On September 13, a festival of Cossack culture will be held in Moscow under the open sky.

On September 13, 2025, the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve will turn into a living Cossack village for one day. The XI International Festival "Cossack Village Moscow" will become a large-scale celebration of Cossack culture, traditions and martial art. This year's event takes on a special significance — it is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory and the Year of Defender of the Fatherland.

The festival will become a real interactive museum of Cossack culture in the open air. Traditional kurens with authentic household items and exhibits detailing the traditions of the Cossacks will be erected here. The Kuren is a historical Cossack dwelling that combines the functions of a dwelling and a defensive structure.

The interior of the smoking room reflected the traditional way of life: there was a stove in the upper room, a table in the front corner, and icons were placed opposite the entrance. Chests and boxes for storing utensils and clothes were mandatory elements. Wealthy Cossacks decorated the walls with weapons, horse harness, and family photos, which emphasized the family's status. All this can be seen in person at the festival in Kolomenskoye. In fact, it will be a kind of Cossack house-museum in the fresh air right in the heart of the capital.

For the first time in the framework of the festival, the All-Russian Cossack Society will present a large-scale interactive platform "History of the Russian Cossacks". Intellectual games and interactive lectures, exhibitions, presentations and thematic quests, reconstruction of a 19th-century military camp and an exposition of the modern life of Cossack troops, master classes in traditional crafts and crafts, an exhibition dedicated to Cossacks-heroes of a special military operation will be interesting to guests of all ages.

Two visiting exhibitions related to the name of the singer of the Don Cossacks, Nobel and State Prize winner, and veteran writer M.A. Sholokhov will also be presented in the unified space of the site of the All-Russian Cossack Society - the exhibition "100 years of the Quiet Don", dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the beginning of M.A. Sholokhov's work on the novel; The exhibition "They fought for Motherland", dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory, the 120th anniversary of M.A. Sholokhov and the Year of Defender of the Fatherland. The expositions will tell about the history of creation, prototypes of literary heroes, historical events covered in the novel "The Quiet Don", about the frontline path of the writer – military commander M.A. Sholokhov and the story of the creation of the unfinished novel "They Fought for the Motherland" and will present films based on these novels. Interactive games, quizzes and master classes of the M.A. Sholokhov Museum-Reserve will immerse the guests of the festival in the atmosphere of rural life in the Vyoshenskaya, Karginskaya and Kruzhilitskaya Sholokhovsky districts of the Rostov region.

The central event of the festival will be the All-Russian draughts competitions, which will also be held by the Kazarla Draughts Federation. This is a unique combination of sports and traditional martial arts, where participants will compete in the accuracy and speed of chopping various targets, mastery of the technique of flanking — a skillful "dance" with a saber, and in the team category — and coherence in team competitions. Special attention will be paid to the traditional Cossack costume, an essential element of the tournament, as authentic attire is both a tribute to tradition and an important safety requirement.

The hallmark of the festival will also be demonstration performances in horse riding, where riders will demonstrate the use of cold steel on horseback, complex acrobatic elements and traditional Cossack riding techniques. The show will be presented by a team of Cossack horsemen from the M.A. Sholokhov State Museum-Reserve "The Quiet Don" called "The Gold of the Don" - this is the only professional team in the Rostov region with a 10—year history. The guests of the festival will enjoy spectacular stunts (Alan riding on a pair of horses, postal riding on four horses, jumping over stationary and live obstacles, pyramids of several riders) and incredible work with the horses of the museum stable (8 stallions of red color, Don and Buden breeds). Amazing skills are demonstrated by both adult trainers and riders, as well as young people.

An important event will be the consecration of the Cossack marching church, followed by its transfer to the Synodal Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church for Cooperation with the Cossacks. The solemn prayer service will be broadcast on the screens of the main stage.

There will be a total of 12 themed locations at the festival. A gala concert with the participation of stars awaits the guests, the best Cossack creative teams from all over Russia will perform on the main stage. Workshops on folk crafts, a fair of decorative and applied arts, and a tasting of traditional dishes of Cossack cuisine will be held at various venues. A playground with traditional Cossack games, interactive workshops, and educational programs in a playful way has been organized especially for children.

The Cossack Village Moscow Festival is a unique opportunity for the whole family to immerse themselves in the living history of the Cossacks, see real traditions and become part of a great celebration of Russian culture. Over 80,000 people attend the festival annually. About 1,300 representatives of modern Cossack societies of the country take part in it.

Registration for the festival is still open, but it will end on August 1, and those who wish should hurry up to submit an application, which is posted on the official website: https://kazachyastanica.ru/zajavki .

An online broadcast of the main events will be available on the official website of the festival, on the VKontakte page and on the Kultura.rf portal.