Mosenergo Youth Festival 1957. The story of how the festival daisy blossomed - a symbol of the World Festival of Youth and Students
11. 05. 2016 3 280Interview with Lyubov Borisova, daughter of Konstantin Mikhailovich Kuzginov, a Moscow artist, author of the emblem of the World Festival of Youth and Students.
The ideas of the World Festival of Youth and Students are succinctly and succinctly reflected in its symbol - the dear and beloved festival daisy. It is noteworthy that it was created in the Soviet Union by the Moscow artist Konstantin Mikhailovich Kuzginov.
– Tell us how your father’s idea earned worldwide recognition?
– The basis for the success that befell my father in his work on the emblem of the VI Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow was that, as a professional artist, by that time he had already created a number of posters that decorated the festivals of Budapest and Berlin in 1949 and 1951 year. But let's go back to 1957. An All-Union competition was announced to create an emblem for the festival, in which anyone could take part. In total, about 300 sketches from all over the Union were presented. The jury immediately drew attention to my father's flower, which was simple, but at the same time unique. The fact is that the sketches sent to the competition either repeated Pablo Picasso’s dove, which was the 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 breastplate, the emblem lost its meaning. Vasily Ardamatsky in his book “Five Petals” writes that “real art does not tolerate repetition,” so the idea associated with the image of a dove also did not become relevant. As the newspapers reported at the time, 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 daisy was taken as a permanent basis for all subsequent forums. Now the whole world knows this emblem. Today it is the starting point for the upcoming 60th anniversary of the festival of youth and students of Russia.
– How did the festival daisy bloom?
– In one of the interviews, my father said: “I wondered: what is a festival? And he answered like this - youth, friendship, peace and life. What more precisely can symbolize all this? While working on sketches of the emblem, I was at the dacha when flowers were blooming everywhere. The association was born quickly and surprisingly simply. Flower. The core is the globe, and around there are 5 continental petals.” The petals frame the blue globe of the Earth, on which the festival motto is written: “For peace and friendship.” I also remember he said that he was inspired as an athlete by the Olympic rings - a symbol of the unity of athletes around the world. The festival chamomile is so firmly rooted in the memory of generations and the culture of the festival that today, in my opinion, it is extremely difficult to come up with something new, more capacious and concise. It is very important to preserve it, because it is the history and heritage of our country.
– You have collected a very interesting collection of various items with the symbols of the festival.
- Yes, my dad started collecting it. Then I continued. This is a unique collection of artifacts. And it’s great when everyday things are decorated with the emblem of such a bright event. In the collection, in addition to badges, postcards and stamps, you can see a cup, mugs, matchboxes, cufflinks, photo albums and much more. Thanks to antique stores and all kinds of flea markets, I am still adding to this collection. I think that this experience should definitely be used when organizing the upcoming festival. You always want to leave something as a keepsake. Back in 1957, they understood that they needed their own unique symbol, in the image of which the spirit of the festival would be embedded. And the involvement of modern youth in the creation of something similar, the opportunity to take initiative, and perhaps discover new talents thanks to the competition, is an absolute plus.
– And in conclusion, what would your father wish for the future participants of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students 2017?
“I think he would be happy to learn that our country will host this grandiose event again, and would wish the Festival and its participants prosperity, joy, happiness, peace and friendship.” There are many epithets, but the main thing is that young people are imbued with these words and keep them in their hearts.
The publication was prepared as part of a cultural research project under a grant from the President of the Russian Federation “The Art of Festive City Decoration. History and Modernity.”
The Thaw era manifested 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 replaced by decorative panels and thematic compositions, the images on them acquire a more conventional, generalized symbolic interpretation. Eclecticism and ponderous monumentality disappear, color and a range of pure open tones acquire great importance. By the end of the 1950s, the first examples of the solution of design complexes in spatial development, in connection with the urban environment and, above all, architectural ensembles, appeared. One of the best examples of this approach to decorating a 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 giant theater and exhibition space. Picturesque panels, volumetric plastic structures, transforming light-kinetic devices decorated the streets, parks and water areas of Moscow.
A whole carnival train traveled through Moscow, consisting of 120 movable decorative installations, cargo platforms, multi-colored buses, decorated with the festival flower, national flags, colorful ribbons and fresh flowers. This grand procession was opened by a motorcycle escort of standard bearers, carrying azure silk banners with the image of white doves.
When creating the city’s festive decorations, first of all, “branded” festival symbols and emblems were used, which became the leitmotif of the capital’s design. The artist Konstantin Kuzginov developed an emblem that has gained worldwide fame: a five-petal 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 to create a festival emblem. 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 Pablo Picasso’s dove, which was the 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 breastplate, the emblem lost its meaning. As the newspapers reported at the time, 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 daisy was taken as a permanent basis for all subsequent forums. In an interview, Kuzginov said: “I wondered: what is a festival? And he answered like this - youth, friendship, peace and life. What more precisely can symbolize all this? While working on sketches of the emblem, I was at the dacha when flowers were blooming everywhere. The association was born quickly and surprisingly simply. Flower. The core is the globe, and around there are 5 continental petals.” The petals frame the blue globe of the Earth, on which the festival motto is written: “For peace and friendship.”
Artists and architects paid special attention to the design of the celebration centers - the stadium in Luzhniki, VDNKh, Dynamo stadium, Central Park of Culture and Culture named after. Gorky, squares and embankments. By that time, the trend of expensive external decoration had already faded away; new lightweight metal structures, thin shell coverings made of synthetic materials, openwork volumes and planes appeared. All of them have found the widest and most varied application in decorating the festival capital.
A striking sight was the design of the Moscow boulevard ring on the theme of literary works, author's and folk tales - a lot of contour-cut, masterfully 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 Boris Prorokov’s drawings and posters on anti-war themes were exhibited. The building of the Moscow Hotel was decorated with a giant decorative panel depicting a woman in Russian costume holding bread and salt (artist Chingiz Akhmarov).
Small-scale architecture played an important role in the design of city highways. Decorated lanterns united the composition of the festive decorations with rhythmic repetitions and emphasized the distant perspective of the streets or the enclosed space of the squares. Bright colorful spots included numerous stalls, kiosks, and tents where festival souvenirs and carnival attributes were sold. This design was actively included in the spatial design of highways, organizing it in a new way and bringing it closer to a human scale. Garlands of greenery, arches made of balloons, and illuminated ceilings highlighted the festive areas, 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 scenes from Russian, French, and Chinese fairy tales. Other characters are located on the arches spanning the alleys of the boulevard.
“Miracle Town,” created according to the design of 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 for 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 stack of books was installed, next to it there 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, tall columns made up of many volumes (artist G. Tkachev).
Near the university building on the high bank of the Moscow River, the composition “Festival Torch” by architect-artist Igor Pokrovsky was installed. The design of the installation was simple and clear, and the use of figurative metaphors made it possible to create an expressive image: the flame of a high torch seemed to turn into a symbol of peace - a white dove with wings outstretched 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 cascade of light bulbs was crowned with a decorative figure of a dove of peace, and the fountain bowl was decorated along the perimeter with flags of the countries participating in the youth festival. At that time this was an innovative solution, which, however, did not receive further development. Only in our days has the idea of an electric fountain as an element of the city’s festive decoration experienced a rebirth.
The design of the Belorussky Station Square, designed by architect Vadim Makarevich, was based on the color contrast of flagpoles rhythmically located along the perimeter of the square. Masts with multi-colored ribbons and panels converged towards the center - towards 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 as they greeted the participants of the holiday. The picture is clickable.
The illumination of the Central Telegraph played on the symbolism of the Festival - a large festival daisy 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 one could also see naturalistic panels made in old traditions, outdated garlands and patterns, and posters with stenciled faces. But the best visual solutions showed the ongoing search for expressive means, the interest of artists in the synthesis of decorative elements with architecture.
The festive decorations of Moscow during the Festival transformed the entire city. Trucks and cars painted in the five colors of the festival moved along the streets. Many streets these days acquired festival names - Street of Peace, Street of Friendship, Street of Happiness, Street of Fifteen Republics. Some of them remained in the city toponymy.
During demonstrations, mass meetings and sports competitions, huge images of the festival daisy, the coat of arms of the Soviet Union and the dove of peace, suspended from balloons, hovered over the squares and streets of Moscow in the light of spotlights.
In conclusion, I will show a selection of sketches of the festive decorations of Moscow for the VI World Festival of Youth and Students. Many of them were not implemented.
Half a century ago, on July 28, 1957, the Moscow Festival of Youth and Students opened - the apotheosis of the Khrushchev Thaw.
Never before had the Soviet capital seen so many foreigners and such freedom.
An acquaintance of mine, who was five years old at the time, saw people of a different skin color on the streets for the first time. The impression remained for life.
He also remembered the mummers on stilts who walked around Gorky Park, shouting: “Have fun, people, the festival is coming!”
"People of Goodwill"
The Moscow festival was the sixth in a row. The first took place in Prague in 1947. The Soviet Union was the main organizer and sponsor of meetings of “progressive youth”, but preferred to hold them in the capitals of “people's democracies”.
There is no reliable information about how the decision was made to lift the “Iron Curtain” and what discussions were held in the Soviet leadership. However, it is known that preparations for the Moscow festival began two years in advance, in other words, when Nikita Khrushchev was not yet the sole leader.In the 50s, the communist country decided to learn to smile. Soviet society tried to get rid of the image of closedness, gloominess and belligerence.
Under Stalin, any foreigner, even a communist, was considered a potential spy in the USSR. It was categorically not recommended for Soviet people to come into contact with him on their own initiative. Only those who were supposed to communicate with foreigners were supposed to.
The "Thaw" brought with it new principles: foreigners are divided into bad and good, and the latter are immeasurably more numerous; all workers are friends of the USSR; if they are not yet ready to build socialism, then they certainly want peace in the whole world, and on this basis we will come to terms with them.
Previously, Russia was supposed to be considered the “homeland of elephants,” and “their” science and culture were completely corrupt and corrupt. Now they have stopped rejecting everything Western with a cluck and have raised Picasso, Fellini and Van Cliburn on their shield. In order to be considered a “progressive” in the USSR, membership in the Communist Party of a foreign writer or director was no longer required.
A special term appeared: “people of good will.” Not one hundred percent ours, but not our enemies either.They came to Moscow, and in unprecedented numbers - 34 thousand people from 131 countries!
The largest delegations - two thousand people each - came from France and Finland.
The hosts favored representatives of the “Third World,” especially Nasser’s Egypt and newly independent Ghana.
A number of delegations represented not states, but national liberation movements. They tried to receive the “heroes” who briefly escaped to Moscow especially cordially. The press described the difficulties and dangers they had to overcome to achieve this. In the USSR, no one cared that in their homeland they were considered members of illegal armed groups.
Soviet scope
The Soviet Union prepared for the event in a way that only totalitarian countries can.
For the festival, the Luzhniki stadium was built, Mira Avenue was expanded, and Hungarian Ikaruses were purchased for the first time.First of all, they tried to amaze the guests with its scale.
At the opening ceremony in those same Luzhniki, a dance and sports number was performed by 3,200 athletes, and 25 thousand pigeons were released from the eastern stands.
The white dove was made a symbol of the struggle for peace by Pablo Picasso. At the previous festival in Warsaw, there was an embarrassment: the pigeons huddled at the feet of the releasers and refused to fly.
In Moscow, amateur pigeon keepers were specifically exempted from work. One hundred thousand birds were raised for the festival and the healthiest and most active ones were selected.
In the main event - the rally "For Peace and Friendship!" Half a million people took part on Manezhnaya Square and surrounding streets. More Muscovites gathered only for a rally and rock concert in honor of the victory over the State Emergency Committee on August 24, 1991.
In total, from July 28 to August 11, more than 800 events took place, including such exotic ones as a ball in the Palace of Facets and a mass torchlight swim along the Moscow River.
Two thousand journalists were accredited at the festival. 2,800 new telephone numbers were introduced for them and for guests - a lot by the standards of that time.
The official song of the festival was “Anthem of Democratic Youth” (“The song of friendship is sung by young people, this song cannot be strangled, you cannot kill!”), but its true musical theme was “Moscow Evenings,” which were heard literally everywhere. This bright and poignant melody became a cult song in the USSR for several years.
Many things happened in the country for the first time in those two weeks: live television broadcasts, night illumination of the Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theater, fireworks not in honor of a revolutionary holiday or military victory.
The wind of change
Soviet youth in the harsh and meager post-war years were not spoiled by impressions and pleasures; they rushed into the festival whirlwind with an enthusiasm that is difficult to understand and imagine these days.
With a huge number of guests, it was impossible to control communication, and no one really tried.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. Guests were shocked by the erudition of their interlocutors who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, and 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.
Of course, just anyone was not invited to Moscow. The overwhelming majority of foreign participants were “friends of the USSR”, “fighters against colonialism”, “people of progressive views”. Others would not have gone to the festival less than a year after the Hungarian events. But the guests brought intellectual and behavioral freedom that was completely unusual for Soviet people.
Everyone understood that the holiday could not last forever. But eyewitnesses remember: it was not just great fun, it seemed that some completely new, better life was coming forever.
No miracle happened. But it was after the Moscow festival that jeans, KVN, badminton and abstract painting appeared in the USSR, and the Kremlin was open to the public. New trends began in literature and cinema, “farming” and the dissident movement.
You can't step into the same river twice
In the summer of 1985, Moscow again hosted the World Youth Festival - the twelfth in a row. Just like the first time, they spent a lot of money, prepared a program, and put the city in order.
However, nothing similar to the 1957 festival turned out, and no one particularly remembered the “sequel”.
On the one hand, by the mid-80s, foreigners had long ceased to be a sight for Soviet citizens.
On the other hand, the policy of the Soviet authorities was harsher than during the Thaw. Mikhail Gorbachev was already in power, but the words “glasnost” and “perestroika” had not yet been heard, and relations with the West were close to the freezing point.
They tried to keep the festival guests tightly occupied and away from Muscovites. It was mainly specially selected Komsomol members who interacted with them.
This summer, the Moscow mayor's office and the public organization "Federation of Peace and Harmony", headed by veteran Soviet international journalist Valentin Zorin, held a round table in Moscow and a procession along Mira Avenue in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 1957 festival.
The degree of public attention to the event is evidenced by an eloquent fact: the organizers moved it from the end of July, when, in fact, the anniversary is celebrated, to June 30, so that potential participants would not leave for their dachas and vacations.
The festivals themselves are no longer organized. The Soviet era is a thing of the past, along with everything good and bad that was in it.
World festivals of youth and students as holidays of peace, friendship and freedom were based on the important concept of uniting all youth organizations in the world against war and fascism. This idea was also 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 daisy with five multi-colored petals, a globe and a white dove in the center. This emblem is now known throughout the world and continues to be the official symbol of the festival movement.
Few people know that the festival daisy 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 holding hands, a white dove hovering 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 depiction of a dove with furry legs and no olive branch in its beak, but later this image was supplemented.
Postcard of the 1st World Festival of Youth and Students, 1947
Picasso loved pigeons; he inherited the tradition of depicting these birds from his father. He painted pictures of pigeons and let little Pablo Picasso finish painting their legs.
Ilya Ehrenburg later recalled his meeting with Pablo Picasso:
“I remember lunch in his workshop on the opening day of the Paris Peace Congress. That day, Pablo had a daughter, whom he named Paloma (in Spanish, “paloma” means dove). There were three of us at the table: Picasso, Paul Eluard and me. First we talked about pigeons. Pablo told how his father, an artist who often painted pigeons, let the boy finish drawing the legs - his father had become tired of the legs. Then they started talking about pigeons in general; Picasso loves them, always keeps them in the house; laughing, he said that pigeons are greedy and pugnacious birds, it is not clear why they were made a symbol of peace. And then Picasso moved on to his doves, showed a hundred drawings for a poster - he knew that his bird would fly around the world”.
(from the book “People, Years, Life” by Ilya Erenburg. In 3 volumes. M.: Text, 2005).
Perhaps Picasso himself had no idea what significance his image of the dove would have for the festival movement in the world, but that same year the Academy of Fine Arts of Philadelphia awarded Picasso’s “Dove” the Pennell Memorial Medal.
Pablo Picasso. Poster of the 1st World Peace Congress in Paris, January 1949.
In 1957, before the festival, according to tradition, an All-Union competition was announced to create the emblem of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. More than 300 sketches were submitted to the competition, including a daisy with five petals by artist Konstantin Mikhailovich Kuzginov. By that time he had experience creating such materials - he had made a number of posters that decorated festivals in 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 wondered: what is a festival? And he answered like this - youth, friendship, peace and life. What more precisely can symbolize all this? While working on sketches of the emblem, I was at the dacha when flowers were blooming everywhere. The association was born quickly and surprisingly simply. Flower. The core is the globe, and around there are 5 continental petals.” The petals frame the blue globe of the Earth, on which the festival motto is written: “For peace and friendship”“(from an interview with Lyubov Borisova on the official website of the XIX WFMS 2017 http://www.russia2017.com/posts/18).
The jury immediately liked Chamomile due to its simplicity and at the same time the deep idea it carried - the winner was determined quite quickly.
It was difficult to come up with such a laconic symbol for the festival, so in 1958 the Vienna Congress of the World Federation of Democratic Youth decided to take the daisy as the basis for all subsequent festival emblems.
Later, for the XII Festival in 1985, the daisy was supplemented with a graphically stylized image of a dove, the very same Picasso dove. The author of the updated version of the festival daisy 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 daisy, then the new festival symbol was introduced to the whole world for the first time. A whole collection of bright postcards with a festival daisy was invented, dedicated to the first festival in the USSR.
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 city decor, pictograms, directional signs, and printed posters, which created an atmosphere of celebration and boundless free communication at the festivals of 1957 and 1985.
Ceremonial procession on the opening day of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students, Moscow 1957. Photo from pastvu.com
By the XII World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985, elements of the Olympic symbols were still recognizable in decorated Moscow, but the Olympic bears in store windows had already been replaced by colorful souvenir dolls in sundresses and kokoshniks.
The multi-colored daisy at the XII World Festival of Youth and Students was supplemented by another symbol, loved and remembered by everyone. An image of the girl Katyusha in a bright red sundress and kokoshnik. The kokoshnik, as conceived by the author of the emblem, resembled that very festival daisy 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 the idea for Katyusha came about:
“I went home, I was sitting on the bus, and suddenly the driver started playing the song “Katyusha.” 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 the idea immediately appeared in my head to turn this festival daisy into a Russian kokoshnik. And then everything was simple, I came home and started drawing. I drew the head, drew the kokoshnik, it came together very well. Well, the kokoshnik suggests a Russian sundress, and at the bottom along the hem there should be an inscription - “XIIMoscow 1985.” I decided to fold my hands on my chest and let her hold the dove. The dove is a symbol of peace, everything is very suitable for the festival. I called the festival committee, arrived, and they said: “This is probably what we need.” And we began to develop this image further.”
The image of Katyusha contained a deep idea; it was bright, understandable and close to everyone, so it was quickly picked up by ensembles, school clubs 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, and 129 dynamic light installations were produced. Festive decorations looked especially impressive when illuminated by the evening lighting design.
HISTORY OF WORLD FESTIVALS OF YOUTH AND STUDENTS
In October - November 1945, the World Conference of Democratic Youth was held in London. It was attended by about 600 representatives from 63 countries: young communists, socialists, Christians, etc. On November 10, at the final meeting of the conference, it was decided to create the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFYD) to promote mutual understanding and cooperation among youth in all areas of economic, political, social and cultural life, the struggle against social, national and racial oppression, for peace and security of peoples, for the rights of youth. Since then, November 10 has been celebrated as World Youth Day. In August 1946, the 1st World Congress of Students met in Prague, at which the International Union of Students (ISU) was created, which declared its goal to be the struggle for peace, against fascism, colonialism, for social progress, democratic educational reform, and for the rights of students.
Soon, however, the activities of the WFDM and the MSU began to encounter opposition from the conservative, anti-democratic elements included in their composition. In October 1946, the Socialist Youth Congress was convened in the Paris suburb of Montrouge, at which the International Union of Young Socialists (IYUS) was founded; its leaders openly declared their anti-communist orientation. In 1947, the World Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth was formed in Cambridge (Great Britain) (on the basis of the International Union of Liberal and Democratic Youth that existed in 1929–40)…
In the conditions of the split in the youth movement, the WFDM and the MSU fought against the Cold War and imperialist aggression. They launched a worldwide campaign of youth solidarity with the struggle of the Korean people against the armed intervention of the United States and its allies in 1950-53, and actively supported the anti-imperialist struggle of Vietnamese and Algerian patriots. Hundreds of thousands of youth organization activists collected signatures for the Stockholm Appeal and organized marches for peace and against the threat of thermonuclear war. At the call of the WFDM and MSU, progressive youth spoke out in defense of the Cuban Revolution, against the triple aggression in Egypt in 1956. Mass actions were celebrated annually in different countries on February 21 (since 1949) - the Day of International Solidarity with Students and Youth Fighting for National Independence, and 24 April (since 1957) - International Day of Youth Solidarity in the struggle against colonialism, for peaceful coexistence.
The World Festivals of Youth and Students became a striking manifestation of the militant anti-imperialist solidarity of young men and women. In various countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and America, youth and student conferences, seminars and symposia were held, at which issues of strengthening peace, eliminating the colonial system, and the struggle for the socio-economic and political rights of youth and students were discussed (1st World Conference of Working Youth in Prague, 1958; International Student Conference for Peace in Prague, 1958; World Youth Forum in Moscow, 1961; International Conference of Youth and Students for Disarmament, Peace and National Independence - Florence, 1964; World Forum of Solidarity of Youth and Students in the Struggle for National independence and liberation, for peace - Moscow, 1964, etc.). Significant assistance was provided by the WFDM and MSS, youth unions of socialist countries that were formed in the 50s and 60s. youth organizations in Africa, the Arab East, and Southeast Asia.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
“A BREAK IN THE IRON CURTAIN”
There are events that do not fade in emotional memory, that do not lend themselves to bitter and caustic re-evaluation, that warm the soul on the most dank “cursed” days. Remembering which, you envy yourself - did this really happen in your life?! Those that belonged to history and, at the same time, forever determined your private, little-interested fate.
50 years ago, on a July evening in 1957, feeling the prick of an unknown but piercing awl, I rushed out of the house onto Pushkinskaya Street. Three minutes later I found myself on Gorky Street, nicknamed “Broadway” by our generation, but no less Soviet, pompous and decorous for that reason. At this almost night time, something unusual was visible in her unshakably sovereign atmosphere - joyful excitement, some kind of excitement. From Manezhnaya Square, straight along the pavement, ignoring the car horns and police trills, a crowd rose, never seen on the Moscow streets. Motley, almost carnival dressed, irreverent, cheerful, ringing guitars, beating drums, blowing pipes, screaming, singing, dancing on the move, intoxicated not from wine, but from freedom and the purest and best feelings, unfamiliar, unknown, multilingual - and to the point of chills, to the point of pain dear. At that moment I realized that dreams really did come true, that my post-war, courtyard youth coincided with the youth of the century. The world festival of youth and students “For peace and friendship between peoples” came to Moscow.
Living in a closed country means perceiving the geographical map of the Earth as something similar to a map of the starry sky, realizing that going to Paris is as impossible as flying to Mars. This means looking at a foreigner you accidentally meet on the street as if you were a Martian - with a mixed feeling of curiosity and fear. This means that one must forget about relatives and even acquaintances who live not in a specific country, but in some generalized, suspicious “abroad,” as if about an indecent dream. And, finally, what kind of beret or plaid shirt you wear on the street, you may well be spanked as a dude, a bearer of an alien ideology, alien manners and morals, and simply for resemblance to the characters from the Krokodil magazine. By the way, he was perhaps the only source of acquaintance with foreign life. Not counting "Foreign Newsreels", where you were allowed to see the Eiffel Tower, a New York skyscraper or a Madrid bullfight for a few seconds. I know people who watched each issue of this newsreel fifteen times. In fact, they had the opportunity to look behind the “Iron Curtain” through the keyhole.
And in this very “iron curtain” a huge hole was made, the name of which is the festival of youth and students. I saw this with my own eyes already on that very morning that came after an unprecedented evening. Unheard of morning!
The festival traveled around Moscow in buses and open trucks (there weren’t enough buses for all the guests). He sailed along the Garden Ring, which was an endless human sea. All of Moscow, simple-minded, just coming to its senses after war cards and queues, not yet forgetting about the fight against cosmopolitanism and sycophancy, somehow dressed up, barely beginning to get out of the basements and communal apartments, stood on the pavement, sidewalks, rooftops and pulled hands to passing guests, yearning to shake the same warm human hands. The geographical map has acquired a concrete embodiment. The world really turned out to be amazingly diverse. And in this diversity of races, characters, languages, customs, clothes, melodies and rhythms - they are amazingly united in the desire to live, communicate and get to know each other. Now such words and intentions seem banal. Back then, at the height of the Cold War, they were perceived as an extraordinary personal discovery. Our country opened up the world, joining the entire human race. And the world was discovering our country... I don’t remember if I ate anything or went to bed in those days. I was just happy. All 14 days, from morning to evening.
One evening we brought a group of French people to visit our classmate, in a huge Moscow communal apartment, converted from former rooms. Somehow, the entire old court found out that young Parisians were being received in the apartment on the second floor, and people flocked to us with pies, jam, of course, bottles and other gifts of the simple Russian heart. The French women roared loudly. By the way, all this happened on Pushechnaya Street, a hundred meters from the famous building, past which Muscovites in those years passed, reflexively lowering their eyes and quickening their pace.
Now I think that in the summer of ’57, the reinforced concrete regulation of Soviet existence was irrevocably shaken. It has become impossible to control everything in the world: tastes, fashion, everyday habits, music on the air. Based on the ideas, emotions, songs and dances of the festival, my generation was transformed in a matter of days. All Soviet freethinkers, all connoisseurs of jazz and modern art, fashionistas and polyglots have their origins in the summer of ’57.
No subsequent aggravation of political relations between East and West, ideological developments and persecution could drown out the independent spirit of the festival. But it was conceived as a purely ideological event: under the guise of the struggle for peace and friendship between peoples, bourgeois foundations were undermined, the chains of colonialism were broken, and communist ideals were affirmed. But, firstly, the struggle for peace really united. And secondly, as we know, living life is always broader and brighter than ideology. And the American peace fighter in Texas jeans, and the French communist, who looked like a flâneur from the Grands Boulevards, and the FIAT turner, indistinguishable from all the characters of neorealism, unconsciously punched holes in the “Iron Curtain”. Suslov's ideologists did not have the strength to patch them up.
From the memoirs of the writer Anatoly Makarov
DOVES FOR THE FESTIVAL
Among those who directly prepared the festival is Vladlen KRIVOSHEEV, now a scientist, candidate of economic sciences, and then an instructor in the organizational department of the Moscow city Komsomol committee. Vladlen Mikhailovich was entrusted with perhaps the most exotic task...
In 1955 (two years before the festival), instructor Krivosheev was called by the then first secretary of the Komsomol Moscow State Committee, Mikhail Davydov: “From today you are freed from all matters. You'll take care of the pigeons." Pigeons?
There was another man sitting in the office, as it turned out - Joseph Tumanov (later -
People's Artist of the USSR, famous director of mass folk shows). “The most important task! - continued Davydov. “In two years we need 100 thousand pigeons!” And Tumanov took out something like a brochure with stamps and visas -
script of the festival events.
…In 1949, the First World Peace Congress was held in Paris. An emblem was required. The famous Pablo Picasso, apparently recalling ancient legends, depicted a dove with an olive twig in its beak. So the dove became a symbol of peace. Festivals of youth and students (not only ours) were held under the motto “For peace and friendship between peoples!” The opening ceremony traditionally began with a ceremonial passage through the stadium of delegations of the participating countries. And traditionally, this passage preceded the takeoff of a flock of pigeons: the pigeons seemed to start the whole holiday.
But the flock was not enough for Tumanov. According to his idea, one after another, three waves of pigeons were supposed to soar over the Luzhniki stadium (which was hastily built for the festival) - white, followed by red, then gray. Since everything had already been approved “at the top,” Davydov emphasized: “The script is law for us.”
These three waves were what Krivosheev had to prepare.
And make sure it doesn’t happen like in Warsaw! - the “first” strictly warned.
The Warsaw festival has just ended. The pigeons messed up there - literally and figuratively. The Poles brought a huge casket to the center of the stadium and opened the lid, believing that the birds would rush into the sky with a white torch. But they did not rush, but crawled out and began to wander around the stadium, interfering with the movement of the columns... A shame, in a word.
First of all, it was decided: all sorts of exquisite chegrashi, blowers, tumblers - on the side. We bet on regular postal ones - they are capable of providing the required flight at the right time. You just need to produce the required number of them in two years. By the way, how much? The figure of 100 thousand was clearly taken out of thin air, but, oddly enough, it turned out to be appropriate. We need a guaranteed strong and hardy bird, right? Consequently, if we withdraw 100 thousand, then from this amount, due to rejection, we will receive by the required date 40 thousand of just such - young, strong. And a period of two years is also normal. If we start work now, then by 1957 the third generation will be on its wing: specimens guaranteed to be suitable for the operation.
Orders went out to the factories: “Moscow City Komsomol Committee... in fulfillment... we ask for assistance...”. Dovecotes were erected at enterprises. The Moscow Regional Executive Committee was obliged to supply fodder...
And yet they took off - 40,000 pigeons!
True, the day before there was a whole operation to transport birds to a poultry farm near Moscow and sort them - weak points aside! - seating in specially designed boxes (4000 boxes with 10 nests in each), in which the winged poor fellows had to withstand 6 hours (!), retaining the strength to fly. Then two columns of trucks, accompanied by traffic police vehicles, moved towards Moscow at four in the morning in order to be at the stadium 2 hours before the start. And there 4,000 releasers (participants of the “live background” on the eastern stand) were waiting for the signal... In general, there is a lot to tell here... But if you have never seen tens of thousands of pigeons take off at the same time - and from below they all looked white, and therefore it seemed that boiling snow lava splashed into the sky - know that you have lost a lot in life. Newsreel footage preserved this moment. The stands gasped, the spectators jumped up from their seats and applauded...
