A festival of the last romantics

From September 14 to 23 in the Mozhaisk areas of the Moscow region the first festival "To the glory of the Fatherland" will take place. The event is dedicated and organized to celebrate the victory of Russian army in the War of 1812. 

Alexander Korobkov, the Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Festival, "To the glory of the Fatherland 1812-2012"

For almost 20 years at the Borodino field, with the help enthusiasts and reconstructors, historical reconstructions of the battle have been talking place. On September 2 this year, on the 200th anniversary of this event, about 160 thousand visitors and spectators saw the general outcome of this work. But it took a long time to build the second platform, that is the platform for the festivities. The idea of this second platform is based on the fact that the Borodino field is a battlefield, a field of glory, a field where tens of thousands of our ancestors were killed in 1812. The people who revere it, understand it, understand and have always understood that a celebration in this place, at Borodino, would be wrong. But a festival is needed. Everyone needs a holiday, and especially young people, especially the younger generation, which, unfortunately, does not know as much about this event as we would like. Therefore, this platform was conceived.

We used the opportunity, that appeared in this very year not far from the Borodino field, just 26 km away, by the Minsk highway, in a very good location, in the village of Shalikov,  to organize such an event - a festival. We took advantage of this event and conducted task-orientated work to prepare the festival. In May of this year the festival was presented at the tourism fair MITF in Gostiny Dvor. We are actively cooperating with the Public Commission in the course of preparations for the celebration of the 200th anniversary. But the events that were related to the celebration and reconstruction on September 2, namely, security measures did not allow us to hold it on the dates we had chosen for our event. But since a festival is needed and we are convinced of this, people who have been preparing this festival for such a long time - organizations, clubs, associations and simple enthusiasts - told us unequivocally: "Guys, you need to hold a festival." So we took a  decision. It is clear that what we want, what we wanted, of course, will be realized mostly in the future. This year, we nevertheless retain the same format we have announced. This is the format of a festival in a festival, it is a format of a fair, it is a format of an open history lesson, it is an interactive open-air museum, it is a format of reconstruction, but not a simple reconstruction, but a reconstruction of elements of the battle of Borodino, according to how it happened. That is a lot of what was originally scheduled to take place. This is not a festival for the record, this is not a festival for reports, it is not a festival of reconstruction clubs. This is a festival for the people, it is for those to whom the motto of the festival -  "Faith, Valor, Honor" - is not just words. As one of the younger members of our project said in May, when we took part in the MITF exhibition, it is a festival of the last romantics, a festival of true patriots. This phrase of a young man sunk into our souls, and, in general, it warms and motivates us, because we hope that what we have spent such a long time on, what we have spent so much of our energy on, will echo in the souls of people who will come to us, people who are really interested in the history of our country. And it is not only history, it is also the present and the future of our country. Perhaps, we all understand that, without a connection with the past, without realizing that we are citizens of a great country with a great history, with great victories.

Vladimir Bannikov, CEO of the Exhibition Company "Mir-Expo"

Speaking about the exhibition, which is planned as part of the festival, the goal of this exhibition is to present traditional crafts, historic items that are in line with the era, that is, with the time of the Battle of Borodino, to present contemporary artists who manufacture these products, which in fact correspond to the historical path of our country. At the moment we can say that  declared areas, dedicated to historical costumes and products of traditional crafts, will be presented at the exhibition. As Alexey said, in fact, we now see our mission, probably in planting a seed, which will grow into a large-scale event, which will gladden all of us in the course of many years.