Festival movement in the world. the first festival in the USSR. The story of how the festival daisy blossomed - a symbol of the World Festival of Youth and Students

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A concert is taking place on the stage in front of the Manege. The arena is also decorated with huge posters (sorry it’s hard to see in the photo). On the left on the facade there is a bomb flying into a burning house, on the right there is a snake entwining globe with an inscription on it something about the atom, and in the center of the facade, right above the stage, is a large dove of peace.
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Each of the letters in the word “Festival” consists of many frames of Soviet films of those years.
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You'd think there was a film festival going on. A globe wrapped in film in the same (apparently) unidentified park.
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There is also a street installation of photographic portraits of film actors and singers who were popular at that time. Moreover, not only Soviet ones were present, but also French and Indian ones (my grandfather told me their last names, but I didn’t remember).
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The young man on the left looks a lot like Antonio Banderas (only he was not born yet at that moment :-))
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The girl in the center seemed to me similar to Svetlana Svetlichnaya, but she was only 17 years old at that time, and she appeared in films for the first time only in 1960... so it’s unlikely to be her.
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Actor Alexei Batalov (who has not yet starred in the cult Soviet film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”) has a very exotic neighborhood here. :-) As they later suggested to me, this is Nargis, the legend of Indian cinema.
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And here, together with Ellina Bystritskaya, if I’m not mistaken, an Indian actor appeared. Again, information from a tip from people in the know: "Raj Kapoor is not just an actor, he is the era of Indian cinema."
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Next come artists completely unknown to me. :-)
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Let's move on from the festival surroundings to the action itself. Let's see what was happening on the streets of Moscow on those warm July days...
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And now there were so many people that it was impossible to squeeze through.
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And then there was a parade along the Garden Ring.
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The number of people literally hanging from all available windows and doors, balconies and roofs of the surrounding houses is impressive. Everyone was interested in looking at each other...
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...exchange souvenirs.
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So we got to the Foreign Ministry building. There was also a small stage at its entrance.
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VI World Festival for youth and students opened on July 28, 1957 in Moscow.

The festival's guests included 34,000 people from 131 countries.

The festival lasted two weeks and became in every sense a significant and explosive event for Soviet boys and girls - and the most widespread in its history. It took place in the middle of Khrushchev's thaw and was remembered for its openness.

The festival was prepared over two years. This was an action planned by the authorities to “liberate” the people from Stalinist ideology. Foreign countries arrived in shock: the Iron Curtain was opening!

The idea of ​​the Moscow festival was supported by many Western statesmen - even Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, politicians from Greece, Italy, Finland, France, not to mention the pro-Soviet presidents of Egypt, Indonesia, Syria, the leaders of Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal and Ceylon.

34 thousand guests from 131 countries came to the Moscow Festival of Youth and Students, two thousand journalists were accredited at the press center. At that time in the USSR, the word “foreigner” was synonymous with the words “enemy”, “spy”, with the exception perhaps of representatives of the countries of the socialist camp, but even they were treated with suspicion. Any foreigner immediately became exotic. And suddenly thousands of people from all over the world, of all colors and shades, appeared on the streets of Moscow.

Thanks to the festival, the capital received the Druzhba park in Khimki, the Tourist hotel complex, the Luzhniki stadium and Ikarus buses. The Kremlin, guarded day and night from enemies and friends, became completely free for visits; youth balls were held in the Palace of Facets. Central Park culture and recreation named after Gorky suddenly canceled the entrance fee.

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

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

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

“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 horns of cars and the police trills, a crowd rose, never seen on the streets of Moscow. 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.

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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 can easily 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 almost 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 it was in this very “iron curtain” that a huge hole was made, the name of which was 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. Geographic map has found concrete embodiment. The world really turned out to be amazingly diverse. And in this diversity of races, characters, languages, customs, clothes, melodies and rhythms - 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 in those days or went to bed. I was just happy. All 14 days, from morning to evening.

ABOUT One evening we brought a group of Frenchmen to visit our classmate, in a huge Moscow communal apartment, converted from former numbers. 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 contemporary 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 you know, living life 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 KRIVOSHEYEV, 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 Moscow Komsomol Committee, Mikhail Davydov: “With 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 the 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 survive for 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...

The VI World Festival of Youth and Students opened on July 28, 1957 in Moscow. Closing was on August 11th. The festival's guests included 34,000 people from 131 countries. The slogan of the festival is “For peace and friendship.” It was preceded by the All-Union Festival of Soviet Youth.
The symbol of the youth forum was the Dove of Peace, invented by Pablo Picasso. For the festival, the Druzhba Park, the Ukraine Hotel, and the Luzhniki Stadium were opened in Moscow. Hungarian Ikarus buses appeared in the capital for the first time, and the first GAZ-21 Volga cars were produced. The Moscow Kremlin was opened for free visits.

Moscow was literally buzzing. The main influx of people was concentrated in the center, on Gorky Streets, Pushkinskaya Square, Marx Avenue, and the Garden Ring. The youth communicated, sang songs, listened to jazz, discussed about the recently banned impressionists, about Hemingway and Remarque, Yesenin and Zoshchenko, about everything that worried young minds.

For the first time in many years, the “Iron Curtain” was opened, dividing the world into two camps. For Soviet people, the 6th World Festival changed their views on fashion, behavior, and lifestyle, accelerating the pace of change. Khrushchev's “thaw”, the dissident movement, a breakthrough in literature and painting - all this began precisely in the whirlwind of the festival.

For the residents of Moscow it came as a real shock, everything they saw and felt was so unexpected. Now it is even useless to try to explain to people of new generations what was hidden behind the word “foreigner” back then.

Constant propaganda aimed at instilling hatred of everything foreign led to the fact that this very word aroused a mixed feeling of fear and admiration in the Soviet citizen. During the day and evening, the delegations were busy with meetings and speeches. But late in the evening and at night free communication began. Naturally, the authorities tried to establish control over contacts, but they did not have enough hands.

During the festival, a kind of sexual revolution took place in Moscow. Young people, and especially girls, seemed to have broken free.

Puritanical Soviet society suddenly witnessed events that no one expected. The shape and scale of what was happening was amazing. By night, when it was getting dark, crowds of girls from all over Moscow made their way to the places where foreign delegations lived.

These were student dormitories and hotels on the outskirts of the city. It was impossible for the girls to break into the buildings, since everything was cordoned off by the police and vigilantes. But no one could prohibit foreign guests from leaving the hotels. No courtship, no false coquetry. The newly formed couples retreated into the darkness, into the fields, into the bushes, knowing exactly what they would immediately do.

The image of a mysterious, shy and chaste Russian Komsomol girl did not exactly collapse, but rather was enriched with some new, unexpected feature - reckless, desperate debauchery.

The reaction of units of the moral and ideological order was not long in coming. Flying squads were urgently organized, equipped with lighting devices, scissors and hairdressing clippers.

They didn’t touch foreigners, they dealt only with girls, and since there were too many of them, the vigilantes had no interest in finding out their identity or simply arresting them. The caught lovers of night adventures had part of their hair cut off, such a “clearing” was made, after which the girl had only one thing left to do - cut her hair bald. Immediately after the festival, Moscow residents developed a particularly keen interest in girls wearing a tightly tied scarf on their heads...

Crowds of foreigners wandering around the city from morning to night provoked a surge in activity among black marketeers.

They bought “green” ones from foreign guests at a little more expensive than at the official rate (at that time in the USSR the ratio of 4 rubles to 10 dollars was voluntarily established), and then sold them on the black market at a 10-fold profit. It was during the VI World Youth Festival that the future “pillars” of the illegal foreign exchange market Rokotov, Faibyshenko, Yakovlev, whose high-profile case in 1961 ended in a death sentence.

A lot of drama happened in families, in educational institutions and in enterprises where it was more difficult to hide the lack of hair than just on the street, in the subway or trolleybus.

And in the spring of the following year, 1958, Moscow was covered by a “black wave”. Dark-skinned babies appeared one after another in the capital's maternity hospitals. It didn’t take long to look for the reason for this demographic phenomenon, and therefore a new term appeared in the language - “children of the festival.”

For the youth forum, the factories sewed women's scarves, dresses and skirts in large quantities, decorated with the festival emblem - a stylized flower with five multi-colored petals.

Such clothes were in great demand in the USSR in those days.

During the holiday, the Soviet “leadership authorities” allowed an unprecedented “action of freethinking.” An exhibition of abstract artists, including the famous Jackson Pollock, leader of the American Expressionists, was organized in Gorky Park.

On music competition, which was part of the festival program, the song “ Moscow evenings" The future “hit of all times” was performed by singer Vladimir Troshin.
http://www.liveinternet.ru/

This postcard from that year is kept in my collection. Interestingly, the flags of the USA and Cuba on the ball are located next to each other. Who could have imagined then that in 5 years there would be a Cuban missile crisis and the world would be on the eve of a world war, and after 58 years these countries would restore diplomatic relations. relationship...

Our flag is next to the UK flag. I was born in August '57. It’s interesting that in 55 years a part of my life will be connected with this country...

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

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

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 daily life difficult to overestimate. For the first time soviet people gained 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 dissident movement in the country, 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 became no best time For 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). Last on at the moment the youth gathering 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, best representatives 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 sketches of competitors. 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 once 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 did not choose the image of the child 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 about the execution of students at the University of Athens during civil war in Greece.

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 different languages sang our song. People threw their hands up, intertwined them, and the square swayed as if to the rhythm of the song. Can you imagine what I felt then? It's nice that there is a song that brings people together."

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 a year. different corners 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: two thousand foreigners will be its guests, who will be able to become better acquainted with the culture and traditions 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 with Lyudmila Gurchenko in leading role“Girl with a Guitar”, in Moscow cinemas in those days 125 films from 30 countries were presented, including the Soviet film by Alexander Zarkhi “Height” and the French film by Jacques-Yves Cousteau “The World of Silence”.

The VI Festival of Youth and Students in the USSR significantly influenced the tastes and culture of young people: jazz and rock and roll became popular, giving a powerful impetus modern painting and sculpture, fashion changed - jeans, banana pants, 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 International festival 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 Eternal Flame near the walls of the Kremlin, military pilot Ivan Kozhedub, and he was delivered to the stadium by assembly fitter Pavel Ratnikov and the daughter of the first cosmonaut of the planet Galina Gagarina.

The holiday was held under the slogan “For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship.” Compared to the 1957 festival, it turned out to be more representative (157 countries 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

Only the Olympics-80 were prepared with such care: on the eve of the event, Moscow became a closed city for ordinary citizens who do 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 were organized student organizations, seminars, discussions, round tables.

Feast of Cosmopolitans

Despite the fact that people came to the festival different nationalities, beliefs and political views There was a very friendly atmosphere 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."

In Moscow in those days there were many famous guests. 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 pomp and scale: dances of several hundred artists, live panels with the symbols of the festival, and a grandiose fireworks show made it into the news chronicles of the most famous publications in the world.

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

HISTORY OF WORLD FESTIVALS OF YOUTH AND STUDENTS

In October - November 1945, the World Conference of Democratic Youth was held in London. About 600 representatives from 63 countries took part in it: 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 of 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 Congress of Socialist Youth 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 existing in 1929-40 International Union liberal and democratic youth)…

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; 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 horns of cars and the police trills, a crowd rose, never seen on the streets of Moscow. 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 can easily 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 almost 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 it was in this very “iron curtain” that a huge hole was made, the name of which was 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 - 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 in those days or went to bed. 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 City 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 people - 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...