bus with actors and a dragon. Photo: Vlad Dokshin / Novaya Gazeta

The publication was prepared as part of the implementation of the cultural research project under the grant of the President of the Russian Federation "The Art of Festive Decoration of the City. History and Modernity".

The era of the thaw showed itself in the festive decoration of the city with a number of interesting artistic phenomena. Excessive massiveness and embellishment of the post-war years gave way to simple, light, functional solutions. Ceremonial portraits are being replaced by decorative panels and thematic compositions, the images on them acquire a more conventional generalized symbolic interpretation. Eclecticism and heavy monumentality disappear, color, a range of pure open tones, acquires great importance. By the end of the 1950s, the first examples of solving design complexes in spatial development appeared, in conjunction with the urban environment and, above all, architectural ensembles. One of the best examples of this approach to decorating the city was the decoration of Moscow in the summer of 1957, during the VI World Festival of Youth and Students.

During the festival, the entire city was turned into a gigantic theater and exhibition space. Picturesque panels, three-dimensional plastic structures, transforming light-kinetic devices decorated the streets, parks and water area of ​​Moscow.

A whole carnival train passed through Moscow, consisting of 120 mobile decorative installations, cargo platforms, multi-colored buses decorated with the festival flower, national flags, colorful ribbons and fresh flowers. This grandiose procession was opened by a motorcycle escort of standard-bearers, carrying azure silk banners with the image of white doves.

When creating the festive decoration of the city, first of all, “branded” festival symbols and emblems were used, which became the leitmotif of the design of the capital. The artist Konstantin Kuzginov designed an emblem that gained worldwide fame: a five-petalled flower - a symbol of the unity of the youth of five continents. Each continent received its own color - red, golden, blue, green and purple. About 300 sketches from all over the Union were submitted to the All-Union competition for the creation of the emblem of the festival. The jury immediately drew attention to the flower, which was simple, but at the same time unique. The fact is that the sketches sent to the competition either repeated the dove of Pablo Picasso, which was a symbol of the first youth festival, or suffered from the complexity of the drawing. The latter was unacceptable, since when the scale was changed, for example, to a badge, the emblem lost its meaning. As reported then in the newspapers, the emblem won the hearts of the participants of the world youth festival. Therefore, in 1958, the Vienna Congress of the World Federation of Democratic Youth announced that Konstantin Kuzginov's chamomile was taken as a permanent basis for all subsequent forums. In an interview, Kuzginov said: “I asked myself: what is a festival? And he answered like this - youth, friendship, peace and life. What more precisely can symbolize all this? Working on sketches of the emblem, I was in the country when flowers were blooming everywhere. The association was born quickly and surprisingly simply. Flower. The core is the globe, and around are 5 petals-continents. The petals frame the blue ball of the Earth, on which the motto of the festival is written: "For Peace and Friendship."
The artists and architects paid special attention to the design of celebration centers - the Luzhniki stadium, VDNKh, the Dynamo stadium, the TsPKiO im. Gorky, squares and embankments. By that time, the trend of external expensive embellishment had already come to naught, new lightweight metal structures, thin shell coatings made of synthetic materials, openwork volumes and planes appeared. All of them have found the widest and most diverse application in decorating the festival capital.

The design of the Moscow boulevard ring on the theme of literary works, author's and folk tales was a striking sight - a lot of carved along the contour, skillfully painted structures, picturesque panels and volumetric decorative installations placed along the pedestrian part of the boulevards.

During the Festival, Manezhnaya Square turned into a kind of "ballroom" and at the same time into a gallery where enlarged copies of drawings by Boris Prorokov and posters on anti-war topics were exhibited. The building of the Moskva Hotel was decorated with a giant decorative panel depicting a woman in a Russian costume holding bread and salt (artist Chingiz Akhmarov).

Architecture of small forms played an important role in the design of city highways. Decorated lanterns united the composition of the festive decoration with rhythmic repetitions and emphasized the perspective of the streets receding into the distance or the closed space of the squares. Numerous stalls, kiosks, tents selling festival souvenirs and carnival attributes entered it as bright colorful spots. Such design was actively included in the spatial solution of highways, organizing it in a new way and bringing it closer to a human scale. Garlands of greenery, balloon arches, illuminated ceilings highlighted the festive zones, which were distinguished by a special richness of decor.

Tverskoy Boulevard was decorated on the theme "Tales of the Peoples of the World" (artists S. Amursky, E. Bragin, I. Derviz, I. Egorkina, I. Lavrova, V. Nikitin). Decorative installations, located on the lawns of the boulevard, illustrated the plots of Russian, French, Chinese fairy tales. Other characters are located on the arches thrown across the alleys of the boulevard.

The Miracle Town, designed by the artist Ida Egorkina on one of the sites on Tverskoy Boulevard, reproduced magical castles from Chinese, Indian and European fairy tales.

"Russian Literature" became the theme of the decoration of the neighboring Suvorovsky Boulevard, it was even called "Book Boulevard" during the festival. At the very beginning, at the Nikitsky Gate, a huge stele in the form of a pile of books was installed, next to it was a panel-diptych "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" (artists A.L. Orlovsky, M.A. Velizheva, E.G. Kozakova). Along the boulevard there were book stalls and huge models of books with illustrations for works of Russian classical literature, high columns made of many volumes (artist G. Tkachev).

Near the university building on the high bank of the Moskva River, a composition by the architect-artist Igor Pokrovsky "The Torch of the Festival" was installed. The constructive solution of the installation was distinguished by simplicity and clarity, and the use of pictorial metaphor made it possible to create an expressive image: the flame of a high torch, as it were, turned into a symbol of peace - a white dove with outstretched wings in flight.

Arbat Square was decorated with an electric fountain designed by architect Nikolai Latyshev (designer T. Komissarov, artists V. Konovalov, T. Mikhailov). A dynamic light cascade of electric light bulbs was crowned with a decorative figure of a dove of peace, the fountain's bowl around the perimeter was decorated with flags of the countries participating in the youth festival. Then it was an innovative solution, which, however, did not receive further development. Only today the idea of ​​an electric fountain as an element of the festive decoration of the city has experienced a rebirth.

Designed by the architect Vadim Makarevich, the design of the Belorussky Station Square was based on the color contrast of the flagpoles, rhythmically located along the perimeter of the square. Masts with multi-colored ribbons and panels converged towards the center - to a dove holding a flower in its beak. Against the background of the dove, the figures of a young man and a girl stood out, greeting the participants of the holiday. The picture is clickable.

The illumination of the Central Telegraph played with the symbols of the Festival - a large festival chamomile and a hand clutching a burning torch in the central part and many small silhouettes of a dove of peace on the side facades.

On the streets of festival Moscow, there were also naturalistic panels made in the old traditions, outdated garlands and patterns, posters with stenciled faces. But the best pictorial solutions showed the ongoing search for expressive means, the interest of artists in the synthesis of decorative elements with architecture.

The festive decoration of Moscow during the days of the Festival transformed the whole city. Trucks and cars painted in the five colors of the festival moved along the streets. Many streets these days have acquired festival names - Peace Street, Friendship Street, Happiness Street, Fifteen Republics Street. Some of them have remained in the urban toponymy.

During demonstrations, mass meetings and sports competitions over the squares and streets of Moscow, in the light of searchlights, huge images of the festival chamomile, the emblem of the Soviet Union and the dove of peace hovered suspended from balloons.

In conclusion, I will show a selection of sketches of the festive decoration of Moscow for the VI World Festival of Youth and Students. Many of them have not been implemented.

10.11.2015

VI World Festival of Youth and Students was held from July 28 to August 11, 1957 in Moscow.

It was the brightest event of the "thaw" era and the largest of all youth festivals. The festival was attended by delegations from 131 countries and 34,000 guests. The slogan of the festival is "For Peace and Friendship". The symbol of the festival was the drawing of the famous French artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) “The Dove of Peace” (a dove with an olive branch in its beak). The delegates represented 5 continents of the globe - Europe, Australia, Asia, America and Africa. The black delegates were mostly from Europe, while the Africans were from Ghana, Liberia and Ethiopia.

In August 1955, active preparations began for the World Youth Forum in the USSR. The preparatory committee and the main headquarters of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students were located at Zubovskaya Square, 3. The shock Komsomol construction began to boil - the construction of the Central Stadium in Luzhniki; all metropolitan students had to work at the impact facility once a week. An important task was set before the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League - to grow 100,000 pigeons in 2 years. Soon the decision of the Moscow City Executive Committee was issued: to bring pigeons to the capital and create the best conditions for them to live. Moscow was supposed to look to foreigners no worse than other European capitals. On Red Square, the townspeople began to distribute envelopes with millet - to feed the pigeons so that they boldly walked along the paving stones. Blue doves inhabited Red Square, Manege, Gorky Street and Pushkinskaya Square. Thus, the dove became a symbol of peace and the youth festival. A pigeon commission was hastily created in Moscow. All factories and plants were involved in the cultivation of white, black and red pigeons. All enterprises received instructions on how to sort chicks and pigeon eggs by color. Moscow has become a "big incubator".

The USSR was quickly embraced by the festival race!

On July 31, 1956, the Lenin Central Stadium in Luzhniki was inaugurated with a capacity of 78,360 seats. On October 10, 1956, the Gorky Automobile Plant produced the first passenger cars of the GAZ-21 Volga brand. Sewing and textile factories sewed souvenir handkerchiefs with beautiful festival symbols. The hotel complex "Tourist" ("Agricultural Street, 17") (1956) and the hotel "Ukraine" ("Kutuzovsky Prospekt, 2/1") (May 25, 1957) were put into operation. In 1957, the Riga Bus Factory produced the first "rafik" - a minibus of the RAF-10 Festival brand. For the first time, Hungarian buses of the Ikarus brand appeared in Moscow. 400 streets, squares and bridges of Moscow were illuminated. Thousands of trees and 10,000 bushes were planted by Komsomol members and youth, 100,000 roses were grown. Only for bouquets participants took 8.000.000 flowers! The famous songs “If only the guys of the whole Earth” (music by V. Solovyov-Sedoy, lyrics by E. Dolmatovsky), “Moscow Dawns” (music by A. Ostrovsky, lyrics by M. Lisyansky), “A guitar is ringing over the river” (music by A. Novikov, lyrics by L. Oshanin) and others. The march “Friends, we are glad to see you” and “Festival Waltz” (music by M. Chistov, lyrics by O. Kornitskaya and N. Khnaev) were published in the Moskovskaya Pravda newspaper. At the very young Central Television of the USSR, which broadcast several hours a day, 3 badges were issued - "Press", "Cinema" and "Radio". There was no "Television" badge, and TV journalists had to work under other people's badges. Thanks to the youth festival, regular broadcasting began at the Central Television of the USSR, a new genre appeared - a television report. The editorial board "Festivalnaya" appeared - later the main edition of programs for youth.

A few days before the festival, many Moscow students received mysterious envelopes in the mail. The envelopes contained multi-colored pictures with unpretentious drawings. At the same time, there was a text application with a request: cut out the pictures with scissors along the contour and paste them in any conspicuous place. The next morning, Moscow was turned into a carnival city!

The opening day of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students came - July 28, 1957. On this sunny morning, millions of Muscovites of all ages took to the streets. The solemn procession of the festival participants began along the Route of Youth from the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition to the Central Lenin Stadium in Luzhniki. At 11:45 at the crossroads of the Yaroslavl Highway and Ostankinskaya Street, sonorous fanfares were heard - 40 people arrived on white motorcycles with blue banners. They were followed by trucks with festival participants from around the world. Thousands of Muscovites greeted the guests with bouquets of flowers and exclamations of "Peace!", "Friendship!". The car march was supposed to cover the distance every minute - in 2 hours, but it dragged on for a long time. There was no trace of the organized movement of the columns - the multi-colored masses of people were seething. Buses with foreign delegations stopped; people came out, held out their hands to each other and looked at each other attentively. For example, one grandmother approached a negro, slobbered her finger and rubbed it over her face to see if it was made up with brown paint. In a closed country, where the word "foreigner" was synonymous with the word "spy", everything changed overnight - the Soviet people saw thousands of guests from all over the world!

The opening of the festival was broadcast live by Central Television and All-Union Radio from more than 100 locations in the capital. The broadcast from Moscow, relayed by aircraft, was first seen live by TV viewers in Smolensk, Kyiv and Minsk. At the same time, the event was filmed in black and white and color film. TV journalists were supposed to speak on-air texts "on a piece of paper", but to the horror of the GosLITO censors, everything did not go according to plan. Leonid Abramovich Zolotarevsky (b. 1930), a correspondent of the Central Television of the USSR, was reporting on the opening of the festival from a residential apartment on the Garden Ring, now a recognized master of domestic television journalism. The young journalist had a strict minute-by-minute schedule for the travel of delegations from different countries. In fact, a real dump reigned on the Garden Ring - for example, instead of the delegation of the Congo, the delegation of Mozambique passed. But Leonid Abramovich did not lose his head and carried out a complete textual improvisation, breaking away from the on-air text of GosLITO.

However, there was an incident that was successfully covered up by the leadership of the CT. A crowd of people stood on the building of the Shcherbakovsky department store on Kolkhoznaya Square, welcoming the guests. Suddenly there was a joyful cry of "Come!". In a single impulse, the crowd jumped to their feet, and ... the roof collapsed - dozens of people fell down. The TV cameras were immediately switched to another location. In a few minutes, columns of foreigners were supposed to pass here. To hide the incident, a police cordon was immediately set up. They began to wait for a message about the number of victims, and after a few hours it turned out - miraculously no one died! After the end of the festival, the ill-fated Shcherbakovsky department store was demolished.

At 15:00 at the Central Lenin Stadium in Luzhniki, the opening ceremony of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students began. A giant bowl was installed, girded with a cloth with the inscribed word "Mir" in Russian, English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese. Members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU appeared in the Central Lodge - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (1894-1971), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bulganin (1895-1975), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov (1881-1969), Secretary Central Committee of the CPSU Nikolai Ilyich Belyaev (1903–1966), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1906–1982), Minister of Defense of the USSR Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (1896–1974), First Secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the CPSU Nikolai Grigorievich Ignatov (1901–1966), first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Oleksiy Illarionovich Kirichenko (1908–1975), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Otto Wilhelmovich Kuusinen (1881–1964), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Andreevich Suslov (1902–1982), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva (1910) –1974) and Chairman of the Committee of Party Control under the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikolai Mikhailovich Shvernik (1888–1970), candidates for members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU – First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan Nuritdin Akramovich Mukhitdinov (1917–2008), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Petr Nikolayevich Pospelov (1898– 1979), First Secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko (1906–1990), First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus Kirill Trofimovich Mazurov (1914–1989), First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia Vasily Pavlovich Mzhavanadze (1902–1988) and Chairman of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers USSR for Foreign Economic Relations Mikhail Georgievich Pervukhin (1904–1978). The leaders of the USSR - guests of honor at the opening ceremony of the festival - were greeted by those present with stormy prolonged applause. On the North and South stands, the roll call of 2 groups of fanfarists began. Then the orchestra began to play, and the head column of standard-bearers entered the stadium. A flurry of cheers swept through the stands. Young men in white tracksuits carried a huge festival emblem in front. The girls carried a 60-meter colored ribbon of yellow, blue, green, orange and red, symbolizing the 5 continents of the world. Then, banners with the emblems of the festival and the flags of the nations floated in the air. The passage of delegations from 131 states, dressed in bright national costumes, began. The participants of the festival lined up on a green field. Then a group of girls - representatives of 15 union republics - went up to the Central Tribune. They presented bouquets of flowers to the leaders of the USSR headed by the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev, the organizers of the festival and heads of delegations. Sergei Kalistratovich Romanovsky (1923–2003), chairman of the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR, made a welcoming speech on behalf of the USSR. Then representatives of youth from 5 continents delivered speeches - Charles Brezland (Australia), Chintamoni Panigrahi (India), Roger Ferreira (Brazil), Comfort Thea (Ghana) and Antoine Aumont (France). Soon, runners with relay baton arrived on the cinder track and handed over the International Friendship Relay to representatives of the International Committee of the Festival to a storm of applause from the stadium. Member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Kliment Voroshilov delivered an introductory speech. His speech ended with a health resort: "For world peace!" Greetings were heard in many languages, and a huge flock of white doves soared into the sky over Luzhniki. On behalf of the International Committee of the Festival, the VI World Festival of Youth and Students was opened by Sergei Romanovsky, Chairman of the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR. There was a solemn fanfare. A white flag with the emblem of the festival was slowly raised to the mast. Over 100,000 people in different languages ​​sang the "Hymn of the Democratic Youth" in unison. Songs of the peoples of the world floated over Luzhniki. Mass performances of athletes and a colorful parade of athletes began. 3,200 boys and girls from the All-Union Voluntary Sports Society "Labor Reserves", the State Central Institute of Physical Culture named after I.V. Stalin (Moscow) and the State Institute of Physical Culture named after P.F. Lesgaft (Leningrad) performed. The opening ceremony ended with a dance suite "Blossom, Our Youth" with the participation of amateur creative teams from the Union republics.

So, the VI World Festival of Youth and Students has solemnly opened! The program of 15 festival days was filled with colorful and unforgettable events.

July 29 (2 day). In the morning, international art competitions solemnly opened in the Great Hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and in the Hall of Columns. Speeches were made at the Moscow Conservatory by WFDY Secretary General Jacques Denis, in the Hall of Columns by Hector del Campo Silva, member of the International Committee of the Festival.

At 11:00 a.m., a philatelic exhibition opened at the Lenin State Library, which featured 400 stands with stamps from around the world.

The International Exhibition of Artistic Photography was opened at the Moscow House of Artists (representatives from about 30 countries took part) and the International Student Club at Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov.

A solemn concert of the Soviet delegation took place at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army. Concerts were held: Bulgarian youth (Sokolniki Park), Egyptian and Romanian youth (Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture), Yugoslav youth (Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory), delegations from Hungary, India and Czechoslovakia (VSHV variety venues). In the morning, on the stage of Pushkinskaya Square, an international concert of delegates from Hungary, Cyprus, North Korea and Uruguay took place. In the evening, art groups and performers from Germany, Spain, Jordan, North Korea and the USSR performed. There were performances by the Romanian puppet theater "Tsenderike", the Polish student satirical theater "Bimbom" and the drama theater of Argentina, circus performances by artists from Poland, China, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and other countries.

Representatives of the Finnish youth delegation visited the workers of the Kalibr plant, and young French chemists visited the Kauchuk plant.

A press conference of the Romanian delegation was held at the Central House of Journalists.

In the evening, the International Encounters Club (“Pushechnaya Street, 4”) opened.

July 30 (3rd day). The International Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts has opened at the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture. A meeting dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the publication in Amsterdam of the works of the Czech humanist educator, writer and public figure Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670) was held at the International Encounter Club. The International Film Festival has opened at the Udarnik cinema. Its program included more than 180 films created by young filmmakers from more than 30 countries.

Opened meetings on professions and hobbies. At the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, there was an exchange of experience between young peasants, farmers and tenants. Amateur photographers met in the House of Scientists, amateur radio enthusiasts met in the Polytechnic Museum, film enthusiasts met in the House of Architects, and aircraft modellers met in the Central Aeroclub named after V.P. Chkalov. Lomonosov Moscow State University opened international seminars for students of agricultural, cinematographic and economic educational institutions.

Sports competitions have begun. Athletes, tennis and volleyball players performed at the capital's stadiums.

The Great International Concert with the participation of the youth of Belgium, India, Morocco and Czechoslovakia took place at the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Education. Concerts were held by youth delegates from Bulgaria (a branch of the State Academic Maly Theater of the USSR) and Great Britain (club "Luch"). More than 40 international and national concerts took place in the Palaces of Culture, in clubs and on open stages.

Actors from Finland performed at the Moscow Academic Theater of Satire. Delegates from France, the Netherlands, Argentina and East Africa showed their creativity in Sokolniki Park. Drama artists from China, Sweden and Chile demonstrated their art in theaters.

About 300 participants took part in the meeting of delegates from Bulgaria and Great Britain. There was an impromptu concert by the choir of Bulgarian girls and the English brass band.

The club on Bersenevskaya embankment hosted an evening dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the 1st World Festival of Youth and Students.

July 31 (day 4). In the morning, representatives of various youth organizations gathered at the International Meeting Club and discussed issues of cooperation and protection of the interests of young people.

A big circus performance was held at the Dynamo stadium. Moscow theaters showed several performances for the festival participants.

The exchange of experiences of young peasants, farmers, tenants, miners and workers in the leather industry continued. A meeting of young railway workers and printers has opened. Film, photo and radio amateurs again came to meetings of interest. Heads of children's institutions in a number of countries discussed issues of education.

The solemn national programs of the DPRK, Poland, the FRG and Yugoslavia were shown. Young performers from Hungary, Great Britain, Italy, China, Mongolia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Bulgaria, Spain, the USSR, Sweden, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Paraguay, Mexico, Norway, Finland, France, Albania, Egypt and Madagascar.

International art competitions continued. Young performers competed in playing the piano, string, wind and folk instruments, singing and dancing. The International Student Club hosted a concert of amateur performances by Chile, West Africa, Hungary, Spain, Syria and other countries. The Leningrad Variety Orchestra performed with a large program.

A meeting of American and Chinese delegations took place at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. At the end there was an impromptu concert. First, the Chinese girls sang a few songs to the accompaniment of a small orchestra, then American jazz performed.

Young Christians met in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (Zagorsk, Moscow Region).

Volleyball players met on the summer grounds of the Dynamo stadium. The Italian team beat the Austrian team 3:0. Basketball players from France, Belgium, Albania, the USSR and other countries competed in Sokolniki.

Participants of the Ukrainian art group performed before the metallurgists of the "Hammer and Sickle" plant. Delegates from Finland, India, Great Britain, France, Syria, Germany and Morocco also came to the plant.

August 1 (5th day). At 10:00 a.m., the cycling race along the Kurkinskaya ring road began. The best time was shown by athletes of the Leningrad Textile Institute named after S. M. Kirov, who covered 99.2 km in 2 hours 31 minutes 58 seconds. In the city of Khimki, Moscow Region, the capital's youth and guests took part in the laying of the Friendship Park.

Solemn national programs of the GDR (Central Theater of the Soviet Army), Egypt (State Academic Theater named after E. B. Vakhtangov), Romania (branch of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of the USSR) and Finland (Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko).

National concerts were performed by the artistic youth of Great Britain, the Netherlands, China, Albania, Mongolia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Norway, Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Canada, Cyprus, North Korea, Tunisia, Czechoslovakia, France, Yugoslavia, the USSR and other countries .

International art competitions continued in the Grand and Small Halls of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the October Hall of the House of Unions, the Central House of Artists, the Moscow State Theater named after Lenin Komsomol, the Moscow State University Club named after M.V. Lomonosov, the Central House of Cinema and the Concert Hall hall named after P. I. Tchaikovsky. International art competitions continued - wind instruments, popular songs, classical singing and more.

The International Student Club hosted a meeting of delegates with famous mathematicians on the topic "Mathematics and its latest applications." Presentations were made by Deputy Director of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the USSR Academy of Sciences Academician Sergei Lvovich Sobolev (1908–1989) and Director of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences Academician Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolyubov (1909–1992). They talked about the problems of machine mathematics and the technology of the future. The International Seminar of Law Students was opened. The meeting was opened by the Secretary of the International Union of Students Alexander Yankov (b. 1924) (Bulgaria). Dmitry Stepanovich Karev, Dean of the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov, greeted the participants of the seminar on behalf of the Soviet students and teachers-lawyers. The first day was dedicated to the discussion of the principles of international law enshrined in the UN Charter.

A meeting of young textile workers was opened under the motto "To live and work in peace and friendship." Shoemakers of the Parizhskaya Kommuna factory were visited by workers from the shoe and leather industries in Italy, France, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Mongolia. The guests visited the shops and talked with the workers. A rally took place in the factory yard.

Young peasants, farmers, tenants, printers and miners held the final meetings for the exchange of experience.

In the VSHV garden, the delegation of Finland received guests from Poland.

Competitions were held in basketball, freestyle wrestling, swimming, table tennis and other sports.

August 2 (6th day). The central event of the day was an evening of solidarity with the youth of colonial countries in Ostankino Park.

Delegates from Bulgaria, Great Britain, Italy, Black Africa and other states discussed the problems of vocational education. Solovyov, Deputy Director of the Moscow Technical School No. 9, introduced the delegates to the history of the development of educational institutions of labor reserves.

The show of solemn national programs continued: young artists of Albania (State Academic Theater named after E. B. Vakhtangov), artists of Bulgaria (branch of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of the USSR), artists of Italy (Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko) and artists of Vietnam (Central Children's Theatre). The national concerts of young performers from China, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Romania, the Netherlands, France, Hungary, Mexico and other countries continued.

An international seminar of students-philologists has opened. The participants were greeted with an opening speech by the prominent Soviet writer Konstantin Aleksandrovich Fedin (1892–1977). The main topic of discussion was tradition and innovation in literature. A meeting of young journalists with the participation of representatives of newspapers, radio and television companies of various directions has opened at the Central House of Journalists.

A meeting of artists from Arab countries and the USSR took place. The guests toured an exhibition of works by polar explorer Igor Pavlovich Ruban (1912-1996).

A meeting of the youth of the countries of the Arab East took place in the House of Scientists. An international seminar was opened with the participation of about 300 students of technical universities. Presentations were made by the Dean of the Hydropower Department of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Professor Teodor Lazarevich Zolotarev (1904–1966) and the Head of the Department of Machine Tools and Automatic Machines of the Moscow Higher Technical School named after N. E. Bauman, Professor Grigor Arutyunovich Shaumyan (1905–1973), Professor from China Shi Ji-Yang and others.

Meetings were held for young teachers, dockers, postal, telegraph and telephone employees, agricultural workers, builders, textile workers and journalists.

Solemn national programs were shown by young performers from the RSFSR (Central Theater of the Soviet Army), Mexico (Central Children's Theater) and Japan (State Academic Theater named after E. B. Vakhtangov). The youth of China, Poland, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Algeria performed with national concerts in clubs, theaters and on stages.

More than 30 meetings of various delegations took place at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.

At the seminar of film workers, an exchange of views took place on the problems of truth in art, the typical and accidental development of film technology. The results of the competition for fiction, popular science and newsreel films, which took place during the seminar, were summed up by the honorary chairman of the jury, the rector of the Prague Academy of Musical Culture, Professor Antonin Brousil (1907–1986). He noted the rapid growth of young film talent not only in Europe and America, but also in many Asian countries.

A group of Austrian delegates visited the Institute of Surgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. The Austrian guests watched the operations performed by the director of the Institute of Surgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Alexander Alexandrovich Vishnevsky (1906-1975) and the head of the surgical department of the Institute of Surgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Nikolai Ivanovich Krakovsky (1903-1976).

The International Encounter Club hosted an evening dedicated to the famous Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778).

The Kremlin hosted the Participants' Ball, where thousands of young men and women had fun until late at night.

August 4 (8th day). In the morning, students from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia performed in the Assembly Hall of the International Student Club. In the afternoon, the students were visited by members of the Chelyuskin expedition - the famous polar explorer, Hero of the Soviet Union Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel (1903–1971), polar aviation navigator Valentin Ivanovich Akkuratov (1909–1993), polar meteorologist Olga Nikolaevna Komova (1902–19??), scientist-oceanologist, doctor of geographical sciences, professor at the department of oceanology of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov Nikolai Nikolaevich Zubov (1885–1960), heads of polar stations on the drifting ice floes of the North Pole Pavel Afanasyevich Gordienko (1913–1982) and Hero of the Soviet Union Evgeny Ivanovich Tolstikov (1913–1987), other polar explorers. The members of the club listened with great attention to the stories of the young scientists-geographers Mikhail Izvekov and Andrey Kapitsa about the work of the expedition of Soviet scientists in the Arctic and Antarctica. The teams of the drifting stations "SP-6" and "SP-7", winterers from the Antarctic village of Mirny sent welcome telegrams to the club. The focus was on a polar bear cub brought to the club by a native inhabitant of the Arctic. Polar explorers gave a bear cub to Chinese friends. The youngest conqueror of Antarctica, a student of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vladimir Igorevich Bardin (1934–1993), presented a photo album with views of Antarctica to representatives of the youth of Norway, the homeland of the outstanding polar explorers Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) and Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930).

Hungarian music performed by the Rechke Folk Instruments Orchestra sounded over Manezhnaya Square. An ensemble of accordionists from the FRG performed classical works by the great German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) on Pushkinskaya Square. More than 60 concerts took place, including 4 gala concerts - from Arab countries, Mongolia, France and Czechoslovakia. Many of them took place in open areas in the presence of thousands of Muscovites spending their day off. A concert of delegates from Indonesia took place at the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture. Muscovites and delegates from Ceylon exchanged addresses, postcards and autographs with each other.

The Gorky Moscow Art Theater hosted an evening of culture of the peoples of Black Africa. It was attended by artists from Senegal, Guinea, Madagascar and Congo. Numerous spectators got acquainted with the musical and choreographic creativity of African peoples.

A meeting of young theater and film artists took place in the House of Journalists. Its participants spoke about the role of art in shaping the moral qualities of the youth of different countries, and touched upon many other issues affecting the youth of art.

The International Seminar for Students of Architectural and Construction Universities has opened. It was attended by delegates from 56 countries. Employees of the Mosgorproekt Institute told the guests about their work. In the afternoon, the participants made an excursion to the South-Western district of Moscow.

Professional meetings of young garment workers, knitters and food industry workers took place.

In the evening, the student club hosted an evening of dancing and humor. Delegates from the GDR, Norway and Paraguay had fun.

For the participants of the festival, a ball was given in the Kremlin - dances, games and songs. The best artistic forces of the capital demonstrated their art. There was a re-performance of the Soviet ballet at the Dynamo stadium.

August 5 (9th day). A meeting of the delegations of the USSR and Yugoslavia took place in one of the Moscow clubs.

At the initiative of the Argentine delegation, a meeting of envoys from Latin America with representatives of the countries participating in the Bandung Conference took place. Statements were made by the delegates of Argentina, Syria, Mexico, Guatemala, Tunisia, India, China, Morocco, Brazil, Viet Nam, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. The meeting of youth from European countries was meaningful. The delegates from Kazakhstan spent several hours interestingly at the meeting with the Chinese delegation. The delegates of Ukraine met with the delegation of Hungary and traditionally presented them with bread and salt. The delegates of Belarus met with the Italian delegation, the delegates of the RSFSR met with guests from Great Britain. In turn, the DPRK delegation invited friends from Black Africa, Syria and Madagascar to visit.

Jordanian envoys visited the V.I. Lenin Museum, the Museum of the Revolution of the USSR, the V.I. Lenin State Library and the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. The delegation in full force visited the Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin and laid a wreath.

A seminar on the peaceful uses of atomic energy has opened at the International Student Club of Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov. Director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR Dmitry Ivanovich Blokhintsev (1908–1979) made a presentation. The participants of the seminar visited the pavilion for peaceful research of nuclear energy at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.

Young workers of the electrical, energy and forest industries, metallurgy and machine builders met. The heads of choirs and puppet theaters met.

Students who studied geography met at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.

The second round of international art competitions has begun. The creative teams of the USSR, Indonesia and North Korea performed.

Young flutists and oboists performed at the Moscow State Theater named after Lenin Komsomol. All 17 Soviet performers on spiritual instruments participated in the 2nd round. The 2nd round of the piano competition took place in the Small Hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. The competition in classical singing of the peoples of the East has ended.

48 films from various countries were shown in the cinemas "Drummer", "Coliseum", "Forum" and "Artistic".

The solemn national program was presented by the delegation of Hungary.

In honor of the festival, the engineer of the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant, Yuly Zyslin, wrote the “Song of Friendship” to the words of the locksmith William Kurguzov. Young electric lamp workers and delegates from the GDR learned it and sang in unison:

Let this song rush into the distance

And it will enter every house.

To fight for peace is our festival

Calling all youth.

In the evening, the Kremlin hosted a reception in honor of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students. About 4,000 people took part in it - statesmen, representatives of public organizations, festival participants, heads of delegations, guests of honor, representatives of the Soviet and foreign press, heads of diplomatic missions and representatives of embassies. The leaders of the USSR were greeted with warm applause: members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (1894-1971), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bulganin (1895-1975), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikolai Ilyich Belyaev (1903-1966), Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (1896–1974), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Otto Wilhelmovich Kuusinen (1881–1964), First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (1895–1978), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, first secretary of the MGK CPSU Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva (1910–1974), candidates for members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU - Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Petr Nikolayevich Pospelov (1898–1979), Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (1904–1980) and Chairman of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for Foreign Economic Relations Mikhail Georgievich Pervukhin (1904–1978).

The first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League Alexander Nikolaevich Shelepin (1918–1994) delivered a welcoming speech. He wished the participants of the festival success in their noble activities for the benefit of peace and friendship. Representatives of the 5 continents of the Earth delivered response speeches: Charles Brezland (Australia), Abbas Usman (Indonesia), Luis Pedro Bonavita (Uruguay), Olu Ogantes (West Africa), Pavlos Vardinoyanis (Greece) and Bruno Bernini (WFDY). The speeches of the guests were met with applause.

Then there was a concert of young artists and artistic groups of the USSR - participants of the festival.

During the reception, thousands of rockets soared into the sky. In different languages, the young men chanted: "Thank you for the warm welcome!" The youth of many countries had fun until late at night in the Kremlin garden.

August 6 (10 day). All the peoples of the Earth celebrated the 12th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Japanese delegates met with the machinist of the 1st article of the Varyag cruiser Stepan Davydovich Krylov (1879–1963). They listened with great attention to the story of an old veteran of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

More than 400 young men and women from the USSR, Japan, India, China, Indonesia, North Korea, Vietnam, France and other countries have come together to express their protest against the atomic war on behalf of the youth of the whole world and demand a ban on atomic and hydrogen weapons. In the evening, a demonstration for peace and friendship took place.

At the International Competition for Composers, the jury summed up the final results. Many works were devoted to international solidarity, youth friendship and the struggle for peace. Gold medals were awarded in the following sections: symphonic works - composers Andrey Yakovlevich Eshpay (1925–2015) and Eino Martinovich Tamberg (1930–2010) (USSR), Mikis Theodorakis (b. 1925) (Greece) and Stanislav Skrovachevsky (b. 1923) ) (Poland); chamber works - a string quartet conducted by the composer Konstantin Agaparonovich Orbelyan (1928–2014); cantata-oratorio works - composer Radu Paladi (1927-2013) (Romania). Also, the Gold Medals were awarded to songs by Soviet composers - Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR Vasily Pavlovich Solovyov-Sedogo (1907-1979), Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR Vano Ilyich Muradeli (1908-1970), Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR Anatoly Nikolaevich Novikov (1896-1984), composers of the socialist countries - Petr Eben (1929-2007) (Czechoslovakia), Mau Ji-Tszen (China) and Ilyan Marinescu (Romania).

The delegation of Romania presented the solemn national program.

A chess match took place between the teams of the Central Research Electrotechnical Laboratory of the USSR Ministry of Power Plants and amateur chess players from Switzerland. The Soviet chess players won the match against the Swiss with a score of 9.1/2:1/2.

Young machine builders - delegates from Finland, Denmark, Holland, France, the GDR and the FRG - visited the Moscow Automobile Plant of Small Cars.

A meeting of young sailors and fishermen was opened. Young painters, sculptors, graphic artists and art critics from almost all countries of the world met in the House of Architects. Philosophy students discussed the problem: "Is it possible to scientifically foresee the phenomena of social life?".

A discussion on the topic "University and Society" was held at the International Student Club. Soviet delegates from 15 union republics met with the youth of India. A cordial meeting was held between the youth of the USSR and the Netherlands.

The First International Gathering of Tourists has opened on Lake Seliger (Kalinin Region).

August 7 (11 day). Pupils of Soviet choreographic schools performed at the International Student Club.

In the club of the Kompressor plant, young men and women of the Kalininsky district of Moscow received young representatives of the people of Black Africa. Many Africans spoke of their discovery of the Soviet Union.

A meeting of young employees of state institutions and leaders of amateur performances took place. An interesting conversation took place among students studying history, archeology and art history. The meetings of the youth of the USSR, Argentina, Bulgaria, the GDR, India, Colombia, China, Mongolia and Syria were bright and interesting. An evening dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of the famous Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) took place.

Students of architectural universities held their seminar in Leningrad. 10 delegates from 55 countries of the world left for 2 days in the "northern capital". The participants of the festival walked along the granite embankments of the Neva, visited the Palace Embankment and Petrodvorets. On the morning of August 7, the delegates visited the new buildings of the Moscow outpost, and with admiration got acquainted with the new high-speed methods of building residential buildings. In the evening, the House of Architects hosted an evening meeting of students and young architects of Leningrad with the participants of the seminar.

About 120,000 people visited the international photography exhibition. Photo art of more than 300 authors from 37 countries of the world was presented. Gold medals were awarded to 6 photographers - Igor Petkov (USSR), Roger Caterino (France), Giuseppe Medera (Italy), Dolph Kruger (Netherlands), Mirjane Knezevic (Yugoslavia) and Chan Loi (Vietnam). 17 participants received silver medals and 25 participants received bronze medals.

August 8 (12 day). The leaders of the French delegation held a press conference. It was attended by representatives of various French organizations participating in the festival, Soviet and French journalists.

The young envoys of peace met with active figures in the international peace movement. The festival participants were visited by the Chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee, Deputy Secretary General of the Union of Writers of the USSR, poet Nikolai Semenovich Tikhonov (1896–1979), member of the World Peace Council, writer Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (1891–1967), executive secretary of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans, Hero of the Soviet Union Alexey Petrovich Maresyev (1916–2001), chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Nikolai of Krutitsy and Kolomna (in the world - Boris Dorofeevich Yarushevich) (1892–1961), president of the English Peace Committee Denis Nowell Pritt (1887–1972), Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet Ran (1902-1963), Canadian Catholic priest and communist James Endicott (1898-1993), Venezuelan poet Carlos Augusto Leon (1914-1997), Chinese poet Amy Xiao (1896-1983) and other figures. Denis Pritt, President of the English Peace Committee, announced the address of prominent public figures present at the meeting to representatives of 5 continents.

The British delegation visited the Moscow First Ball Bearing Plant.

Foreign delegates got acquainted with the Moscow Metro.

2,500 young men and women from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Ceylon, Indonesia and other countries visited the V. I. Lenin House-Museum in Gorki Leninsky, Leninsky District, Moscow Region.

At the All-Union Industrial Exhibition, guests admired the model of the Tu-104 passenger aircraft, a walking excavator and other samples of Soviet technology.

Art competitions closed solemnly. 3.109 boys and girls from 47 countries participated in festival competitions. 280 individual performers and creative teams were awarded gold medals. 376 silver medals and 289 bronze medals were awarded.

There were artistic performances in the national programs of Africa, Yugoslavia, Indonesia and Vietnam. 39 national concerts were presented. Representatives of youth from different countries took part in 6 international concerts.

August 9 (13 day). Laureates of the festival, winners of art competitions, performed at the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of the USSR. The concert was attended by a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Andreevich Suslov (1902–1982), candidates for members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU – Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Petr Nikolaevich Pospelov (1898–1979) and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin (1904– 1980). The choir of Bulgarian girls and the courageous dance of the youths of Macedonia “Oro”, performed by the youth ensemble of Yugoslavia, performed. Koreans performed a girl's song, Chinese girls performed a grandiose Peacock dance, and Ukrainians danced the Hopak fire dance. The young Romanian singer Ladislav Konya performed Igor's aria from Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor". German ballet soloists Heinrich Petzold and Ursula Heinrich danced to the music of Frederic Chopin. Japanese ballerina Kaoru Ishii performed Edvard Grieg's "Anitra's Dance", Japanese singer Takizawa Mieko heartily performed the monologue Cio-Cio-San from Giacomo Puccini's opera of the same name. Leningrad ballet dancers Alla Osipenko and Alexander Gribov talentedly performed "Adagio" from the ballet "The Tale of the Stone Flower" by Sergei Prokofiev. The Romanian dance ensemble "Karapats" performed the "Oltyanskaya Suite".

One of the central events of the festival, the Labor Day, took place at the All-Union Industrial Exhibition. Young employees from more than 20 countries held the third and final day of the meeting. They visited some metropolitan institutions, learned about the working conditions of young Soviet employees and their pay.

More than 100 participants of the festival visited the executive committee of the Moscow City Council. In a conversation with them, the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee, Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrovnikov (1909–1992), spoke about the activities of the Moscow City Council, about the procedure for electing deputies, and answered questions of interest.

This day was the last for professional meetings. 6,500 people took part in 24 professional meetings.

The film festival has ended.

Young workers from many branches of industry and agriculture got acquainted with the life of colleagues from other countries, shared their experience and exchanged opinions. The meetings on professions ended with the meeting of working youth and the Labor Day.

2 international meetings were opened - students of biology and geologists. The only meeting of the festival that did not require the participation of translators was the meeting of Esperantists. Representatives of different nationalities easily communicated with each other in Esperanto and talked about the role of Esperantists in strengthening international relations.

The participants of the festival continued to honor the memory of prominent figures of world artistic culture. There was an evening dedicated to the great Indian writer, poet and thinker Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). His poems were recited in Russian, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. Festival delegates celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

National programs of Algeria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Egypt, North Korea, Latin American countries, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the USSR were performed in the capital's theaters and concert halls.

The International Art Exhibition was held in one of the pavilions of the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture. The exhibition featured paintings by artists from France, Canada, Germany, Egypt, Sudan and other countries. Each author could leave his work in the studio and discuss it with fellow artists. Creative discussions took place daily and were the most interesting in the work of the studio. More than 200 artists, graphic artists and sculptors visited the studio every year.

August 10 (day 14). The last meetings of interest took place in the International Meeting Club. The last meeting was called "See you again".

The students' seminars have finished their work. At one of them, the secretary of the Union of Composers of the USSR, People's Artist of the RSFSR Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904–1987) spoke. The famous composer spoke about the development of musical culture in the USSR. The famous violinist, professor at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, People's Artist of the USSR David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (1908–1974) gave an open lesson and performed several works for violin.

A large group of delegates from Germany visited the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant and got acquainted with its history and production. About 500 festival delegates from New Zealand, Finland, Algeria, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Japan and Nigeria visited the Paris Commune factory.

Boys and girls from Syria, Hungary, Peru and Spain took a walk along the Moscow Canal on the motor ships Soyuz and Mir. In total, more than 15,000 guests from around the world took part in the boat trips.

A grand youth carnival took place in the parks, streets and squares of Moscow.

The foreign delegates were presented with sets of long-playing records and rolls of tapes for tape recorders with recordings of Russian and Soviet songs. The largest delegations received as a gift half a whole film about the festival, which was prepared by the Central Studio of Documentary Films by order of the International Committee of the Festival.

August 11 (15 day). The last day has come. Buses with festival participants from around the world solemnly drove through the streets of Moscow towards Luzhniki. Thousands of Muscovites saw them off along the way.

In the evening, the closing ceremony of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students began at the Central Lenin Stadium in Luzhniki.

Members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU - Secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU Averky Borisovich Aristov (1903-1973) and Mikhail Andreevich Suslov (1902-1982), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, First Secretary of the MGK CPSU Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva (1910-1974), candidates for membership Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia Jan Eduardovich Kalnberzin (1893-1986) and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin (1904-1980). Those gathered in the stands greeted their appearance with prolonged applause.

The combined orchestra of the All-Union Voluntary Sports Society "Labor Reserves" appeared on the emerald field of the stadium. In the center of the field, an unusual tribune was built in the form of a huge festival badge, on which members of the International Committee of the Festival climbed. To the sounds of the march and the applause of the audience, columns of standard bearers appeared. 5 young men carried white banners with the emblem of the festival, then they carried 131 national flags of the countries participating in the festival. The flag-bearers lined up in the center of the field. Thousands of multi-colored balloons that rose above the bowl of the stadium filled the evening sky.

The chairman of the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR Sergei Kalistratovich Romanovsky (1923–2003) delivered a farewell speech. WFDY President Bruno Bernini announced the statement of the International Committee of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship "Strengthen friendship always and everywhere!". The statement was met with applause and attentively listened to. Chairman of the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR Sergei Romanovsky, on behalf of the Soviet youth, delivered a warm farewell speech and declared the VI World Festival of Youth and Students closed. The festival flag was slowly lowered from the tower of the South Stand. The participants unanimously sang the “Hymn of Democratic Youth” in different languages, the last words of which were drowned in applause. Boys and girls of all delegations unanimously chanted 2 Russian words "Peace and Friendship".

A huge white-winged dove soared in the spotlights above the stadium. Suddenly, the searchlights went out, in the dusk a fiery river poured out of the gate and spread across the field. Under the alternating sounds of a waltz by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, fabulous pictures of a fantastic dance arose. The girls were dancing in white outfits with maces scattered with sparks and sparkling sparklers. A blue luminous wave rolled down the rows of the East Stand, and the stadium froze with delight. The tribune flared up with blue, green, lilac, red and violet colors - as if a fairy-tale box with Ural gemstones had opened! To the beat of the music, the athletes changed the flags, illuminated by spotlights, and 3 huge letters lit up - "MIR". The word originated in English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese. A multicolored wave splashed across the podium, leaving the silhouette of a huge dove of peace. And the motto of the festival was lit up - "For peace and friendship!".

An announcer's voice was heard over the stadium: “Dear friends, our holiday is over. Now we invite you to the stadium - to sing, dance and have fun." A farewell festival ball was held on the squares and alleys of Luzhniki, on the embankments of the Moskva River, flooded with festive illumination. A huge festive fireworks bloomed in the sky. Thus ended the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow - the most famous event of the thaw era.

instead of an epilogue.

During the days of the festival, there were some curious cases. A point of public order protection was hastily created with the task of hastily escorting annoying guests. Morally stable Komsomol members were engaged in other delicate tasks. A real sexual revolution happened in the USSR - the appearance of foreigners in Moscow turned the heads of young girls. To combat debauchery in Moscow, motor brigades of Komsomol members were provided with flashlights and hairdressing machines. Komsomol members combed the capital's parks, caught girls, politely apologized to foreigners and almost shaved the girls. After the end of the festival, many girls wore headscarves. In the spring of 1958, young girls appeared on the streets of the capital with baby carriages, in which were lying a variety of babies - black, yellow, cross-eyed, black and the like. They were "festival kids".

After the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in the USSR, the fashion for jeans, sneakers, rock and roll and badminton spread. The musical super hits “Hymn of Democratic Youth”, the song “If only the guys of the whole Earth” and others became popular. At the closing ceremony of the festival, the song "Moscow Nights" (music by V. Solovyov-Sedoy, lyrics by M. Matusovsky) was performed by the actor of the Moscow Art Theater Vladimir Konstantinovich Troshin (1926-2008) and the soloist of the ensemble "Druzhba", a student of the philosophical faculty of the Leningrad State University named after A A. Zhdanova Edita Stanislavovna Piekha (b. 1937). The hit "Moscow Nights" became the hallmark of the USSR for many years. One of the festival competitions became a regular TV show and laid the foundation for the mass distribution of the "Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful" / "KVN". In memory of the Moscow Festival, on December 13, 1957, by a decree of the Moscow City Executive Committee, the streets 1st Meshchanskaya, Bolshaya Alekseevskaya, Bolshaya Rostokinskaya, Troitskoye Highway and part of the Yaroslavl Highway were renamed Prospekt Mira, which became one of the largest highways of the capital. On the wall of house No. 2 on Mira Avenue there is a memorial plaque: "MIRA PROSPECT IS NAMED IN HONOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR PEACE AND IN CONNECTION WITH THE FESTIVAL HELD IN MOSCOW."

The Moscow festival took place in the middle of the “thaw” and was remembered for its atmosphere of freedom and openness. The Moscow Kremlin and the M. Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture were opened for free visiting. Soviet people began to learn to speak and communicate openly. The foreigners who arrived freely communicated with Muscovites - this was not pursued by the KGB. The participants of the festival left Moscow with the brightest and most joyful impressions. For the first time Moscow was wide open for all guests from 5 continents of the Earth.

Kirill Lobanov, member of the Kemerovo regional movement "Veterans of the Komsomol".

The initiator of the first festival, which was held in Prague in 1947, was the World Federation of Democratic Youth - a kind of Komsomol international that united left-wing youth organizations from all over the world.

The Soviet Union supported this event more actively than other countries, which was supposed, among other things, to strengthen support for socialist ideas in different countries of the world. Nevertheless, the first festivals were held not in the USSR, but in the friendly countries of Eastern Europe - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the GDR.

The festival arrived in the USSR only in 1957, at the peak of the Khrushchev thaw and the attempts of the authorities to raise the "Iron Curtain". For the first time in many decades, so many foreigners came to the Soviet Union, not only from ideologically close countries, but also from the British, Americans, Belgians, and French.

The festival lasted only two weeks, but its impact on Soviet society and everyday life can hardly be overestimated. For the first time, Soviet people got the opportunity to freely communicate with foreigners, it is believed that the festival accelerated the course of changes in the Soviet Union, in particular, laid the foundation for a dissident movement in the country, the development of a counterculture. A breach in the Iron Curtain has indeed been pierced.

In subsequent years, the festival was held not only in the countries of the socialist camp, but, for example, in Austria and Finland.

In 1985 the festival returned to the Soviet Union. The holiday was visited by famous personalities: President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch, singer Dean Reed, Bob Dylan, Larisa Dolina, Valery Leontiev, Ekaterina Semenova, Sofia Rotaru, groups "Time Machine" and "Integral", "Earthlings" performed at concert venues, "Flowers", "Gems".

The 1990s were not the best time for the festival movement. The collapse of the socialist camp in Europe greatly influenced the entire "left" movement. With the formal end of the Cold War, fighting "for peace and friendship" seemed to be irrelevant. As a result, only one festival took place in the whole decade - in Havana in 1997.

In the next decade, the political situation in the world changed, and the youth movement became more active. In the "zero" festivals were held in Algiers (2001), Caracas (2005) and Pretoria (2010). The last youth rally at the moment was hosted by Quito, the capital of Ecuador, in 2013.

In October 2017, the festival will again come to Russian soil: this time, the festival will be hosted not by the capital, but by southern Sochi. Among the guests will be representatives of NGOs, young people who have achieved success in science, creativity, sports, pedagogy, IT, politics, the best representatives of students, compatriots and foreigners who are interested in Russian culture.

How the symbol of the Youth Festival has changed in 60 years

Daisy with multi-colored petals became the emblem of the festival in 1957. Over time, she has transformed, but her appearance is still recognizable.

The emblem of the festival in 1957 was chosen by a special commission - an all-Union competition was announced, in which anyone could take part.

"Country" flower

300 sketches that were sent from all over the country made it to the final of the competition, but the jury chose a drawing by Moscow graphic artist Konstantin Kuzginov. In his work, specialists were attracted by a combination of simplicity of execution and uniqueness - an understandable chamomile with multi-colored petals, a globe in the middle and a laconic motto "For Peace and Friendship" perfectly conveyed the idea of ​​the festival, was bright and memorable.

"Working on the sketches of the emblem, I was in the country, when flowers were blooming everywhere. The association was born quickly and surprisingly simply. A flower. The core is the globe, and around are 5 petals-continents," the artist recalled in an interview.

Another advantage of Kuzginov's emblem is that there were no complex details in his chamomile, the presence of which "suffered" in the sketches of competitors. Indeed, if the scale is reduced, for example, on a badge or on a stamp, the meaning of the emblem would be lost.

The flower was so loved by the participants and organizers of the festival that in 1958 the Vienna Congress of the World Federation of Democratic Youth chose Konstantin Kuzginov's chamomile as a permanent emblem for all subsequent events.

At the XII World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1985, the chamomile almost did not change: the same multi-colored petals, only in the core, against the background of a globe, instead of the slogan "For Peace and Friendship" now flaunted the profile of a dove - a symbol of peace.

In October 2017 in Sochi, the five-colored chamomile will again decorate the International Festival of Youth and Students, already the nineteenth in a row. After 60 years, the emblem of the holiday has remained almost the same: a flower, in the center of which a globe and a dove of peace are depicted.

Dove Picasso

In addition to the chamomile emblem, each festival had its own symbol. In 1957, it was a white dove with an olive branch in the beak of the hand of Pablo Picasso. He painted it for the First World Peace Congress, which took place in 1949 in Paris. The artist himself subsequently interpreted the image of a white dove hundreds of times in his works and even named his youngest daughter Paloma (which means "dove" in Spanish). Since then, the dove has become a constant attribute of the youth holiday.

The symbol of the next Youth Festival, held in Moscow in 1985, was Katyusha - a girl in a Russian folk red sundress and a kokoshnik, which was formed by festival chamomile petals. This idea came to the mind of a young artist Mikhail Veremenko six months before the start of the holiday. The author chose the image of a child not by chance: he personified a peaceful future - according to the author, he wrote off the face of Katyusha from his two-year-old niece. In the hands of the girl, the dove, beloved by the whole world, reappeared - a sign that the younger generation will not fight. Katyusha was very popular: wooden, tin, paper dolls were sold everywhere and were in the house of almost every Moscow family, and the name Ekaterina became one of the most popular for newborn girls that year.

The anthem of the festival: "You can't strangle this song, you won't kill it!"

Since 1947, the main song of the World Festival of Youth and Students has been the "Hymn of the Democratic Youth of the World" by Soviet authors Anatoly Novikov and Lev Oshanin.

Anatoly Novikov wrote the music in the mid-1940s, inspired by the news of the execution of students at the University of Athens during the Greek Civil War.

The song was first performed on June 25, 1947 during the opening of the I World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague. The listeners liked it so much that it became a permanent anthem of the forum.

Later, the poet Lev Oshanin recalled: “This hymn is associated with the most powerful experience that can only fall to the lot of a composer or a poet who wrote a song. I remember how in Berlin in 1951 a million people stood at the final meeting of the festival. And when the meeting ended, all this million sang our song in different languages. People threw up their hands, intertwined them, and the square swayed as if in time with the song. Can you imagine what I felt then? It is joyful that there is a song that unites people. "

The text of the anthem very accurately conveyed the spirit and idea of ​​the holiday: it spoke of the desire of young people for peace, recalled the tragic experience of the recent war. The chorus line "You can't strangle this song, you won't kill it!" became winged.

Venue of the Festival

Sochi will be the 17th city to host the Festival. But for the first time in the history of the festival movement, its events will be held, in fact, throughout the country.

The first World Festival of Youth and Students was held in 1947 in Prague. Since then, the holiday has taken place 18 times in different parts of the world, on different continents: in Europe, Africa, South America. Twice festivals were hosted by Moscow, Havana and Berlin, once by Prague, Sofia, Caracas and many other cities.

In 2017, the main venue for the forum will be Sochi, which will bring together about 20,000 guests. The main events of the Festival will take place in the Olympic Park, and the opening and closing ceremonies will take place in the Bolshoi Ice Palace.

Before the official opening of the holiday, the capital will also host a welcoming parade-carnival - students will remember the famous Moscow Festivals of the 57th and 85th years.

For the first time in the history of the World Festival of Youth and Students, in addition to the main program, in 15 cities of Russia there will also be a regional program: two thousand foreigners will be its guests, who will be able to get to know the culture and traditions of the Russian peoples better. Thus, the holiday will cover the country from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, from St. Petersburg to Sevastopol.

The influence of the festival on culture and art

Few cultural events had such an impact on the mood of the Soviet youth of the 50s as the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957. This event opened such young artists as Nani Bregvadze, Edita Piekha, the Festival is mentioned in the film with Lyudmila Gurchenko in the title role "Girl with a Guitar", 125 films from 30 countries of the world were presented in Moscow cinemas in those days, including a Soviet film Alexandra Zarkhi "Height" and the French painting by Jacques-Yves Cousteau "The World of Silence".

The VI Festival of Youth and Students in the USSR significantly influenced the tastes and culture of young people: jazz and rock and roll became popular, a powerful impetus was given to modern painting and sculpture, fashion changed - jeans, banana trousers, sneakers and sneakers came into fashion. The dudes, who had almost disappeared by that time, cheered up. The girls watched very carefully how foreign women were dressed, even sketched models of their dresses and then either sewed similar ones themselves or made orders in the atelier according to these sketches.

In 1985, the Soviet Union was much more integrated into the world culture than in 1957. The festival was attended, in particular, by American rock singer Bob Dylan. True, the audience surprised him a little.

The fact is that he performed as part of the Evening of World Poetry, which was organized by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky the day before the official opening of the festival. The latter recalled that "the evening of poetry was not particularly advertised - on those posters that met in the city, the fact of poetic performances was simply stated, but no names were mentioned." As a result, a half-empty hall, which struck Dylan unpleasantly.

Yevtushenko later recalled that the American singer left the stage "almost in tears", after which Voznesensky "took him to his dacha in Peredelkino, gave him tea, calmed him down."

However, after that there was a Dylan concert in Tbilisi, where he was received enthusiastically.

In those days, German rock musician Udo Lindeberg, Soviet artists Larisa Dolina, Valery Leontiev, Ekaterina Semenova, Mikhail Muromov, the Time Machine and Integral groups performed at Moscow venues in those days. Dozens of dance floors worked in the capital - it was during the days of the holiday that the "disco of the 80s" swept Moscow.

1957 World Festival of Youth and Students

The holiday was held at the peak of the Khrushchev thaw and for the first time in the years of Soviet power was able to lift the "Iron Curtain"

In order to take part in the International Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, 34,000 foreigners from 131 countries of the world came to Moscow.

For the event, they specially came up with an emblem - a flower, the petals of which, according to the author, Moscow graphic artist Konstantin Kuzginov, symbolized five continents. And as a symbol they chose a white dove with an olive branch in its beak - the work of Pablo Picasso.

Moscow, preparing for the festival, has changed. Especially for the holiday, 1st Meshchanskaya Street was renamed Mira Avenue, a luxurious hotel "Ukraine" was opened, Hungarian "Ikaruses" purchased for transporting foreign guests appeared on the streets, a huge stadium was built in Luzhniki, where the grand opening of the festival took place. For the first time in the history of Soviet power, the Kremlin became available for visits, and a ball was organized in the Faceted Chamber.

Foreigners in the USSR ceased to be exotic, already in 1960 the Peoples' Friendship University was founded in Moscow.

It is believed that the festival accelerated the course of changes in the Soviet Union, in particular, laid the foundation for a dissident movement in the country, the development of a counterculture, which was facilitated, among other things, by an exhibition of abstract artists held in the Gorky Park with the participation of the American Jackson Pollock. A breach in the Iron Curtain has been made.

World Festival of Youth and Students 1985

The Moscow Forum in 1985 was the twelfth and the second held in the Soviet Union. In scope, it was inferior to the 1957 forum, but it also became a highlight.

The grand opening of the XII World Festival of Youth and Students took place, as in 1957, at the Luzhniki stadium in the capital. The festival torch was lit from the Eternal Flame near the Kremlin walls by military pilot Ivan Kozhedub, and it was delivered to the stadium by assembly fitter Pavel Ratnikov and the daughter of the first cosmonaut of the planet, Galina Gagarina.

The holiday was held under the slogan "For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship." Compared to the 1957 festival, it turned out to be more representative (157 countries against 131), but less massive - this time 26,000 people came to Moscow, while at the previous festival there were 34,000.

The emblem of the XII WFYS was created back in 1957, a camomile with multi-colored petals, symbolizing the five continents. However, in the heart of the flower, against the background of a globe, instead of the inscription: "For Peace and Friendship," a graphic image of a dove, a symbol of peace, was now placed. The author of the updated emblem was the artist Rafael Masautov. The mascot of the festival was "Katyusha" - a smiling girl in a Russian folk sundress and kokoshnik.

Preparation

Only for the Olympics-80 were prepared with such thoroughness: on the eve of the event, Moscow became a closed city for ordinary citizens who did not have a capital residence permit. It was possible to get here only as part of official delegations. Admissions to the festival events also had a gradation: an ordinary student could only get to general evenings, dance floors, cinemas and lectures in houses of culture. Only selected guests got to the opening and closing ceremonies.

Eight days of friendship

The 1985 festival was shorter than the 1957 festival: only eight days. At this time, Moscow turned into a cultural and sports ground, where concerts of musicians and singers, competitions of athletes and master classes of artists, mass celebrations were held.

In those days, singers Udo Lindenberg, Dean Reed, Valery Leontiev, Larisa Dolina and Ekaterina Semenova, the groups "Integral" and "Time Machine" performed in the capital. World champion Anatoly Karpov and chess players from Hungary, Colombia, Portugal and Czechoslovakia gave a session of simultaneous play on a thousand boards. Numerous meetings of student organizations, seminars, discussions, round tables were organized.

Holiday of Cosmopolitans

Despite the fact that the festival brought together people of different nationalities, beliefs and political views, a very friendly atmosphere reigned at the festival. The playful expression "Peace, friendship, chewing gum!", which was born just at the youth festival, in those days perfectly reflected the mood of its guests.

In 1985, Vladimir Yanis was a student at RUDN and took part in festive performances with a group of classmates from Latin America. He especially remembered the performance at VDNKh: then for the first time he saw his idol - the American singer Dean Reed.

“I remember how he went on stage, tired, a little sad. But suddenly something seemed to light up inside him, and the whole hall was in his power in a moment,” recalls Vladimir. “Those were wonderful days! Then, after the performances , we wandered around Moscow until three in the morning, there were a lot of people in the center, every now and then foreign speech was heard on the street.

There were many famous guests in Moscow in those days. The President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, addressed the participants, and the "Soviet Samantha Smith" - pioneer Katya Lycheva - became the festival's goodwill ambassador.

The closing ceremony of the festival shocked the guests with pomp and scope: dances of several hundred artists, live panels with the symbols of the festival, grandiose fireworks hit the news chronicles of the most famous publications in the world.

After the completion of the main program of the festival, from August 3 to August 16, 1985, the international children's holiday "Salute, peace! Salute, festival!"

World festivals of youth and students as holidays of peace, friendship and freedom were based on the important concept of uniting all youth organizations of the world against war and fascism. This idea is reflected in the visual culture of the festival movement, which has its own history.

The main symbol of the World Festivals of Youth and Students is a camomile with five multicolored petals, a globe and a white dove in the center. This emblem is known all over the world today and continues to be the official symbol of the festival movement.

Few people know that the festival chamomile was born only for the VI World Festival of Youth and Students thanks to the Soviet artist Konstantin Mikhailovich Kuzginov.

The first festivals held in Prague (1947), Budapest (1949), Berlin (1951), Bucharest (1953), Warsaw (1955) had their own symbolism united by a single artistic style. The idea of ​​peace and friendship was expressed very clearly in them - in the images of young boys and girls who hold hands, a white dove soars above them.

A white dove with an olive branch in its beak appeared in the symbolism of festivals thanks to the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1949 and flew around the world. The first version of Picasso's dove, depicted on the poster of the World Peace Congress in Paris, was very different from the one we are used to seeing on badges and postcards. It was a realistic image of a dove with furry legs and no olive branch in its beak, but later this image was supplemented.

Postcard of the I World Festival of Youth and Students, 1947

Picasso loved pigeons, the tradition of depicting these birds came to him from his father. He painted pictures of doves and let little Pablo Picasso paint their paws.

Later, Ilya Ehrenburg recalled his meeting with Pablo Picasso:

“I remember lunch in his studio on the opening day of the Paris Peace Congress. On that day, Pablo had a daughter, whom he named Paloma (in Spanish “paloma” - a dove). There were three of us at the table: Picasso, Paul Eluard and myself. First we talked about pigeons. Pablo told how his father, an artist who often painted pigeons, let the boy finish painting the paws - the paws managed to get tired of his father. Then they started talking about pigeons in general; Picasso loves them, always keeps them in the house; laughing, he said that doves are greedy and pugnacious birds, it is not clear why they were made a symbol of peace. And then Picasso went to his doves, showed a hundred drawings for a poster - he knew that his bird would fly around the world”.

(from the book by Ilya Ehrenburg “People, Years, Life”. In 3 volumes. M .: Text, 2005).

Perhaps Picasso himself did not know what significance his image of a dove would have for the festival movement in the world, but in the same year the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts awarded Picasso's "Dove" with a commemorative Pennel medal.

Pablo Picasso. Poster for the First World Peace Congress in Paris, January 1949

In 1957, before the festival, according to tradition, an All-Union competition was announced for the creation of the emblem of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. More than 300 sketches were submitted for the competition, including a camomile with five petals by the artist Konstantin Mikhailovich Kuzginov. By that time he had experience in creating such materials - he made a number of posters that decorated the festivals of Budapest and Berlin in 1949 and 1951.

In one of the interviews, Lyubov Borisova, daughter of K.M. Kuzginova, told how her father came up with the idea of ​​creating a festival emblem:

“I asked myself: what is a festival? And he answered like this - youth, friendship, peace and life. What more precisely can symbolize all this? Working on sketches of the emblem, I was in the country when flowers were blooming everywhere. The association was born quickly and surprisingly simply. Flower. The core is the globe, and around are 5 petals-continents. The petals frame the blue ball of the Earth, on which the motto of the festival is written: “For Peace and Friendship”“ (from an interview with Lyubov Borisova on the official website of the XIX WFYS 2017 http://www.russia2017.com/posts/18).

Daisy immediately attracted the jury with its simplicity and at the same time the deep idea that it carried in itself - the winner was determined fairly quickly.

It was difficult to come up with such a concise symbol of the festival, so in 1958 the Vienna Congress of the World Federation of Democratic Youth decided to take the camomile as the basis for all subsequent festival emblems.

Later, for the 12th festival in 1985, the camomile was supplemented with a graphically stylized image of a dove, the very dove of Picasso. The author of the updated version of the festival chamomile was the Soviet artist Rafael Masautov.

Emblems of the World Festivals of Youth and Students 1957, 1985 and 2017

In 1957, at the opening ceremony, thousands of girls and boys created a bright background of the festival chamomile, then the new festival symbol was presented to the whole world for the first time. A whole collection of bright postcards with a festival chamomile dedicated to the first festival in the USSR was invented.

Photos of postcards were sent by participants of the All-Russian action “Diaries of the World Festival of Youth and Students - Moscow, 1957, 1985”

Festival symbols were also harmoniously integrated into elements of urban decor, into pictograms, signs, printed posters, which created an atmosphere of a holiday, unlimited free communication at the festivals of 1957 and 1985.

Solemn procession on the opening day of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students, Moscow 1957. Photo from pastvu.com

By the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985, elements of Olympic symbols were still recognizable in decorated Moscow, but the Olympic bears in shop windows had already been replaced by colorful souvenir dolls in sundresses and kokoshniks.

The multi-colored chamomile at the XII World Festival of Youth and Students was supplemented by another symbol that was loved and remembered by everyone. The image of the girl Katyusha in a bright red sundress and kokoshnik. The kokoshnik, as conceived by the author of the emblem, resembled the same festival chamomile of 1957, which perfectly suited the Russian folk costume of Katyusha.

In an interview with the Russian State Library for Youth, Mikhail Veremenko recalled how Katyusha's idea came about:

“I went home, I was sitting on the bus, and suddenly the song “Katyusha” began to play on the driver. I thought, wow, what an interesting idea, because the song is known all over the world. It is performed in English, Japanese, Chinese, and no one has tried to create this image. And suddenly I immediately had an idea in my head to turn this festival chamomile into a Russian kokoshnik. And then everything was already simple, I came home and began to draw. I drew the head, drew the kokoshnik, it was put together very well. Well, the kokoshnik suggests a Russian sundress, and at the bottom along the hem the inscription should be - “XIIMoscow 1985”. I decided to put my hands on my chest, let her hold a dove. The dove is a symbol of peace, everything is very suitable for the festival. I called the festival committee, arrived, they say: “This is probably what we need.” And we began to develop this image further.”

The image of Katyusha contained a deep idea, she was bright, understandable and close to everyone, so she was quickly picked up by ensembles, school circles and art workshops.

In addition, this image was very suitable from an artistic and design point of view for creating festival badges, beautiful souvenir dolls, posters with her image, postcards, stamps, etc.

One of the concert performances of the festival program of the XII World Youth Festivaland students, Moscow 1985

For the 1985 festival, 500 picturesque panels, 450 text slogans and appeals with festival symbols, hundreds of flag compositions, 129 dynamic lighting installations were made. Festive decorations looked especially impressive in the evening light design.