World Festival of Youth and Students

The 10th World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin in 1973

The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students after 1947.

History

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The festival has been held occasionally since 1947, mainly in communist states, as an event of global youth solidarity for democracy and against war and imperialism. The largest festival was the 6th, held in 1957 in Moscow, when 34,000 young people from 131 countries attended the event. This festival also marked the international debut of the song "Moscow Nights", which subsequently went on to become a widely recognized Russian song. There were no festivals between 1962 and 1968, as events proposed in Algeria and then Ghana were cancelled due to coups and political turmoil in both countries.[1] Until the 19th festival in Sochi, Russia in 2017 (with 185 countries participating),[2] the largest festival by number of countries with participants was the 13th, held in 1989 in Pyongyang when 177 countries attended the event.[3]

The most recent festival took place in Sochi, Russia, from 13 to 22 October 2017.

Editions

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Edition Year Logo Country Host City Participants No. of countries
represented 		Motto
1st 1947 Czechoslovakia Prague 17,000 71 "Youth Unite, Forward for Lasting Peace!"
2nd 1949 Hungary Budapest 20,000 82 "Youth Unite, Forward for Lasting Peace, Democracy, National Independence and a better future for the people"
3rd 1951  East Germany East Berlin 26,000 104 "For Peace and Friendship – Against Nuclear Weapons"
4th 1953 Romania Bucharest 30,000 111 "No! Our generation will not serve death and destruction!."
5th 1955 Poland Warsaw 30,000 114 "For Peace and Friendship – Against the Aggressive Imperialist Pacts"
6th 1957  Soviet Union Moscow 34,000 131 "For Peace and Friendship"
7th 1959  Austria Vienna 18,000 112 "For Peace and Friendship and Peaceful Coexistence"
8th 1962  Finland Helsinki 18,000 137 "For Peace and Friendship"
9th 1968 Bulgaria Sofia 20,000 138 "For Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
10th 1973  East Germany East Berlin 25,600 140 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
11th 1978  Cuba Havana 18,500 145 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
12th 1985  Soviet Union Moscow 26,000 157 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
13th 1989  North Korea Pyongyang 22,000 177 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
14th 1997  Cuba Havana 12,325 136 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"
15th 2001  Algeria Algiers 6,500 110 "Let’s Globalize the Struggle For Peace, Solidarity, Development, Against Imperialism"
16th 2005  Venezuela Caracas 17,000 144 "For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle Against Imperialism and War"
17th 2010  South Africa Pretoria 15,000 126 "Let's Defeat Imperialism, for a World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation!"
18th 2013  Ecuador Quito 8,500 80[4] "Youth Unite Against Imperialism, for a World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation!"
19th 2017  Russia Sochi 30,000 185[5] "For peace, solidarity and social justice, we struggle against imperialism. Honoring our past, we build the future!"
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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Koivunen, Pia (30 December 2020). "The World Youth Festival as a Soviet Cultural Product during the Cold War". Quaestio Rossica. 8 (5). Ural Federal University: 1623. doi:10.15826/qr.2020.5.548. ISSN 2313-6871.
  2. ^ "#WFYS2017". russia2017.com.
  3. ^ Sang-Hun, Choe (4 February 2018). "North Korea's Would-Be Olympics: A Tale of a Cold War Boondoggle". The New York Times.
  4. ^ "El festival busca que los jóvenes tengan presencia". telegrafo.com.ec.
  5. ^ "#WFYS2017". russia2017.com.
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