For four days — fr om June 4 to 7 — the country's main square turned into a huge literary universe, where everyone, young and old, found something for themselves.
The Festival in numbers
- 400+ publishing houses fr om Russia and Belarus presented 100,000 books.
- 600 events at 14 venues: fr om discussions to performances, from master classes to autograph sessions.
- 800,000 visitors and millions of online viewers who followed the broadcasts.
Particular attention was paid to young readers. A special program was organized for children with the best books, colorful illustrations and interactive areas. Exciting performances were held on the Big and Small stages, and creative master classes were held on special sites.
For the second year, specialists and parents have been talking about the exceptional importance of literature in the development of a child's personality at the Red Square site on the initiative of the International Pedagogical Academy of Preschool Education. In 2025, the theme of this meeting was "Conversation about what is important in kindergarten."
Opening the discussion, moderator Elfiya Dorofeeva, Director of Innovations at the International Pedagogical Academy of Preschool Education (IPAPE), President of the Association for the Development of the Quality of Preschool Education, General Director of the publishing house "MOZAIKA-SINTEZ" encouraged the participants to reflect on the traditions in the formation of the inner world of a child, taking into account the special specifics of preschool age and emphasized: "If at school upbringing follows education, then in preschool upbringing is the basis of everything." Therefore, conversations about what is important for children should be very thoughtfully constructed, approached creatively, rely on methods and trust your professional sense.
This idea was supported by Elena Tverskaya, head of Belgorod kindergarten #53, who drew the audience's attention to the fact that children at this age look at adults, imitate adults, feel everything and understand well. According to the practicing teacher, the content of "Conversations about the Important" is, first of all, the theme of patriotism, mutual assistance, support for each other, respect for each other, for the older generation.
Evgeny Krasheninnikov, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Educational Psychology and Pedagogy of the Psychology Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leading Researcher of the Child Development Laboratory of the Research Institute of Urban Studies and Global Development of Moscow State Pedagogical University, emphasized that adults should understand well that a child lives in a visual world, in the world of “here and now”, and proceed from this reality, building and thinking through a conversation on an important topic. “For a preschooler, there is no future. Conversations about “in twenty years you will be like this” mean nothing to him. He simply cannot imagine what twenty years are. For him, there is no past - what was before. He does not understand what it means “it used to be like this, but now it is different”. And everything that goes beyond his personal experience also does not make sense. This is a very important feature of child psychology: a child is designed exactly like this.”
Raisa Chumicheva, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Preschool Education at the Academy of Psychology and Pedagogy at the Southern Federal University, joined the conversation. For her, it is important to draw the attention of adults to the fact that emotional memory dominates in preschoolers: “This is the memory of feelings, experiences that determine our internal vector into the future. It is through emotions that a connection with the outside world is formed.” Her recommendations on how to cultivate the basics of civic consciousness in preschoolers are based on her own research: “If we want a child to love the Motherland, we must first teach him to value family... The value of family is not only in the fact that you were born, but also in the fact that you were protected, raised, given the opportunity to develop... The Motherland is similar to a family, because it is also a family, the place wh ere you were born.” According to the teacher and scientist, it is important to teach a child to understand the value of gratitude, giving, to encourage him to do a good deed, to do something significant: this is wh ere the beginning of real education of the individual and the formation of spiritual and moral foundations lies.
If, cutting a path with a father's sword,
You have salty tears on your mustache,
If in a hot battle you have experienced what is what, —
It means that you read the right books in childhood!
This quatrain by Vladimir Vysotsky can be used as an epigraph to the speech of Doctor of Psychology, Professor of Moscow State University, Rector of MPADO, Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Preschool Education Today" Nikolai Veraksa, who, discussing how to raise a citizen of his country, placed the following emphasis: "... the child must understand that it is he, with his unique individuality and characteristics, who is important and needed by his immediate environment and the whole country. If he understands this, it is important that he do something for this environment - not just understand, but do something. And what he did should be useful. And then this child will solve the most important and difficult issues. To get an education and work for the country, and if he is needed, he will go and defend it.” The professor believes that for this we, adults, need to create and support a special educational space.
Alexey Chegodaev, Director of Development of the Foundation for Support of Family and Family Values "Fatherhood" and the interregional public organization "Union of Fathers", the author of the media and game project #coolFather and the accelerator of leaders of father projects #StartDads, shared his experience and ideas about which tools of education are underestimated and require attention: he is talking about the importance of the participation of parents, and especially fathers, in the life of an educational organization, in the educational process: "They want to be good fathers, but they do not know how to do it." The speaker expressed his opinion both as a public figure and as the father of a primary school student, realizing that a child should come to school with a clear understanding of what is good, what is evil, what is honor and friendship. Parents should definitely join the wonderful initiative "Conversations about the Important" in kindergarten, and "it would be great if each group had active fathers who would involve other fathers, explain seemingly simple truths, act as experts in various issues. Some of them are engineers, some are doctors, physicians, inventors, and they help to illuminate various issues for children using their experience. I believe that it is precisely the enormous and as yet unrealized potential of parents, and fathers in particular, that should be a support for educators in communicating with children."
The meeting also featured invited experts who expressed their opinions on issues of education and formats for conversations about what is important from the state’s perspective.
Anna Liyaskina, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and Methodology of Preschool Education, Faculty of Preschool Pedagogy and Psychology, Moscow Pedagogical University, Olga Nikiforova, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and Methodology of Preschool Education, Faculty of Preschool Pedagogy and Psychology, Moscow Pedagogical University, Anastasia Savina, Head of the Expertise Department of the Institute for the Study of Childhood, Family and Education, confirmed that moral and patriotic education is very important and relevant for the state, because it is in preschool age that the formation of a child's personality and moral attitudes occurs.
Among the basic traditional moral values, experts named love for loved ones, for the Motherland, respect for elders, for the world around us, the formation of such qualities as responsibility and patriotism. In this regard, a special role is given to "Conversations about Important Things", which are adapted for preschool children and for parents, who play a special role in this process. Thanks to their active participation, a single educational space is created between the kindergarten and the family.
Summing up the event, Elfiya Dorofeeva thanked the participants for their frank, sincere, honest professional and human position, their activity during the conversation, and noted that this meeting is only the beginning of a large and important conversation, which will continue in a larger format at the All-Russian Forum of Preschool Education Workers "CHILDHOOD GUIDELINES 5.0". The speaker noted that today preschool education is going through a turning point, and called on all teachers and specialists, parents to discuss and find answers to questions on how to build educational work with children so that they grow up as patriots, citizens, socially responsible individuals endowed with creative and artistic abilities, at the All-Russian Forum of Preschool Education Workers "CHILDHOOD GUIDELINES 5.0", which will be held on August 9-10, 2025.
The day before, on June 5, 2025, a meeting of the Council for the Implementation of State Policy in the Sphere of Support of the Russian Language and Languages of the Peoples of Russia was held, at which President Vladimir Putin proposed, by analogy with the Pushkin Card, to introduce a children's book card with a face value of 3,000 rubles for children from 3 to 6 years old. The start of the campaign has been determined - this is 2026, but the name is still being discussed. The following options are being considered: "Golden Key", "Chukovsky Card" and several others. While experts have only just begun to prepare the list of books that can be purchased with this card, we inform readers that, according to the Book Distributors Association, the most published authors of children's literature, along with Alexander Pushkin, include Korney Chukovsky, Elena Ulieva, Astrid Lindgren, Alexander Volkov, Nikolai Nosov, Eduard Uspensky, Holly Webb, Hans Christian Andersen, Viktor Dragunsky, Agniya Barto, Leo Tolstoy, Anna Kupyrina, Irina Gurina, Charles Perrault, Rob Scotton, Andrey Usachev, Grigory Oster, Samuil Marshak, Vitaly Bianki.
Respect and love for the classics of literature, great gratitude to the Red Square festival - a place of power, wh ere horizons expand and the door to the world of dreams, fantasy, creativity, new knowledge opens. A place of book premieres and a holiday that gives new bright emotions.
Read books, give books, love books!
Text: Anna Yelanskaya
Photo: from the archive, from the website of the XI Book Festival "Red Square"