National Projects

From March until August 2017, the Russian State Library for Young Adults (RSLYA) conducted the National Campaign “Diaries of the World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow — 1957. 1985”.

This year the theme of the festival's movement has become especially relevant for our country. The XIX World Festival of Youth and Students took place on 14—22 October in Sochi. Russia welcomed guests from different countries at the fest of peace, friendship and freedom for the third time.

60 years passed since the first festival took place in the USSR in 1957. However, delegates and guests of festival Moscow store carefully the memories of those unforgettable days. Our campaign was dedicated to those people and their memories.

The main goal of the project was to tell today's young people about the atmosphere and social and political features of that time, about interesting facts from the lives of festivals' participants and witnesses.

Representatives of the library community, cultural institutions' staff, founders of educational projects and everyone who wanted to share their memories or memories of their relatives have taken part in the Campaign.

We have collected wonderful stories of festivals' participants — delegates accompanying foreign guests, witnesses for whom the World Festival of Youth and Students will always remain as one of the most memorable moments of their youth. Everyone has his own story about the festival but all of them are a big multicoloured kaleidoscope with bright photos and interesting memories.

Thus, the story of Albert Kotelnikov, the delegate of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students from the Ivanovo Region, began from drawing the festival's symbol at the school desk and participation in the Ivanovo Regional Youth Festival.

Igor Dmitriev has shared his memories of participating in the VI World Festival of Youth and Students as a delegate of the Yakut ASSR and accompanying the delegation of Burma.

Within the Campaign the RSLYA's specialists have taken video interview with participants of the festivals 1957 and 1985. The well-known press photographer Nikolay Rakhmanov who filmed the VI World Festival of Youth and Students for the TASS has shared his story. The artist Mikhail Veremenko has told about the process of creating “Katyusha”, the symbol of the XII Festival. The most vivid impressions of the XII Festival were discussed with the prose writer and journalist Vladimir Guga. Vladimir Kluyev, the professor of the Moscow State Institute of Culture and Fine Arts and Nina Turchaninova, the schoolteacher have told about their responsible and inspiring work as participants of the Moscow delegations.

The multimedia project “Diaries of the Festival” has been created by the results of the Campaign. On its pages readers can get to know with all festival's stories and materials from unique artifacts to letters and photos from personal files.

Many Russian libraries have taken part in the National Campaign “Diaries of the World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow — 1957. 1985”:

V.Y. Shishkov Altay Regional Universal Scientific Library;

S. Pivivarov Library Branch #4 of the Feodosia City Library;

A.N. Zakharchuk Bolsheuluysky District Central Library, Krasnoyarsk Krai;

Anapa Central Library System, Krasnodar Region;

Ivanovo Regional Library for Children and Youth;

“Svetoch” Central Library of the Ezhva Central Library System, Syktyvkar;

“Chitay-Gorod” Library Centre, Veliky Novgorod;

I.M. Bondarenko Youth Library and Information Centre (branch #7), Taganrog;

Vladimir Regional Library for Children and Young Adults;

Chuvashia Republican Children and Youth Library;

A.S. Pushkin Tver Regional Centre for child's and family reading;

Lipetsk Regional Youth Library.