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About the traditions of celebrating March 8 at the Leningrad Textile Institute
07 March

From the first years of the existence of the Leningrad Textile Institute (now the University of Industrial Technologies and Design), a tradition of celebrating women: female employees, teachers and students was established. Here, for example, is what the institute’s newspaper «Osnova» wrote on March 05, 1932:

«To celebrate International Women’s Day, a commission has been set up at the local committee, which is carrying out preparatory work. Female workers who have been successful will be rewarded on March 8 with cuts of wool or silk for their dresses. One female worker-striker will be accepted into the party as an encouragement. There will be a ceremonial meeting, a concert, a festive wall newspaper, and tickets for the female workers to the Drama Theater and Radio Theater.»

In the newspaper «Osnova» of March 08, 1936, the following can be found:

«In the red corners of the student dormitories there are recreation evenings devoted to International Women’s Day. In the auditorium of the Institute — a festive evening for women on invitation cards Mestkom, premiums and refreshments. For honors students — a cultural visit to the theater for the play «The Squadron’s Death».

In the postwar years were very popular holiday evenings with dances at the Leningrad Textile Institute on the occasion of 8th of March, where students of military schools and students of Leningrad technical colleges were invited. At the gala night devoted to the International Women’s Day in 1974 there was no traditional speech about the woman’s place in the world. It was replaced by the students' literary-historical review of women’s past and present, after which the participants in the amateur performance. The Institute’s many-voiced choir, vocal ensemble, dance and musical numbers delighted the audience.



In 1976 the Faculty of Economics, which was preparing a festive program, originally congratulated the students and employees of the Leningrad Textile Institute. On the stage of the assembly hall 20 well-dressed children of the staff from 5 to 10 years old sang, recited poems, danced and congratulated their mothers and grandmothers.


In the 1980s, the Institute celebrated its first spring holiday with an inter-faculty student pageant, «Come on, Girls," a prototype of the modern Miss University pageant. It was organized and conducted by the students' club. A competent jury of employees and professors evaluated the scenarios, director’s ideas, homework, as well as student contestants from each faculty.