"Nevalyashki" art installation from IFY-2026 to move to the National Centre RUSSIA
The International Festival of Youth — 2026 in Yekaterinburg is drawing to a close. One of its most striking features was the National Centre RUSSIA "Nevalyashki" art installation, where anyone could leave a personal message on the toys. To preserve this legacy of the festival, the National Centre RUSSIA plans to move the art installation to its space in Moscow. The Director General of the National Centre RUSSIA, Natalia Virtuozova, spoke about this on the sidelines of IFY-2026.
"The highlight of our exposition at the International Festival of Youth in Yekaterinburg is the 'Nevalyashki' art installation, which young people from 103 countries helped create: guests from around the world wrote their wishes on the toys. Looking at this beautiful installation and seeing how much love and how many kind, heartfelt words have been written on them, we are very reluctant to part with it. So we decided to bring the installation back with us to the National Centre RUSSIA as a legacy of the International Festival of Youth — 2026 and display it at our venue, where the exposition will continue to live on," said the Director General of the National Centre RUSSIA, Natalia Virtuozova.
The "Nevalyashki" art installation by the National Centre RUSSIA consists of a single wave made up of 250 colourful nevalyashka (roly-poly) toys. Anyone could choose one of them, write a personal wish on it and return the toy to the shared composition, thereby becoming part of the collective artwork.
Messages on the art installation were left by Sergei Kiriyenko, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of Russia; Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of Russia; Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Artyom Zhoga, Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Ural Federal District; Alexei Teksler, Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region; Vladimir Solodov, Governor of the Kamchatka Territory; Denis Pushilin, Head of the Donetsk People's Republic; as well as young people from Spain, Canada, Australia, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Algeria, Benin, Kyrgyzstan, India, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and many other countries.
The Department Store RUSSIA at the International Festival of Youth — 2026 in Yekaterinburg operated from 13 to 16 September in the central part of the "Cultural Code" thematic space. It featured folk arts and crafts and unique products from Russian manufacturers across different regions. Visitors to the National Centre RUSSIA stand enthusiastically discovered the culture and traditions of our country and took part in demonstration workshops on folk arts and crafts from 10 regions of Russia. During the Department Store's operation, the most popular items were clothing featuring quotes by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and a limited-edition series of nevalyashka toys dressed as Cheburashka, the official symbol of the festival.
The classic author's role in Russian and world culture was discussed on 15 September at a meeting of the National Centre RUSSIA Literary Club "What to Read?!".
