World Festival of Youth and Students emblem. Festival movement in the world
© Yuri Nabatov /TASS
In 2017, our country will host the festival for the third time.
TASS DOSSIER. On October 14-22, 2017, Russia will host the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS). On the first day, October 14, an international student parade-carnival will take place in Moscow. The main events, including the official opening (October 15) and closing (October 21) ceremonies, will take place in Sochi.
XIX WFMS will be the third festival held in our country.
The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about the sixth and twelfth festivals held in the USSR in 1957 and 1985.
VI VFMS
In 1957, the World Festival of Youth and Students was held for the first time on the territory of the USSR. VI WFMS was held in Moscow for two weeks - from July 28 to August 11. It brought together 34 thousand participants from 131 countries.
The festival's emblem was invented by Moscow graphic artist Konstantin Kuzginov. The author chose a flower with five multi-colored petals that symbolized the continents. Red represented Europe, yellow - Asia, blue - America, purple - Africa, green - Australia. At the heart of the flower was a globe with the inscription “For peace and friendship.”
In preparation for the festival in Moscow, new hotel complexes "Tourist" (1956) and "Ukraine" (1957) were built and a sports complex was erected in Luzhniki (1956; now the Luzhniki Stadium), where the opening and closing ceremonies of the VI VFMS. On the eve of the festival, the youth editorial office “Festivalnaya” was created on the USSR Central Television.
Mira Avenue appeared in Moscow (combining 1st Meshchanskaya, B. Alekseevskaya, B. Rostokinskaya streets, Troitskoe Highway and part of Yaroslavskoe Highway). Delegations followed it on the opening day of the festival. Participants in the forum founded the Friendship Park in the north-west of the capital, and the street starting from the park was named “Festivalnaya” in 1964.
During the festival, international and national concerts, circus performances, competitions, exhibitions, meetings and seminars, theatrical performances and film screenings (in the Udarnik, Coliseum, Forum, and Khudozhestvenny cinemas), chess matches, and sports competitions took place. various sports, etc. Free access to the Moscow Kremlin was opened, and balls were organized in the Faceted Chamber. In the Park named after Gorky hosted an exhibition of abstract artists with the participation of the American Jackson Pollock.
At the festival, Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy's song based on the poems of Mikhail Matusovsky "Moscow Evenings" was performed for the first time. One of the competitions later became the TV show “Evening of Fun Questions” (now KVN). Among the festival laureates were clown Oleg Popov, singers Edita Piekha, Sofia Rotaru, Nani Bregvadze, ballet soloist Maris Liepa and others.
The VI WFMS in Moscow became one of the landmark events of the Thaw era, the first international event in the USSR, in which thousands of foreign guests took part. At the festival they had the opportunity to informally communicate with citizens of the Soviet Union. The festival marked the beginning of the widespread dissemination of “Western” fashion and increased interest in foreign mass culture.
XII VFMS
In 1985, Moscow hosted the youth forum for the second time. The XII World Festival of Youth and Students was held from July 27 to August 3. 26 thousand people from 157 countries took part in it.
The emblem of the XII VFMS was a daisy created back in 1957 with five multi-colored petals symbolizing the continents. However, in the core of the flower against the background of the globe, instead of the inscription “For peace and friendship,” a graphic image of a dove, a symbol of peace, was placed. The author of the updated emblem was the artist Rafael Masautov. The mascot of the festival was “Katyusha” - a Russian beauty in a sundress and kokoshnik.
According to tradition, the festival began with a solemn procession of its participants. On July 27, with the Peace March, members of the delegations marched along major highways of the capital, in particular along Komsomolsky Avenue. The opening and closing of the event took place at the Central Stadium. V.I. Lenin (now - Luzhniki). The festival torch was lit by the legendary military pilot Ivan Kozhedub from the Eternal Flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin walls. Then he was taken to the stadium by torchbearers - Lenin Komsomol Prize laureate, assembly mechanic Pavel Ratnikov and graduate student, daughter of the planet's first cosmonaut Galina Gagarina. After the lighting of the festival bowl, the “Hymn of the Democratic Youth of the World” was played.
The festival lasted eight days. There were meetings and seminars, discussions and round tables, rallies, various exhibitions and competitions, concerts of artistic groups of delegations and professional artists, and mass celebrations. Sports competitions were organized, including races for the “festival mile” (1985 m) and friendly matches in various sports (hockey, basketball, volleyball). The Peace Run was opened by the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch.
The Museum of Cosmonautics hosted a teleconference with the cosmonauts of the Soyuz T-13 spacecraft, Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh, who were in orbit. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR Anatoly Karpov and chess players from other countries (Hungary, Colombia, Portugal and Czechoslovakia) gave a session of simultaneous play on 1 thousand boards. Famous artists Herluf Bidstrup (Denmark) and Tair Salakhov (USSR) conducted master classes. More than 200 creative venues operated in the capital every day.
American singer Dean Reed, German rock singer Udo Lindenberg, the groups “Time Machine” and “Integral”, Valery Leontyev, Mikhail Muromov, Larisa Dolina, Ekaterina Semenova and others performed before the guests with concert programs. At the Olimpiysky sports complex in Ledovoy ball" was attended by famous figure skaters Marina Cherkasova, Igor Bobrin, Yuri Ovchinnikov and others. The song of the author-performer from Tolyatti Yuri Livshits "Waltz of Silence" became the final melody of the festival.
After the completion of the main program of the festival, on August 3-16, 1985, the international children's festival "Fireworks, peace! Fireworks, festival!" was held at the Artek pioneer camp.
Documentary films were made about the XII WFMS in 1985: “12th World. Pages of the Festival Diary”, “Round Dance of Peace and Friendship”, “Hello, 12th World”. On the eve of the festival, postage stamps with festival symbols, a commemorative coin of 1 ruble were issued, and a special draw of the state lottery was held. More than 7 thousand types of souvenir products were made with the symbols of the festival, among which was the “Katyusha” doll, which became popular. About 500 picturesque panels were installed on the streets of Moscow, and 450 text slogans and appeals were posted.
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.
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 the youth, 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 Festival of Youth and Students- an irregular festival of left-wing youth organizations, held since 1947. Organizers are the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFYD) and the International Union of Students (ISU). Since 1947, festivals have been held under the slogan “For Peace and Friendship”, since 1968 - under the slogan “For Solidarity, Peace and Friendship”
To prepare for the festival, an International Preparatory Committee and national preparatory committees are being created in the participating countries. The festival program includes sports competitions in various sports, political seminars and discussions, concerts, mass celebrations, as well as the obligatory colorful procession of delegations. [ ]
Story
After the end of the Second World War (October-November 1945), the World Youth Peace Conference was held in London. It was decided to create the World Federation of Democratic Youth and begin holding world festivals of youth and students.
First The world festival of youth and students took place in 1947 in Prague. 17 thousand people from 71 countries took part in it. This was followed by festivals in the capitals of Eastern Europe: Budapest (1949), Berlin (1951), Bucharest (1953) and Warsaw (1955). The first festivals were held every two years. The late 40s and early 50s saw an increase in the number of participants and the number of countries they represented. The number of participants increased to 30 thousand by the mid-50s. They have already represented more than 100 countries.
The initial objectives of the festival were the struggle for peace, for the rights of youth, for the independence of peoples, and the promotion of internationalism. Communist, socialist and religious organizations took an active part in the festivals. Representatives of a wide range of youth organizations opposing fascism and military dictatorships came to the festival. Representatives of radical leftist organizations, including those outlawed in their countries, were allowed to participate. Particular attention was paid to the issue of the inadmissibility of the revival of fascism and the incitement of a new world war.
Youth and student festivals provided citizens of the host country with the opportunity to communicate live with foreigners and find out what really interests young people abroad. This did not always correspond to the objectives of the organizers, and sometimes even contradicted them. For example, after the VI festival of 1957, dudes and black marketeers appeared in the USSR, and a fashion arose to give children foreign names.
The VI World Festival of 1957, held in Moscow, became the most widespread throughout the history of the festival movement. 34 thousand people took part in it. They represented 131 countries, which was a record at the time. At subsequent festivals the number of participants was smaller, but the record for the number of countries that were represented at the festival was broken.
Festivals were held not only on the territory of socialist countries, and the program was often so informal that the result of the festival was the opposite of the expectations of the heads of socialist delegations. In 1959, the VII Festival of Youth and Students took place for the first time in a capitalist country, in the capital of Austria, Vienna. Then the festival was hosted by Helsinki (1962) and Sofia (1968).
Since the 1960s, the gap between festivals began to increase to several years.
The gap of 6 years between the festivals of 1962 and 1968, previously held every 2-3 years, is explained by the fact that in 1965 the IX festival was scheduled to be held in Algeria, which gained independence from France in 1962. All preparatory measures were carried out, but in 1965 a military coup took place in Algeria, Houari Boumedienne came to power, proclaiming a course towards building a pragmatic economic and political system, taking into account Algerian specifics and without focusing on any models. A one-party system was established in the country. The IX festival was cancelled. It took place only three years later, in 1968, in the capital of Bulgaria - Sofia.
At the festivals, delegates from countries of capitalism and the socialist camp, including those who entered into military confrontation, could communicate in a friendly atmosphere. For example, from the USA and North Korea.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, each new festival took place in a new country. In 1973, the X World Festival of Youth and Students was held for the second time in Berlin. In the 1970s, the festival movement acquired a pronounced pro-communist overtones.
In 1978 XI festival was first carried out on the American continent- in the capital of Cuba, Havana.
By the 1980s, the festival, intended for free communication, had become a highly formalized event. At the XII World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscow in 1985, Soviet citizens who were not part of the delegations were not allowed to communicate with festival guests, and the program was designed to minimize the communication of foreigners with random, unverified people.
In 1989, the XIII World Festival of Youth and Students broke two records. Firstly, he took place for the first time in Asia. The capital of the DPRK, Pyongyang, hosted the guests of the festival. Secondly, this festival has become the most representative- guests from 177 countries of the world took part in it. A grand May Day stadium for 150,000 people was built especially for the festival, which to this day remains the most capacious stadium on Earth.
As a result of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a longest break- about 8 years. Thanks to the persistence of WFDY member organizations and the support of the Cuban government, the festival movement was revived in the second half of the 1990s. In 1997, the XIV Festival took place in Havana. Formalism disappeared, the festival returned to its original goals.
In 2001, the XV festival was held in Algeria. This festival has become the first to take place in Africa. This festival was attended by smallest number of participants in the entire history of the festival movement - 6,500 people.
The XVI World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Caracas (Venezuela) in 2005. 17 thousand people from 144 countries took part in it.
The XVII festival was successfully held in Pretoria, South Africa on December 13-21, 2010, and the XVIII in Ecuador in December 2013, bringing together over 8 thousand participants from 88 countries.
The next XIX Festival will take place in Russia in 2017. The decision to hold it was made at the international consultative meeting of WFYD and international student organizations held in Moscow on February 7, 2016, at the request of Russian youth organizations - members of WFYD. Only one of the WFDY's Russian member organizations, the Revolutionary Communist Youth Union, refused to sign the application, expressing fears that government officials would try to turn the festival into an expression of loyalty to the Russian authorities. Previously, the application was supported by the Administration of the President of Russia and the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, it was presented by the delegation of Rosmolodezh during the General Assembly of the WFDY in Cuba on November 10, 2015. The application was joined by the Russian Youth Union, the International Youth Center, etc. At the same time, the terms of the Festival and its dates activities have not been determined.
Dates and location of the Festival, as well as logo and motto “For peace, solidarity and social justice, we fight against imperialism - by respecting our past, we build our future!” were determined at the first meeting of the international preparatory committee in Caracas (Venezuela) on June 5, 2016. It was decided that the Festival will be held on October 14-22, 2017 in Moscow (ceremonial parade of delegations) and Sochi (the festival itself).
Hymn
The musical emblem of the festival is the Anthem of the Democratic Youth of the World (music by Anatoly Novikov, text by Lev Oshanin). The anthem was first performed at the Strahov Stadium in Prague at the opening of the 1st festival.
Chronology
| № | date | Place | Participants | Countries | Motto |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 25 - August 16, 1947 | 17 000 | 71 | “Youth, unite, forward to the future world!” | ||
| August 14-28, 1949 | 20 000 | 82 | “Youth, unite, forward to future peace, democracy, national independence and a better future for the people” | ||
| III | August 5-19, 1951 | 26 000 | 104 | "For peace and friendship - against nuclear weapons" | |
| August 2-16, 1953 | 30 000 | 111 | "For peace and friendship" | ||
| July 31 - August 14, 1955 | 30 000 | 114 | “For peace and friendship - against aggressive imperialist alliances” | ||
| July 28 - August 11, 1957 | 34 000 | 131 | "For peace and friendship" | ||
| VII | July 26 - August 4, 1959 | 18 000 | 112 | "For peace and friendship and peaceful coexistence" | |
| VIII | July 27 - August 5, 1962 | 18 000 | 137 | "For peace and friendship" | |
| July 28 - August 6, 1968 | 20 000 | 138 | "For solidarity, peace and friendship" | ||
| X | July 28 - August 5, 1973 | 25 600 | 140 | ||
| XI | July 29 - August 7, 1978 | 18 500 | 145 | "For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship" | |
| XII | July 27 - August 3, 1985 | 26 000 | 157 | "For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship" | |
| XIII | July 1-8, 1989 | 22 000 | 177 | "For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship" | |
| XIV | July 29 - August 5, 1997 | 12 325 | 136 | "For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship" | |
| XV | August 8-16, 2001 | 6 500 | 110 | “We globalize the struggle for peace, solidarity, development, against imperialism” | |
| XVI | August 4-19, 2005 | 17 000 | 144 | “For peace and solidarity, we fight against imperialism and war” | |
| XVII | December 13-21, 2010 | 15 000 | 126 | "For victory over imperialism, for world peace, solidarity and social change" | |
| XVIII | December 7 - 13, 2013 | 8 000 | 88 | “Youth united against imperialism, for world peace, solidarity and social change” | |
| XIX | October 14 - 22, 2017 | ~20 000 | ~150 | “For peace, solidarity and social justice, we fight against imperialism - by respecting our past, we build our future!” |
The initiator of the first festival, which took place 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 more actively supported this event 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 friendly countries of Eastern Europe - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the German Democratic Republic.
The festival came to the USSR only in 1957, at the peak of the Khrushchev thaw and the authorities’ attempts to lift the Iron Curtain. For the first time in many decades, so many foreigners came to the Soviet Union, not only from countries that were ideologically close, but also the British, Americans, Belgians, and French.
The festival lasted only two weeks, but its influence on Soviet society and everyday life is difficult to overestimate. For the first time, Soviet people had the opportunity to freely communicate with foreigners; it is believed that the festival accelerated the pace of change in the Soviet Union, in particular, it marked the beginning of the dissident movement in the country and the development of counterculture. A hole in the Iron Curtain had indeed been breached.
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 festival was attended by famous personalities: the President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch, singer Dean Reed, Bob Dylan, Larisa Dolina, Valery Leontyev, Ekaterina Semenova, Sofia Rotaru, the groups “Time Machine” and “Integral”, “Earthlings” performed at the 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” seems to have become irrelevant. As a result, only one festival took place in the entire decade - in Havana in 1997.
In the next decade, the political situation in the world changed, and the youth movement intensified. In the 2000s, festivals were held in Algeria (2001), Caracas (2005) and Pretoria (2010). The last youth gathering to date was hosted by the capital of Ecuador, Quito, in 2013.
In October 2017, the festival will come to Russian soil again: 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 interested in Russian culture.
How the symbol of the Youth Festival has changed over 60 years
The chamomile 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 1957 festival was chosen by a special commission - an all-Union competition was announced, in which anyone could take part.
"Country" flower
The finals of the competition included 300 sketches that were sent from all over the country, but the jury chose a drawing by Moscow graphic artist Konstantin Kuzginov. In his work, specialists were attracted by the combination of simplicity of execution and uniqueness - a clear daisy with multi-colored petals, a globe in the middle and the laconic motto “For Peace and Friendship” perfectly conveyed the idea of the festival, was bright and memorable.
“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. A flower. The core is the globe, and there are 5 continental petals around it,” the artist recalled in one of his interviews.
Another advantage of Kuzginov’s emblem is that his daisy did not contain complex details, the presence of which “suffered” the competitors’ sketches. After all, if the scale were 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 daisy as a permanent emblem for all subsequent events.
At the XII World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1985, the chamomile remained almost unchanged: the same multi-colored petals, only in the core, against the background of a globe, instead of the slogan “For Peace and Friendship” there was now the profile of a dove - a symbol of peace.
In October 2017 in Sochi, the five-color daisy will again decorate the International Festival of Youth and Students, already the nineteenth in a row. 60 years later, the holiday’s emblem has remained almost the same: a flower with a globe and a dove of peace in the center.
Dove Picasso
In addition to the daisy emblem, each festival had its own symbol. In 1957, it became a white dove with an olive branch in the beak of Pablo Picasso's hand. He painted it for the First World Peace Congress, which took place in 1949 in Paris. The artist himself subsequently interpreted the image of the 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 permanent 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 kokoshnik, which was formed by the petals of the festival daisy. This idea came to the mind of the young artist Mikhail Veremenko six months before the start of the holiday. The author chose the image of the child not by chance: he personified a peaceful future - according to the author, he copied Katyusha’s face from his two-year-old niece. The girl’s beloved dove again appeared in her hands - a sign that the younger generation will not fight. Katyusha was very popular: wooden, tin, and paper dolls were sold everywhere and were in the home of almost every Moscow family, and the name Ekaterina became one of the most popular names for newborn girls that year.
Festival anthem: “You can’t strangle this song, you can’t kill it!”
The main song of the World Festival of Youth and Students since 1947 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-40s, 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 1st World Festival of Youth and Students in Prague. The audience loved it so much that it became the permanent anthem of the forum.
Later, the poet Lev Oshanin recalled: “This anthem is associated with the most powerful experience that can only befall the composer or poet who wrote the song. I remember how in Berlin in 1951 a million people stood at the final rally of the festival. And when the rally ended, "All this million sang our song in different languages. People threw their hands up, intertwined them, and the square swayed as if to the beat of the song. Can you imagine what I felt then? It’s 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, and recalled the tragic experience of the recent war. The chorus line “You can’t strangle this song, you can’t kill it!” became winged.
Venue of the Festival
Sochi will become the 17th city to host the Festival. But for the first time in the history of the festival movement, its events will take place essentially 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: Europe, Africa, South America. The festivals were hosted twice by Moscow, Havana and Berlin, once each by Prague, Sofia, Caracas and many other cities.
In 2017, the main venue for the forum will be Sochi, where about 20 thousand guests will come. The main events of the Festival will take place in the Olympic Park, and the opening and closing ceremonies will take place at the Bolshoi Ice Palace.
Before the official opening of the holiday, a welcome parade-carnival will also be held in the capital - students will remember the famous Moscow Festivals of 57 and 85.
For the first time in the history of the World Festival of Youth and Students, in addition to the main program, there will also be a regional program in 15 cities of Russia: its guests will be two thousand foreigners who will be able to become better acquainted with the culture and traditions of the Russian peoples. 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 Soviet youth in the 50s as the 1957 World Festival of Youth and Students. This event discovered such young artists as Nani Bregvadze, Edita Piekha, the Festival is mentioned in the film “Girl with a Guitar” starring Lyudmila Gurchenko, 125 films from 30 countries of the world were presented in Moscow cinemas in those days, including a Soviet film "Height" by Alexandra Zarchi and the French painting "The World of Silence" by Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
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, perked up. The girls very carefully watched how the foreign women were dressed, they even sketched models of their dresses and then either sewed similar ones themselves or placed orders in the atelier based on these sketches.
In 1985, the Soviet Union was much more integrated into myrrh culture than in 1957. In particular, American rock singer Bob Dylan came to the festival. 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 Evgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky the day before the official opening of the festival. The latter recalled that “the poetry evening was not particularly advertised - on those posters that were found in the city, the fact of poetic performances was simply stated, but no names were named.” The result was 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, and calmed him down.”
However, after this 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 Leontyev, Ekaterina Semenova, Mikhail Muromov, the groups “Time Machine” and “Integral” performed at Moscow venues in those days. There were dozens of dance floors in the capital - it was during the holiday that Moscow was overwhelmed by the “disco of the 80s.”
World Festival of Youth and Students 1957
The holiday took place at the peak of the Khrushchev Thaw and for the first time during the years of Soviet power it was able to lift the “Iron Curtain”
In order to take part in the International Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, 34 thousand foreigners from 131 countries of the world came to Moscow.
An emblem was specially invented for the event - a flower, the petals of which, according to the author, Moscow graphic artist Konstantin Kuzginov, symbolized the 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 Prospekt Mira, the 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 accessible to visitors, 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 pace of change in the Soviet Union, in particular, it marked the beginning of the dissident movement in the country and the development of counterculture, which was facilitated, among other things, by the exhibition of abstract artists held in Gorky Park with the participation of the American Jackson Pollock. A hole in the Iron Curtain had been breached.
World Festival of Youth and Students 1985
The 1985 Moscow Forum 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 striking event.
The grand opening of the XII World Festival of Youth and Students took place, as in 1957, at the capital's Luzhniki stadium. The festival torch was lit from the Eternal Flame near the walls of the Kremlin by military pilot Ivan Kozhedub, and it was delivered to the stadium by 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 versus 131), but less massive - this time 26 thousand people came to Moscow, whereas at the previous festival there were 34 thousand.
The emblem of the XII WFMS was a daisy created back in 1957 with multi-colored petals symbolizing the five continents. However, in the core of the flower against the background of the 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
They only prepared with such care for the 1980 Olympics: 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. Admission to festival events also had gradations: an ordinary student could only get into general evenings, dance floors, cinemas and lectures in cultural centers. Only selected guests attended the opening and closing ceremonies.
Eight days of friendship
The 1985 festival was shorter than in 1957: only eight days. During this time, Moscow turned into a cultural and sports venue, where concerts of musicians and singers, competitions of athletes and master classes of artists, and mass celebrations took place.
In those days, singers Udo Lindenberg, Dean Reed, Valery Leontyev, 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, and round tables were organized.
Feast of Cosmopolitans
Despite the fact that people of different nationalities, beliefs and political views came to the festival, a very friendly atmosphere reigned at the festival. The humorous expression “Peace, friendship, chewing gum!”, which was born precisely at the youth festival, in those days perfectly reflected the mood of its guests.
Vladimir Yanis was a student at RUDN University in '85 and took part in festive performances with a group of classmates from Latin America. He especially remembered the performance at VDNKh: then he saw his idol for the first time - 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 in a moment the whole hall was in his power,” recalls Vladimir. “Those were wonderful days! Then, after the performances , we wandered around Moscow until three o’clock in the morning, there were a lot of people in the center, and every now and then we could hear foreign speech 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 goodwill ambassador of the festival was the “Soviet Samantha Smith” - pioneer Katya Lycheva.
The closing ceremony of the festival shocked the guests with its splendor and scope: the dances of several hundred artists, live panels with the symbols of the festival, and a grandiose fireworks were included in 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 16, 1985, the international children's festival "Salute, peace! Fireworks, festival!" was held at Artek.
