Vi world festival 1957. World festivals of youth and students in the USSR: symbols, emblems, talismans
RGANTD continues to publish amateur photographs of Boris Evseevich Chertok from his unique collection of photographic documents, the first photographs of which date back to the 1930s. XX century. Part of the photographic documents from the archive of B.E. Chertoka (Fund No. 36) was published earlier:
Chertok Boris Evseevich (03/01/1912, Lodz (Poland) - 12/14/2011, Moscow) - one of the founders of the theory and practice of creating control systems for rockets and spacecraft, founder scientific school, academician Russian Academy Sciences, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Full Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Hero Socialist Labor, laureate of Lenin (1957) and State Prize(1976), awarded two Orders of Lenin (1956, 1961), the Order October Revolution, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Order of the Red Star, Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree. With him direct participation the first ballistic missiles were created, the first artificial satellites Earth, automatic vehicles to the Moon, Mars and Venus, Molniya communication satellites, Earth sensing satellites, manned spaceships and orbital stations. and other objects.
In November 1945, representatives of 63 states decided to hold World Festivals of Youth and Students. The first festival was held in Prague in 1947, it was attended by 17 thousand people from 71 countries, then festivals were held in Budapest (1949), Berlin (1951), Bucharest (1953), Warsaw (1955). ). And finally, in July 1957, Moscow hosted the VI World Festival of Youth and Students.
The festival, which took place from July 28 to August 11, 1957, turned out to be the largest in terms of the number of people and events - 34 thousand people from 131 countries of the world arrived in Moscow.
For the 60th anniversary of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow, photographs of the first day of the festival, namely the passage and passage of foreign delegations through Moscow on July 28, 1957, are published for the first time. Of particular interest are photographs not only of the festival participants, but also views of that Moscow in the late 1950s. x years, which no longer exists.
The number of festival participants was so significant that there were not enough buses to transport everyone at once. Then it was decided to use trucks (GAZ-51A, ZIL-150, ZIL-121), decorated with the main symbol of the festival - the daisy, its image can be seen in the photograph of the Main Entrance State Library USSR named after V.I. Lenin. In the center of the daisy is an image of the globe with the inscription “For peace and friendship”, and at the edges are five multi-colored petals, symbolizing the five continents: the red petal is Europe, the yellow petal is Asia, the blue petal is America, the purple petal is Africa, and the green petal is Australia. The entire cars were painted in the same colors, the sides were covered with shields, and the most recognizable symbols of the states participating in the festival were applied to the shields and cabin. Unfortunately, B.E. Chertok used black and white film for shooting, which did not convey all color scheme. Cars were assigned specifically to each delegation in accordance with the color of their continent and the symbol of the country. The procession of festival participants passed from the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition along B. Galushkina Street adjacent to Mira Avenue, to Luzhniki, where its grand opening took place.
Prepared the publication L. Uspenskaya with the participation of a student from the Russian State University for the Humanities O. Berezovskaya.
Scanning and description of photographic documents A. Ionov.
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Motorcycles leading car columns with delegates from Guatemala and French Guiana at the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. July 28, 1957 RGANTD. F. 36. Op. 9. D. 264. Motorcycles heading car columns with delegates from Guatemala and French Guiana, at the VI World Youth Festival and students in Moscow. July 28, 1957. RGANTD. F. 36. Op. 9. D. 264. |
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VI World Festival of Youth and Students - a festival that opened on July 28, 1957 in Moscow,
I, personally, didn’t even catch it in the project, but in the next 85 years I got a full measure.
Someday I’ll post a photo... “Yankees out of Grenada - Commies out of Afghanistan”... They used posters to hide from cameras..
And the guests of that festival were 34,000 people from 131 countries. The slogan of the festival is “For peace and friendship.”
The festival was prepared over two years. This was an action planned by the authorities to “liberate” the people from Stalinist ideology. Foreign countries arrived in shock: the Iron Curtain was opening! The idea of the Moscow festival was supported by many Western statesmen - even Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, politicians from Greece, Italy, Finland, France, not to mention the pro-Soviet presidents of Egypt, Indonesia, Syria, the leaders of Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal and Ceylon.
Thanks to the festival, the capital received the Druzhba park in Khimki, the Tourist hotel complex, the Luzhniki stadium and Ikarus buses. The first GAZ-21 Volga cars and the first Rafik, the RAF-10 Festival minibus, were produced for the event. The Kremlin, guarded day and night from enemies and friends, became completely free for visits; 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” by the TV editorial office “Festivalnaya”. There was a discussion about the recently banned impressionists, about Ciurlionis, Hemingway and Remarque, Yesenin and Zoshchenko, about Ilya Glazunov, who was coming into fashion, with his illustrations for the works of Dostoevsky, who was not entirely desirable in the USSR. The festival changed views Soviet people on fashion, behavior, lifestyle and accelerated the pace of change. Khrushchev's "thaw" dissident movement, a breakthrough in literature and painting - all this began soon after the festival.
The symbol of the youth forum, which was attended by delegates from left-wing youth organizations around the world, was the Dove of Peace, invented by Pablo Picasso. The festival became in every sense a significant and explosive event for boys and girls - and the most widespread in its history. It took place in the middle of Khrushchev's thaw and was remembered for its openness. Foreigners who arrived communicated freely with Muscovites; this was not persecuted. The Moscow Kremlin and Gorky Park were open to the public. During the two festival weeks, over eight hundred events were held.
At the opening ceremony in Luzhniki, a dance and sports number was performed by 3,200 athletes, and 25 thousand pigeons were released from the eastern stand.
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.
For two weeks there was mass fraternization on the streets and in parks. Pre-arranged regulations were violated, events dragged on past midnight and smoothly turned into festivities until dawn.
Those who knew languages rejoiced at the opportunity to show off their erudition and talk about the recently banned impressionists, Hemingway and Remarque. The guests were shocked by the erudition of their interlocutors, who grew up in “ iron curtain”, and young Soviet intellectuals - by the fact that foreigners do not value the happiness of freely reading any authors and do not know anything 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 an affair with a foreigner,” as would have happened recently.
The ensemble "Friendship" and Edita Piekha with the program "Songs of the Peoples of the World" won gold medal and the title of festival laureates. The song performed at the closing ceremony was “ Moscow evenings"performed by Vladimir Troshin and Edita Piekha became a business card USSR.
Fashion for jeans, sneakers, rock and roll and badminton began to spread in the country. The musical superhits “Rock around the clock”, “Anthem of Democratic Youth”, “If only the boys of the whole Earth...” and others became popular.
Dedicated to the festival feature film“Girl with a Guitar”: in the music store where saleswoman Tanya Fedosova (Spanish Lyudmila Gurchenko) works, preparations for the festival are underway, and at the end of the film, the festival delegates perform at a concert in the store (Tanya also performs with some of them). Other films dedicated to the festival are “The Sailor from the Comet”, “Chain Reaction”, “The Road to Paradise”.
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“Ogonyok”, 1957, No. 1, January.
“The year 1957 has arrived, a festival year. Let's take a look at what will happen in Moscow at the VI World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship, and visit those who are preparing for the holiday today... There are few pigeons in our photo. But this is just a rehearsal. You see pigeons from the Kauchuk plant, under the very sky, at the height of a ten-story city building, Komsomol members and the youth of the plant have equipped an excellent room for the birds with central heating and hot water.”
The festival consisted of a huge number of planned events and simple unorganized and uncontrolled communication of people. During the day and evening, the delegations were busy with meetings and speeches. But late in the evening and at night free communication began. Naturally, the authorities tried to establish control over the contacts, but they did not have enough hands, since the tracers turned out to be a drop in the ocean. The weather was excellent, and crowds of people literally flooded the main highways. To better see what was happening, people climbed onto ledges and roofs of houses. Due to the influx of curious people, the roof of the Shcherbakovsky department store, located on Kolkhoznaya Square, on the corner of Sretenka and the Garden Ring, collapsed. After this, the department store was renovated for a long time, opened briefly, and then demolished. At night, people “gathered in the center of Moscow, on the roadway of Gorky Street, near the Mossovet, on Pushkinskaya Square, on Marx Avenue.
Disputes arose at every step and on every occasion, except, perhaps, politics. Firstly, they were afraid, and most importantly, they were not very interested in it in its pure form. However, in fact, any debate had a political nature, be it literature, painting, fashion, not to mention music, especially jazz. We discussed the impressionists that had recently been banned in our country, Ciurlionis, Hemingway and Remarque, Yesenin and Zoshchenko, and Ilya Glazunov, who was coming into fashion, with his illustrations for the works of Dostoevsky, who was not entirely desirable in the USSR. Actually, these were not so much disputes as the first attempts to freely express their opinions to others and defend them. I remember how on bright nights there were groups of people standing on the pavement of Gorky Street, in the center of each of them several people were heatedly discussing something. The rest, surrounding them in a tight ring, listened, gaining their wits, getting used to this very process - the free exchange of opinions. These were the first lessons of democracy, the first experience of getting rid of fear, the first, completely new experiences of uncontrolled communication.
During the festival, a kind of sexual revolution took place in Moscow. Young people, and especially girls, seemed to have broken free. Puritanical Soviet society suddenly witnessed events that no one expected and which shocked even me, who was then an ardent supporter of free sex. The shape and scale of what was happening was amazing. Several reasons were at work here. Beautiful warm weather, general euphoria of freedom, friendship and love, craving for foreigners and most importantly - the accumulated protest against all this puritanical pedagogy, false and unnatural.
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. One of these typical places was the “Tourist” hotel complex, built behind VDNKh. At that time, this was the edge of Moscow, followed by collective farm fields. It was impossible for the girls to break into the buildings, since everything was cordoned off by security officers and vigilantes. But no one could prohibit foreign guests from leaving the hotels.
“Ogonyok”, 1957, No. 33 August.
“...A big and free conversation is taking place today at the festival. And it was this frank, friendly exchange of opinions that confused some bourgeois journalists who came to the festival. Their newspapers apparently demand an “Iron Curtain,” scandals, and “communist propaganda.” But there is none of this on the streets. At the festival there is dancing, singing, laughter and a lot of serious conversation. A conversation people need."
Events developed at the highest possible speed. No courtship, no false coquetry. The newly formed couples retreated into the darkness, into the fields, into the bushes, knowing exactly what they would immediately do. They didn't go particularly far, so the space around them was filled quite tightly, but in the dark it didn't matter. The image of a mysterious, shy and chaste Russian Komsomol girl did not exactly collapse, but rather was enriched with some new, unexpected feature - reckless, desperate debauchery.
The reaction of units of the moral and ideological order was not long in coming. Flying squads were urgently organized in trucks, equipped with lighting devices, scissors and hairdressing clippers. When trucks with vigilantes, according to the raid plan, unexpectedly drove out into the fields and turned on all the headlights and lamps, then the true scale of what was happening emerged. They didn’t touch foreigners, they dealt only with girls, and since there were too many of them, the vigilantes had no interest in finding out their identity or simply arresting them. The caught lovers of night adventures had part of their hair cut off, such a “clearing” was made, after which the girl had only one thing left to do - cut her hair bald. Immediately after the festival, Moscow residents developed a particularly keen interest in girls wearing a tightly tied scarf on their heads... Many dramas happened in families, in educational institutions and in enterprises where it was more difficult to hide the lack of hair than just on the street, in the subway or trolleybus. It turned out to be even more difficult to hide the babies who appeared nine months later, often not similar to their own mother either in skin color or eye shape.
International friendship knew no bounds, and when the wave of enthusiasm subsided, numerous “children of the festival” remained like nimble crabs on the sand, wet from girlish tears—contraception was tight in the Land of the Soviets.
In a summary statistical extract prepared for the leadership of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. It records the birth of 531 post-festival children (of all races). For Moscow with a population of five million (at that time), it was vanishingly small.
Naturally, I tried to visit first of all where foreign musicians performed. A huge platform was built on Pushkin Square, on which “concerts of various groups were held day and evening. It was there that I first saw an English ensemble in the skiffle style, and, in my opinion, led by Lonnie Donigan himself. The impression was quite strange. Elderly and very young people played together, using, along with ordinary acoustic guitars various household and improvised items such as a can-double bass, a washboard, pots, etc. In the Soviet press there was a reaction to this genre in the form of statements like: “This is what the bourgeoisie have come to, they play on washboards.” But then everything fell silent, since “skiffle” has folk roots, and folklore in the USSR was sacred.
The most fashionable and hard to find at the festival were jazz concerts. There was a special excitement around them, fueled by the authorities, who tried to somehow keep them secret by distributing passes among Komsomol activists. In order to “get through” to such concerts, great skill was required.
PS. In 1985, Moscow again hosted participants and guests of the Youth Festival, already the twelfth. The festival became one of the first high-profile international events during perestroika. With its help, the Soviet authorities hoped to change for the better the gloomy image of the USSR - the “evil empire.” Considerable funds were allocated for the event. Moscow was cleared of unfavorable elements, roads and streets were put in order. But they tried to keep festival guests away from Muscovites: only people who had passed Komsomol and party verification were allowed to communicate with guests. The unity that existed in 1957 during the first Moscow festival no longer happened.
11. 05. 2016 3 280Interview with Lyubov Borisova, daughter of Konstantin Mikhailovich Kuzginov, a Moscow artist, author of the emblem of the World Festival of Youth and Students.
The ideas of the World Festival of Youth and Students are succinctly and succinctly reflected in its symbol - the dear and beloved festival daisy. It is noteworthy that it was created in the Soviet Union by the Moscow artist Konstantin Mikhailovich Kuzginov.
– Tell us how your father’s idea earned worldwide recognition?
– The basis for the success that befell my father in his work on the emblem of the VI Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow was the fact that how professional artist by that time he had already created a number of posters that decorated festivals in Budapest and Berlin in 1949 and 1951. But let's go back to 1957. An All-Union competition was announced to create an emblem for the festival, in which anyone could take part. In total, about 300 sketches from all over the Union were presented. The jury immediately drew attention to my father's flower, which was simple, but at the same time unique. The fact is that the sketches sent to the competition either repeated Pablo Picasso’s dove, which was the symbol of the first youth festival, or suffered from the complexity of the drawing. The latter was unacceptable, since when the scale was changed, for example to a breastplate, the emblem lost its meaning. Vasily Ardamatsky in his book “Five Petals” writes that “real art does not tolerate repetition,” so the idea associated with the image of a dove also did not become relevant. As the newspapers reported at the time, the emblem won the hearts of the participants of the world youth festival. Therefore, in 1958 Congress of Vienna The World Federation of Democratic Youth announced that Konstantin Kuzginov’s daisy was taken as a permanent basis for all subsequent forums. Now the whole world knows this emblem. Today it is the starting point for the upcoming 60th anniversary of the festival of youth and students of Russia.
– How did the festival daisy bloom?
– In one of the interviews, my father said: “I wondered: what is a festival? And he answered like this - youth, friendship, peace and life. What more precisely can symbolize all this? While working on sketches of the emblem, I was at the dacha when flowers were blooming everywhere. The association was born quickly and surprisingly simply. Flower. Core - globe, and around there are 5 continental petals.” The petals frame the blue globe of the Earth, on which the festival motto is written: “For peace and friendship.” I also remember he said that he was inspired as an athlete by the Olympic rings - a symbol of the unity of athletes around the world. Festival daisy is so firmly rooted in the memory of generations and the culture of the festival that today, in my opinion, it is extremely difficult to come up with something new, more capacious and concise. It is very important to preserve it, because it is the history and heritage of our country.
– You are very collected interesting collection various items with festival symbols.
– Yes, my dad started collecting it. Then I continued. This unique collection artifacts. And it’s great when everyday things are decorated with the emblem of such a bright event. In the collection, in addition to badges, postcards and stamps, you can see a cup, mugs, matchboxes, cufflinks, photo albums and much more. Thanks to antique stores and all kinds of flea markets, I am still adding to this collection. I think that this experience should definitely be used when organizing the upcoming festival. You always want to leave something as a keepsake. Back in 1957, they understood that they needed their own unique symbol, in the image of which the spirit of the festival would be embedded. And the involvement of modern youth in the creation of something similar, the opportunity to take initiative, and perhaps discover new talents thanks to the competition, is an absolute plus.
– And finally, what would your father wish for future participants? XIX World festival of youth and students 2017?
“I think he would be happy to learn that our country will host this grandiose event again, and would wish the Festival and its participants prosperity, joy, happiness, peace and friendship.” There are many epithets, but the main thing is that young people are imbued with these words and keep them in their hearts.
In the summer of 1957, a truly grandiose, significant cultural event in the life of the country took place in the Soviet Union. The VI World Festival of Youth and Students, which opened on July 28, 1957 in Moscow, created a real sensation in the minds of Soviet people and was of landmark significance for the Soviet popular culture subsequent years. This festival became the most widespread and memorable event of the “Khrushchev Thaw” era. 34 thousand delegates from 131 countries of the world came to the country closed to foreigners. Never before had a cultural-mass international event of such a scale been held in the Soviet Union. We can safely say that after this festival the country became different: more integrated and open to the world.
The country prepared thoroughly for this event: in honor of the festival, new hotel complexes and parks were built in Moscow, a sports complex was erected in Luzhniki, where the grand opening ceremony of the festival took place. Mira Avenue was named so in connection with the festival. It was during the youth festival that Volga GAZ-21 cars, the festival series of RAF-10 minibuses - the so-called "Rafiki", and the unforgettable "" - new comfortable city buses, first appeared on the streets of the capital.
The symbol of this significant youth festival was the famous drawing by Pablo Picasso. In this regard, thousands of birds were released in Moscow - pigeons literally filled the streets of the capital. The emblem of the festival was a flower with five petals, symbolizing the five continents, and the core of the festival flower was a globe with the slogan “For peace and friendship.”
A lot of new things have been included in Soviet life after the unforgettable youth forum of 1957: the USSR appeared, young people began to dress differently - the fashion for jeans and sneakers spread, “” appeared, the game of badminton came into fashion and much more. Within the framework of this festival, one of the festival competitions was born, which later became the most popular television game in the USSR. And the song “Moscow Nights,” performed at the closing ceremony of the festival, became the hallmark of the Soviet Union for many years.
On the opening day of the festival, it seemed that the whole city came out to see this colorful spectacle - festival participants drove to the Luzhniki Stadium in open, festively painted cars and an incredible number of people greeted them along the roads. The opening ceremony itself at Luzhniki was simply enchanting: a grand parade with the flags of the participating countries took place at the stadium, and the beautiful culmination of the ceremony was the release of a huge number of white doves into the sky.
The spirit of informal communication and openness reigned in Moscow these days. Foreigners who came to the capital could freely visit the Kremlin, Gorky Park and other attractions of the city. Young people freely communicated, discussed, sang and listened to music together, and talked about everything that worried them. During the days of the festival, about a thousand events were held - concerts, sports, meetings, discussions and speeches were very interesting and lively. In those days in Soviet Union arrived bright and talented people from all over the world, writers and journalists, athletes, musicians and actors. Among the young participants of the festival was one of outstanding writers modernity - Gabriel García Márquez, who subsequently wrote an essay about his stay in the USSR.
The festive festival summer of 1957 gave impetus to a new breakthrough in music, painting and literature, and changed the way of life of millions of Soviet people. The festival lifted the “iron curtain” that divided the world, people became closer and more understandable to each other. It was a real unity of people from different countries, different colors skin speaking different languages. The ideas of peace, friendship and solidarity have become close to young people on all continents - and this is the most important result this significant festival.
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. Get in touch with him own initiative It was categorically not recommended for Soviet people. 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. To be considered “progressive” in the USSR, membership in the Communist Party from foreign writer or a director was no longer required.
Appeared special term: "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 the “Hymn of Democratic Youth” (“The song of friendship is sung by the youth, this song cannot be strangled, you cannot kill!”), but its true theme song became “Moscow Evenings”, which sounded 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, the night illumination of the Kremlin and Bolshoi Theater, fireworks are not in honor of a revolutionary holiday or military victory.
Wind of change
Soviet youth in harsh and meager times post-war years She was not spoiled by impressions and pleasures; she rushed into the festival whirlwind with an enthusiasm that is difficult to understand and imagine these days.
At a huge number It was impossible to control the guests’ 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 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 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, 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, politics Soviet authorities was tougher 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 City Hall and public organization"Federation of Peace and Harmony", headed by veteran of Soviet international journalism Valentin Zorin, was held in Moscow " round table"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. Soviet era gone into the past along with all the good and bad that was in it.
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