Archive footage filmed in 1957 features delegates of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students arriving in Moscow.
Representatives of 131 nations can be seen being welcomed by Soviet citizens at a railway station and airport.
Footage also features Muscovites greeting their foreign guests, who are shown driving through the city’s streets holding their national flags. The festival was believed to be the largest of its kind, with 34,000 participants.
The opening ceremony took place at Central Lenin Stadium (now Luzhniki Stadium) on June 28. Delegates can be seen marching, holding flags and waving to the crowds. According to archive records, up to 40,000 pigeons were released.
The emblem of the festival was a daisy with five multicoloured petals, with a globe in the centre and the inscription: ‘For peace and friendship.’ Each petal symbolised one of the Earth’s continents.
This archive footage is released as part of the ‘100 Key Events in Russia in the 20th and 21st Centuries’, a joint project between Ruptly and the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive (rgakfd.ru).
