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Gregory Petushkov: «Our common goal is to make Festival the most memorable international youth event in the world»

12.12.2016

The Chairperson of the National Youth Council and the head of the National Preparatory Committee for the World Festival of Youth and Students 2017 — Grigory Petushkov in his exclusive interview for the site “www.russia2017.com” told about the preparation for the main international youth event process and explained the scheme functioning and the rules of NPCs of the different countries.

 

— Grigory, tell us when the NPC began its work and what were the first actions?

 

— — By the tradition of the festival movement, National preparatory committees in all countries, including the host country of the festival, can be organized only after the Ist International preparatory meeting. Russian NPC was established on July 4 this year, but after a couple of weeks at the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia there was an enlarged meeting, at which 22 youth organizations were adopted as the members of  the committee. Of course, working process on the preparation began long before the official establishment. Since 2015, representatives of several youth associations, with the support of Rosmolodezh (Federal Agency for Youth Affairs — Russian executive authority responsible for the implementation of the state youth policy — Ed.) led the hard work on filing a formal application for the festival, led the negotiation process, presented our ideas and opportunities, told about the benefits of the World Festival of Youth and Students for the other youth NGOs and more., We have something to remember, already……

 

— And who became the members of NPC? On what basis the selection was made?

 

— At the moment of the NPC already includes 37 different youth organizations, including most of All-Russian youth organizations and youth wings of all parliamentary parties. At the next meeting, we will look at a few more applications from youth NGOs. Any youth organization of our country, which share the goals and objectives of the festival movement, can become a member of the Russian preparatory committee. In order to facilitate the implementation of regional social initiatives on preparation and holding of the festival created by the regional preparatory committees, which are expanding at the expense of youth associations and regional offices nationwide structures.

 

— We wonder what are the duties assigned to the members of the NPC? Whether they are fixed somewhere?

 

— As in any social structure, the primary responsibility of each of us is to be proactive in the implementation of a common goal: to make the festival the most memorable international youth event in the world. Also, to facilitate the participation of a wide range of our youth, to try to ensure the realization of the idea of preserving the heritage of the festival in 2017, for the current generation of young people, for our descendants. Fill WFYS with relevant and interesting program, provide a comfortable work and rest, to show the best of our traditions of hospitality and, of course, make it a real treat for the young all over the world. It is therefore important that the activity of a preparatory committee different youth associations attend with different interests and abilities, that consolidate as for youth interests and by calling at the same time, with different experiences and forms of activity. Preparation and holding of the festival includes a diverse range of work. This process enabled the Government and regional authorities; parliamentarians, universities, various experts and scientific organizations help us. The executive management of the WFYS 2017, which operates in close collaboration with NPC, leads the immediate organizational work. It should also be said that the NPC creates the Expert Council, which will bring together, in the first place, «veterans» of the festival movement, leaders of youth associations and the organizers of the different year’s festival and recognized experts in the necessary types of work of the Committee.

 

— How the NPCs in other WFYS participating countries works?

 

— At the II International preparatory meeting in the city of Windhoek, Republic of Namibia in mid-November, we discussed the creation of NPC in different countries. According to the preliminary data, the preparatory committees have been created in three dozen countries. This work is constantly going on. Together with our international partners in preparing the WFYS, we expect that such committees will be established in more than 150 countries. Their main task is to select, prepare and bring to the festival their national delegations. At the same time, they work on promotion of the festival in Russia and the consolidation of the youth in their respective countries based on the main principles of the traditional festival movement.

 

You know that the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students will be the third in our country: the older generations with great nostalgia remembers Moscow festivals in 1957 and 1985. Moreover, these grand historical events were common at all stages for the youth of each republic of the former USSR. Therefore, a special role, in my opinion, can get the Commonwealth of Independent States. The youth of our country today is close to each other, and we are able to make the festival collaborative and reflecting common interests of all Commonwealth youth again. The Association of CIS Youth Organizations was created, on the initiative of the youth movements of the participating countries, for this point, of the participating countries, in support of the festival, are.

 

— Implementation of which more ideas is waiting for us next year?

 

— During the preparation for WFYS, we study the archives of the previous festivals, passed in our country, and those days work of youth organizations. It becomes clear that in fact «everything new is actually well-forgotten old». All expressed ideas, initiatives, decisions of various problems, the current problems, in spite of the fact that whole decade passed, virtually unchanged. Moreover, the new generation of youth organizations largely solve the same problem. The scale of values and vital interests, concerns and expectations, needs and desires remains similar, adjusted for progress. In addition, one of the innovations of the festival, we want to make, is an appointment «in the fields» of the former leaders of youth organizations from different countries and different generations with young people and with each other. Thus, we will ensure not only communication with young people all over the world, but also an opportunity for mutual understanding and communication of different generations of people, sharing the same principles of the struggle for peace, friendship and justice for all these years!

 

— How does the interaction of the NPCs between countries works? And what teamwork carries out during the preparation for the festival?

 

— Of course, the various NPC collaborate within their regions. For example, a number of African organizations are working together to solve the logistical problems: it is much easier to organize joint national delegations sent from one major airport than to cope with these problems singly. On the wider international level, the debate is conducted on the development of the program. More experienced in the festival movement national youth associations contribute to the formation of NPCs in other countries. According to the established festival tradition, after the III International preparatory meeting, scheduled for March 2017 in Sri Lanka, the Permanent Committee of the festival, which will include representatives of the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the National Preparatory Committees of different countries, will be created to finalize the preparation of a variety of topical issues of the festival.

 

— What will happen to Russian Preparatory Committee of the festival after?

 

— Today, NPC became a unique platform to bring together the youth of the whole country. Despite the fact that the National Youth Council of Russia as the Association already unites most organizations of NPC, in the recent history of our country youth movement have never had so common and clear goal to consolidate before. I am sure that such a form of cooperation between active youth NGOs will be needed in the future to solve common problems, interact with each other and with the government to represent the interests of All-Russian youth in the international arena. A joint ongoing work on the preparation for the festival becomes a good school for meaningful cooperation.

 

— Thank you for the interesting conversation

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