Festival of Youth and Students of the USSR. Bullshit

A real holiday of peace, friendship and freedom, surprising in its scale and unusually bright program, brought together more than 34 thousand guests from 131 countries of the world at its venues in Moscow. It was the most memorable holiday in the entire history of the festival movement.

Aleksey Kozlov, a participant in the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow, who later became a famous musician and jazzman, vividly wrote about the atmosphere of the festival and the bright events of those days in his book of memoirs “Goat on the Sax”:

“The atmosphere of the festival, despite its strictly prescribed regulations, turned out to be light and relaxed. The enthusiasm was genuine, everything was tied to the slogan “Peace and Friendship”, music and songs specially prepared for this event were heard from loudspeakers everywhere, such as “We are all for peace, the peoples take an oath..." or "If only the boys of the whole Earth..." All of Moscow was covered with emblems, posters, slogans, images of Pablo Picasso's Dove of Peace, garlands, illumination. The festival consisted of a huge number of planned events of various types and simple unorganized and uncontrolled communication of people on the streets in the center of Moscow and in the areas where the guests were accommodated."

Video from the opening of the 1957 World Festival of Youth and Students

The VI World Festival of Youth and Students was held at the height of the thaw; it opened a new page in the history of the country, whose memorial dates at that time were still permeated with the echo of the Second World War.

It was in the difficult post-war period that the history of the World Festivals of Youth and Students began - then the World Conference of Democratic Youth for Peace was held for the first time in London in 1945, and as a result the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFYD) was created.

A solemn procession on the opening day of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow, July 28, 1957. Photo from the festival archive

Later, in 1946, the 1st World Congress of Students took place in Prague, at which the International Union of Students (ISU) was created. Both organizations proclaimed their goal to be the struggle for peace against fascism and colonialism, for the rights of youth and democratic educational reform. They were the main organizers of the World Festivals of Youth and Students for many years.

The idea of ​​holding the first World Festival of Youth and Students in Paris was adopted at a session of the Council of the World Federation of Democratic Youth in 1946, exactly at the time when W. Churchill gave his speech in Fulton about the beginning of the Cold War.

However, this was not accidental: it was in Czechoslovakia in 1939 that thousands of students and teachers took part in a demonstration against the occupation of the country by the troops of the Third Reich. As a result, 1,850 students were arrested, 1,200 of them were subsequently sent to concentration camps, and all higher education institutions were closed.

Parade of participants of the 1st World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague in 1947

Despite massive restrictions and bans on participation in the festival for young people, more than 17 thousand representatives from 71 countries took part in the First World Festival, and every year the festival gained momentum, uniting an increasing number of young people from different parts of the world.

On the eve of the holiday, delegates of the first festival helped restore destroyed Czechoslovak cities, the Yugoslav railway, and laid flowers on the graves of Soviet soldiers who died in the battles for Czechoslovakia.

On July 25, 1947, the grand opening of the festival took place at the Strahov stadium to the anthem of the Democratic Youth, written by the Soviet poet Lev Oshanin to the music of Anatoly Novikov.

At one of the concerts on the territory of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition during the festival. Moscow, 1957

In subsequent years, festivals were held every two years in the capitals of Eastern Europe: Budapest (1949), Berlin (1951), Bucharest (1953), Warsaw (1955). At the V Festival in Warsaw, the festival acquired its own slogan: “For peace and friendship.” It reflected the desire to unite all youth organizations in the world and faith in the reconciling power of friendship, which can tame any wars.

In other countries, the slogan was later clarified and supplemented, for example, in Sofia (IX Festival, 1968) it was: “For solidarity, peace and friendship!”, “For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship!” - this was the slogan of the festivals in Berlin (X Festival, 1973), Havana (XI Festival, 1978) and Moscow (XII Festival, 1985).

Badges with the emblems of the VI and VII World Festival of Youth and Students

In addition to the memorable slogan “For Peace and Friendship” on bright badges, postcards and souvenirs, the 1957 festival remains in the memory of Moscow today - Prospekt Mira street, named so in the year of the festival, Festivalnaya Street, along which you can drive to Friendship Park, planted specially for the 1957 festival. On the opening day of the park, more than 5,000 guests planted prepared seedlings. This joint action was repeated during the XII World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985, which was hosted by Moscow for the second time.

Joint planting of seedlings with foreign delegates at the VI World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow, 1957

The 1957 festival produced many famous songs. At the closing ceremony, the song “Moscow Evenings” was performed for the first time by Vladimir Troshin and Edita Piekha; it became a kind of anthem of the festival and thanks to it gained fame throughout the world.

Original taken from mgsupgs at Festival 1957

VI World Festival of Youth and Students - a festival that opened on July 28, 1957 in Moscow,
Personally, I didn’t even find it in the project, but in the next 85 years I got a full measure.
Someday I’ll post a photo... “Yankees out of Grenada - Commies out of Afghanistan”... They used posters to hide from the cameras..
And the guests of that festival were 34,000 people from 131 countries. The slogan of the festival is “For peace and friendship.”

The festival was prepared over two years. This was an action planned by the authorities to “liberate” the people from Stalinist ideology. Foreign countries arrived in shock: the Iron Curtain was opening! The idea of ​​the Moscow festival was supported by many Western statesmen - even Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, politicians from Greece, Italy, Finland, France, not to mention the pro-Soviet presidents of Egypt, Indonesia, Syria, the leaders of Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal and Ceylon.

Thanks to the festival, the capital received the Druzhba park in Khimki, the Tourist hotel complex, the Luzhniki stadium and Ikarus buses. The first GAZ-21 Volga cars and the first Rafik, the RAF-10 Festival minibus, were produced for the event. The Kremlin, guarded day and night from enemies and friends, became completely free for visits, and youth balls were held in the Palace of Facets. The Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure suddenly canceled the entrance fee.

The festival consisted of a huge number of planned events and unorganized and uncontrolled communication between people. Black Africa was especially favored. Journalists rushed to the black envoys of Ghana, Ethiopia, Liberia (then these countries had just freed themselves from colonial dependence), and Moscow girls also rushed to them “in an international impulse.” Arabs were also singled out because Egypt had just gained national freedom after the war.

Thanks to the festival, KVN arose, transformed from the specially invented program “An Evening of Fun Questions” by the TV editorial office “Festivalnaya”. They discussed about the recently banned impressionists, about Ciurlionis, Hemingway and Remarque, Yesenin and Zoshchenko, about Ilya Glazunov, who was coming into fashion, with his illustrations for works of Dostoevsky, who was not entirely desirable in the USSR. The festival changed the views of Soviet people on fashion, behavior, lifestyle and accelerated the pace of change. Khrushchev’s “thaw”, the dissident movement, a breakthrough in literature and painting - all this began soon after the festival.

The symbol of the youth forum, which was attended by delegates from left-wing youth organizations around the world, was the Dove of Peace, invented by Pablo Picasso. The festival became in every sense a significant and explosive event for boys and girls - and the most widespread in its history. It took place in the middle of Khrushchev's thaw and was remembered for its openness. Foreigners who arrived communicated freely with Muscovites; this was not persecuted. The Moscow Kremlin and Gorky Park were open to the public. Over the two weeks of the festival, over eight hundred events were held.

In the main event - the rally "For Peace and Friendship!" Half a million people took part on Manezhnaya Square and surrounding streets.
For two weeks there was mass fraternization on the streets and in parks. Pre-arranged regulations were violated, events dragged on past midnight and smoothly turned into festivities until dawn.

Those who knew languages ​​rejoiced at the opportunity to show off their erudition and talk about the recently banned impressionists, Hemingway and Remarque. The guests were shocked by the erudition of their interlocutors, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, and the young Soviet intellectuals were shocked by the fact that foreigners did not value the happiness of freely reading any authors and knew nothing about them.

Some people got by with a minimum of words. A year later, a lot of dark-skinned children appeared in Moscow, who were called “children of the festival.” Their mothers were not sent to camps “for having sex with a foreigner,” as would have happened recently.

The ensemble “Friendship” and Edita Piekha with the program “Songs of the Peoples of the World” won a gold medal and the title of festival laureates. The song “Moscow Nights” performed at the closing ceremony, performed by Vladimir Troshin and Edita Piekha, became the calling card of the USSR for a long time.
Fashion for jeans, sneakers, rock and roll and badminton began to spread in the country. The musical superhits “Rock around the clock”, “Anthem of Democratic Youth”, “If only the boys of the whole Earth...” and others became popular.

The feature film “Girl with a Guitar” is dedicated to the festival: in the music store where saleswoman Tanya Fedosova (Spanish Lyudmila Gurchenko) works, preparations for the festival are underway, and at the end of the film, the festival delegates perform at a concert in the store (Tanya also performs with some of them) . Other films dedicated to the festival are “The Sailor from the Comet”, “Chain Reaction”, “The Road to Paradise”.

“Ogonyok”, 1957, No. 1, January.
“The year 1957 has arrived, a festival year. Let's take a look at what will happen in Moscow at the VI World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship, and visit those who are preparing for the holiday today.... There are few pigeons in our photo. But this is just a rehearsal. You see pigeons from the Kauchuk plant, under the very sky, at the height of a ten-story city building, Komsomol members and the youth of the plant have equipped an excellent room for the birds with central heating and hot water.”

The festival consisted of a huge number of planned events and simple unorganized and uncontrolled communication of people. During the day and evening, the delegations were busy with meetings and speeches. But late in the evening and at night free communication began. Naturally, the authorities tried to establish control over the contacts, but they did not have enough hands, since the tracers turned out to be a drop in the ocean. The weather was excellent, and crowds of people literally flooded the main highways. To better see what was happening, people climbed onto ledges and roofs of houses. Due to the influx of curious people, the roof of the Shcherbakovsky department store, located on Kolkhoznaya Square, on the corner of Sretenka and the Garden Ring, collapsed. After this, the department store was renovated for a long time, opened briefly, and then demolished. At night, people “gathered in the center of Moscow, on the roadway of Gorky Street, near the Mossovet, on Pushkinskaya Square, on Marx Avenue.

Disputes arose at every step and on every occasion, except, perhaps, politics. Firstly, they were afraid, and most importantly, they were not very interested in it in its pure form. However, in fact, any debate had a political nature, be it literature, painting, fashion, not to mention music, especially jazz. We discussed the impressionists that had recently been banned in our country, Ciurlionis, Hemingway and Remarque, Yesenin and Zoshchenko, and Ilya Glazunov, who was coming into fashion, with his illustrations for the works of Dostoevsky, who was not entirely desirable in the USSR. Actually, these were not so much disputes as the first attempts to freely express their opinions to others and defend them. I remember how on bright nights there were groups of people standing on the pavement of Gorky Street, in the center of each of them several people were heatedly discussing something. The rest, surrounding them in a tight ring, listened, gaining their wits, getting used to this very process - the free exchange of opinions. These were the first lessons of democracy, the first experience of getting rid of fear, the first, completely new experiences of uncontrolled communication.

During the festival, a kind of sexual revolution took place in Moscow. Young people, and especially girls, seemed to have broken free. Puritanical Soviet society suddenly witnessed events that no one expected and which shocked even me, who was then an ardent supporter of free sex. The shape and scale of what was happening was amazing. Several reasons were at work here. Beautiful warm weather, general euphoria of freedom, friendship and love, craving for foreigners and most importantly - the accumulated protest against all this puritanical pedagogy, deceitful and unnatural.

By nightfall, when it was getting dark, crowds of girls from all over Moscow made their way to the places where foreign delegations lived. These were student dormitories and hotels on the outskirts of the city. One of these typical places was the “Tourist” hotel complex, built behind VDNKh. At that time, this was the edge of Moscow, followed by collective farm fields. It was impossible for the girls to break into the buildings, since everything was cordoned off by security officers and vigilantes. But no one could prohibit foreign guests from leaving the hotels.

Events developed at the highest possible speed. No courtship, no false coquetry. The newly formed couples retreated into the darkness, into the fields, into the bushes, knowing exactly what they would immediately do. They didn't go particularly far, so the space around them was filled quite tightly, but in the dark it didn't matter. The image of a mysterious, shy and chaste Russian Komsomol girl did not exactly collapse, but rather was enriched with some new, unexpected feature - reckless, desperate debauchery.

The reaction of units of the moral and ideological order was not long in coming. Flying squads were urgently organized in trucks, equipped with lighting devices, scissors and hairdressing clippers. When trucks with vigilantes, according to the raid plan, unexpectedly drove out into the fields and turned on all the headlights and lamps, then the true scale of what was happening emerged. They didn’t touch foreigners, they dealt only with girls, and since there were too many of them, the vigilantes had no interest in finding out their identity or simply arresting them. The caught lovers of night adventures had part of their hair cut off, such a “clearing” was made, after which the girl had only one thing left to do - cut her hair bald. Immediately after the festival, Moscow residents developed a particularly keen interest in girls who wore a tightly tied scarf on their heads... Many dramas happened in families, in educational institutions and in enterprises, where it was more difficult to hide the lack of hair than just on the street, in the subway or trolleybus. It turned out to be even more difficult to hide the babies who appeared nine months later, often not similar to their own mother either in skin color or eye shape.

Naturally, I tried to visit first of all where foreign musicians performed. A huge platform was built on Pushkin Square, on which “concerts of various groups were held day and evening. It was there that I first saw an English ensemble in the skiffle style, and, in my opinion, led by Lonnie Donigan himself. The impression was quite strange. Elderly and very young people played together, using, along with ordinary acoustic guitars, various household and improvised objects such as a can-double bass, a washboard, pots, etc. In the Soviet press there was a reaction to this genre in the form of statements like: “Here are the bourgeois what have we come to, they play on washboards.” But then everything fell silent, since “skiffle” has folk roots, and folklore in the USSR was sacred.

The most fashionable and hard-to-find concerts at the festival were the jazz concerts. There was a special excitement around them, fueled by the authorities, who tried to somehow keep them secret by distributing passes among Komsomol activists. In order to “get through” to such concerts, great skill was required.

PS. In 1985, Moscow again hosted participants and guests of the Youth Festival, already the twelfth. The festival became one of the first high-profile international events during perestroika. With its help, the Soviet authorities hoped to change for the better the gloomy image of the USSR - the “evil empire.” Considerable funds were allocated for the event. Moscow was cleared of unfavorable elements, roads and streets were put in order. But they tried to keep festival guests away from Muscovites: only people who had passed Komsomol and party verification were allowed to communicate with guests. The unity that existed in 1957 during the first Moscow festival no longer happened.

Exactly one year later, the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students will be held in Sochi: on Friday, October 14, the countdown to the start begins.

The last time this rather irregular festival took place was in 2013 in the Ecuadorian city of Quito. Judging by the scale, this time the organizers intend to repeat the success of the VI festival, which took place in Moscow in 1957.

Then, despite its ideological nature, the festival became a real event in the life of the capital. 34 thousand people from 131 countries came to Moscow. All city services were preparing for the influx of foreigners; eyewitnesses recall how the city was transformed: the central streets were put in order, Hungarian Ikarus buses appeared, Luzhniki and the Ukraine Hotel were completed. Much has been said and written about the amazing atmosphere of openness that reigned then.

But what remains today of the 1957 festival?

Today, first of all, Moscow toponymy reminds us of that festival: Mira Avenue, so named in the year of the festival, and Festivalnaya Street itself, which appeared on the map already in 1964. It is along this street that you can walk or get to Friendship Park, which was created by young architects, graduates of the Moscow Architectural Institute, for the 1957 festival.

One of the designers, architect Valentin Ivanov, recalled how the park was created, how they - a group of young architects - came up with risky solutions in order to meet the deadline. For example, on the night before the opening, daisies, a symbol of the festival, were laid out from flowers in glass jars.

On the opening day of the park, about 5 thousand guests arrived there, who, among other things, planted specially prepared seedlings. This tradition was continued during the XII festival, held in Moscow in 1985.

The main achievement of the 1957 festival was the communication between ordinary Muscovites and “guests of the capital”. This communication took place right on the streets. Eyewitnesses say that already on the first day, cars with participants were late for the grand opening in Luzhniki. Due to the lack of transport, it was decided to put the delegates in open trucks, and a crowd of people simply blocked the movement of cars along the streets.

Among those who arrived was the US delegation. Experts say that it was then that the Soviet Union learned about rock and roll, jeans and flared skirts.

The festival took place at the height of the thaw. Two years later, the Moscow Film Festival was resumed, which opened world cinema to Soviet viewers. At the same time, in 1959, the American exhibition was held in the capital, at which they sold, for example, Coca-Cola. There were still several years left before Khrushchev destroyed the exhibition of abstract art in Manege.

After the 1957 festival, the expression “children of the festival” or “festival children” became firmly rooted in everyday life. It was believed that 9 months after the “youth festival” a “color” baby boom occurred in Moscow. The famous jazz saxophonist Alexey Kozlov in his memoirs describes the atmosphere of liberation that reigned in the evenings. It is believed that people from African countries were of particular interest to Soviet girls.

Perhaps these impressions were somewhat exaggerated, and all this is nothing more than a stereotype. According to historian Natalya Krylova, the birth rates of mestizos were small. But one way or another, it was after the festival that universities began to create faculties for teaching foreigners everywhere in the country.

It was during the festival days that the program “Evening of Fun Questions” (or VBB for short) appeared on television. It was broadcast only three times, and 4 years later the same team of authors came up with KVN.

“Moscow Evenings,” written in 1955, became the official song of the VI Festival of Youth and Students. The recording was made by the actor of the Moscow Art Theater Mikhail Troshin, and the author of the music, composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy, even received the First Prize and the Big Gold Medal of the festival.

Since then, the song has become something of an unofficial anthem of Moscow. It is often performed with pleasure by foreigners. For example, pianist Van Cliburn loved to sing and accompany himself. Particularly colorful, of course, in the pronunciation of foreigners is the phrase “you look sideways, bowing your head low”... if, of course, the performer gets to this place.

The symbol of the Festival of Youth and Students, not only the Moscow Festival, was the dove of peace. In 1949, Pablo Picasso's famous drawing became the emblem of the World Peace Congress. The same image migrated to the emblem of the Festival of Youth and Students. For the VI festival in Moscow, the city authorities specially purchased pigeons, which the participants then released into the sky. It is believed that that year the number of pigeons in the capital exceeded 35 thousand.

Generations of Muscovites who remember the 1957 festival still talk about it with pleasure today. And yes, it was an ideological festival, but it was a real holiday, and people could enjoy what was happening, regardless of their views and beliefs. Mothers, wearing heels and fashionable skirts, took their children by the hands and went for a walk along the central streets. Just to look at what is happening around.

In the summer of 1957, a truly grandiose, significant cultural event in the life of the country took place in the Soviet Union. The VI World Festival of Youth and Students, which opened on July 28, 1957 in Moscow, created a real sensation in the minds of Soviet people and was of landmark significance for Soviet mass culture in subsequent years. This festival became the most widespread and memorable event of the “Khrushchev Thaw” era. 34 thousand delegates from 131 countries of the world came to the country closed to foreigners. Never before had a cultural-mass international event of such a scale been held in the Soviet Union. We can safely say that after this festival the country became different: more integrated and open to the world.

The country prepared thoroughly for this event: in honor of the festival, new hotel complexes and parks were built in Moscow, a sports complex was erected in Luzhniki, where the grand opening ceremony of the festival took place. Mira Avenue was named so in connection with the festival. It was during the youth festival that Volga GAZ-21 cars, the festival series of RAF-10 minibuses - the so-called "Rafiki", and the unforgettable "" - new comfortable city buses, first appeared on the streets of the capital.

The symbol of this significant youth festival was the famous drawing by Pablo Picasso. In this regard, thousands of birds were released in Moscow - pigeons literally filled the streets of the capital. The emblem of the festival was a flower with five petals, symbolizing the five continents, and the core of the festival flower was a globe with the slogan “For peace and friendship.”

A lot of new things entered Soviet life after the unforgettable youth forum of 1957: the USSR appeared, young people began to dress differently - the fashion for jeans and sneakers spread, “” appeared, the game of badminton came into fashion and much more. Within the framework of this festival, one of the festival competitions was born, which later became the most popular television game in the USSR. And the song “Moscow Nights,” performed at the closing ceremony of the festival, became the hallmark of the Soviet Union for many years.

On the opening day of the festival, it seemed that the whole city came out to see this colorful spectacle - festival participants drove to the Luzhniki Stadium in open, festively painted cars and an incredible number of people greeted them along the roads. The opening ceremony itself at Luzhniki was simply enchanting: a grand parade with the flags of the participating countries took place at the stadium, and the beautiful culmination of the ceremony was the release of a huge number of white doves into the sky.

The spirit of informal communication and openness reigned in Moscow these days. Foreigners who came to the capital could freely visit the Kremlin, Gorky Park and other attractions of the city. Young people freely communicated, discussed, sang and listened to music together, and talked about everything that worried them. During the days of the festival, about a thousand events were held - concerts, sports competitions, meetings, discussions and performances were very interesting and lively. In those days, bright and talented people from all over the world, writers and journalists, athletes, musicians and actors, came to the Soviet Union. Among the young participants of the festival was one of the outstanding writers of our time - Gabriel García Márquez, who later wrote an essay about his stay in the USSR.

The festive festival summer of 1957 gave impetus to a new breakthrough in music, painting and literature, and changed the way of life of millions of Soviet people. The festival lifted the “iron curtain” that divided the world, people became closer and more understandable to each other. It was a real unity of people from different countries, different skin colors, speaking different languages. The ideas of peace, friendship and solidarity have become close to young people on all continents - and this is the most important result of this significant festival.

The post is dedicated to the photo exhibition “Moscow-1957”, which took place in January-March last year. Photos of Leonard Gianadda, one of the foreign students who visited the capital as part of the 1957 youth rally, were exhibited there. It was a visit to this photo exhibition by friends, and then by myself, that gave me the idea to get 2 films from this event, shot by my grandfather, from the family photo archives. (By the way, this is the only film from my grandfather’s archive shot in a reportage style). At the time of these events he was 30 years old.

Interestingly, at work, in order to avoid “no matter what happens,” he was ordered to send his son (my father, who was not even a year old at the time) to his relatives during the festival in Moscow. Moreover, a month and a half before the actual event. This was done, the son was sent to his parents in Bogorodsk, but he himself attended the festival. :-)

Amateur photos, unfortunately, cannot be compared in quality with the Swiss ones presented at that exhibition. But they were not planned for publication in newspapers, as in the case of the Swiss. And half a century ago, blogs for the public publication of personal impressions did not yet exist. Therefore, the photos were planned to become exactly what they became - a family archive.

Unfortunately, the film was either poorly preserved (in appearance, however, everything is fine), or it was initially underexposed, or maybe I don’t have enough knowledge for high-quality digitization of this particular film - the quality of the photo did not turn out too high. But nevertheless, we will be able to look into a major event in Soviet life half a century ago.

From the history of the festival (information from Wikipedia): The symbol of the youth forum, which was attended by delegates from left-wing youth organizations around the world, was the Dove of Peace, invented by Pablo Picasso. For the festival, the Druzhba park, the Tourist hotel complex, the Ukraine hotel, and the Luzhniki stadium were opened in Moscow. Hungarian Ikarus buses appeared in the capital for the first time; the first GAZ-21 Volga cars and the first Rafik, the RAF-10 Festival minibus, were produced for the event. The festival became in every sense a significant and explosive event for boys and girls - and the most widespread in its history. It took place in the middle of Khrushchev's thaw and was remembered for its openness. Foreigners who arrived communicated freely with Muscovites; this was not persecuted. The Moscow Kremlin and Gorky Park were open to the public. Over the two weeks of the festival, over eight hundred events were held.

The photo shows one of the propaganda posters installed for that event in the center of Moscow. However, I cannot identify the installation location.

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Kyiv railway station welcomes foreign delegates.
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Pandemonium on the huge Manezhnaya Square, which was then simply paved with asphalt. By the way, my grandfather fully approves of Luzhkov’s decision to locate underground shopping arcades and an above-ground park for walking in this square. According to him, this square has always been a headache for the Kremlin security - if something happened, it could easily become a place for a quick gathering of thousands of people with an uncontrollable crowd, which in turn could force their way into the Kremlin. And now this potentially dangerous area is gone! This is such an unexpected look. UPDATE: Recent events on Manezhnaya Square, however, have shown that, nevertheless, if the crowd wants to gather, they will gather on this version of the square.

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A concert is taking place on the stage in front of the Manege. The arena is also decorated with huge posters (sorry it’s hard to see in the photo). On the left on the facade is a bomb flying into a burning house, on the right is a snake entwining the globe with something written on it about an atom, and in the center of the facade, right above the stage, is a large dove of peace.
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Each of the letters in the word “Festival” consists of many frames of Soviet films of those years.
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You'd think there was a film festival going on. A globe wrapped in film in the same (apparently) unidentified park.
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There is also a street installation of photographic portraits of film actors and singers who were popular at that time. Moreover, not only Soviet ones were present, but also French and Indian ones (my grandfather told me their last names, but I didn’t remember).
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The young man on the left looks a lot like Antonio Banderas (only he was not born yet at that moment :-))
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The girl in the center seemed to me similar to Svetlana Svetlichnaya, but she was only 17 years old at that time, and she appeared in films for the first time only in 1960... so it’s unlikely to be her.
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Actor Alexei Batalov (who has not yet starred in the cult Soviet film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”) has a very exotic neighborhood here. :-) As they later suggested to me, this is Nargis, the legend of Indian cinema.
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And here, together with Ellina Bystritskaya, if I’m not mistaken, an Indian actor appeared. Again, information from a tip from people in the know: "Raj Kapoor is not just an actor, he is the era of Indian cinema."
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Next come artists completely unknown to me. :-)
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Let's move on from the festival surroundings to the action itself. Let's see what was happening on the streets of Moscow on those warm July days...
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And now there were so many people that it was impossible to squeeze through.
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And then there was a parade along the Garden Ring.
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The number of people literally hanging from all available windows and doors, balconies and roofs of the surrounding houses is impressive. Everyone was interested in looking at each other...
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...exchange souvenirs.
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So we got to the Foreign Ministry building. There was also a small stage at its entrance.
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