Free word (club)

“Free Word” - a discussion club , the city of Moscow .

Theoretical and discussion club "Free Word"
Type of	non-profit public organization
Year of foundation	1988 year
Founders	V.I. Tolstykh, I.R. Kurdina
Location	Moscow city, USSR → Russia
Key figures	V.I. Tolstykh, I.R. Kurdina, M.R.Burget-Ayala
Representation	The Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, 123056, ul. Vasilyevskaya, d.13; Institute of Philosophy RAS, 119991, Russia, Moscow, ul. Volkhonka, 14/1, building 5
Date of liquidation	2008 year

Acting in compliance with the principle of free and uncensored statements of balanced personal judgments, this informal association had a noticeable effect on the mood of the creative intelligentsia during the Perestroika period and in the post-Soviet era.

The decisive role in organizing the work of the association belonged to Professor V.I. Tolstykh, E.R. Kurdina and M.R.Burget-Ayala. Valentin Ivanovich Tolstoy, the chief researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has been his permanent President for twenty years of the club’s existence. The first meeting of the "Free Word" was held on October 31, 1988 in the conference hall of the Cinema Center on Krasnaya Presnya. The next 10 years club meetings were held at the Union of Cinematographers on Vasilyevskaya Street, then until October 2008 at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences . In preparing for all meetings, the reliance on permanent experts was combined with the widespread involvement of new participants in the discussions. In total, over the twenty years of the club’s work, 168 meetings have been held, the speeches of which are reflected in 11 free word almanacs and other collections.

Under the auspices of the "Free Word" were:

• art historians I. A. Andreeva, V. V. Vanslov , E. M. Vilchek, I. L. Vishnevskaya, O. I. Genisaretsky, V. L. Glazychev , O. B. Dubova , K. E. Razlogov , A K. Yakimovich, S. V. Yamshchikov ;
• historians G. A. Gordon, A. B. Zubov, Ya. B. Drabkin, V. T. Loginov , E. A. Nikiforov, S. S. Ovanesova, V. G. Sirotkin, D. E. Furman, A I. Fursov , A. I. Utkin, A. L. Yanov ;
• artists V.V. Vasiliev, A.I. Gelman , A.N. Gerasimov, A.S. Demidova , S.S. Govorukhin , L.S. Donets, A.G. Zarkhi, S. Ya. Kulish, K. A. Lavrentiev, V. S. Lanovoi , I. F. Maslennikov, V. V. Menshov, Yu. N. Nazarov, O. A. Nikich, Yu. N. Ozerov, G. I. Poloka, M. N. Romadin , D. Khudonazarov, M. M. Khutsiev , E. V. Tsimbal, G. N. Chukhrai;
• writers L. A. Annensky, Yu. L. Boldyrev, V. K. Bukovsky , D. L. Bykov, M. I. Weller, A. A. Kabakov, V. N. Kuritsyn, A. N. Latynina, Yu L. Latynina, V.P. Lebedev, A.S. Salutsky;
• politicians M.S. Gorbachev , Yu. Yu. Boldyrev , G. E. Burbulis , A. G. Dugin , V. V. Zhirinovsky , G. A. Zyuganov , V. P. Lukin, A. I. Podberezkin , V. A. Ryzhkov, G. A. Satarov , A. S. Chernyaev, I. M. Khakamada , G. Kh. Shakhnazarov , G. A. Yavlinsky , A. N. Yakovlev ;
• political scientists O. V. Gaman, I. M. Klyamkin , S. E. Kurginyan, S. A. Markov, A. M. Migranyan , V. Yu. Militarev, I. A. Mikhailov, G. G. Pirogov, V L. Tsymbursky ;
• sociologists B. A. Grushin, D. B. Dondurey , A. G. Zdravomyslov, O. M. Zdravomyslova, M. V. Masarsky;
• philologists I.I. Vinogradov, G. D. Gachev , V.V. Kozhinov , V.S. Nepomnyashchy, P.V. Palievsky , L.I. Saraskina, A.P. Chudakov;
• philosophers R. G. Apresyan, V. G. Arslanov, Yu. M. Borodai , G. G. Vodolazov, P. P. Gaidenko, D. E. Galkovsky , A. A. Huseynov , Yu. N. Davydov , A A. Zinoviev , A. F. Zotov, K. M. Cantor, A. A. Kara-Murza , S. G. Kara-Murza , J. Kelle, V. A. Lektersky, V. M. Mezhuev, L N. Mitrokhin, N. F. Ovchinnikov, A. P. Ogurtsov, A. S. Panarin , Yu. K. Pletnikov, V. A. Podoroga , G. S. Pomerantz , V. L. Rabinovich, K. A Svasyan , V. S. Semenov, B. F. Slavin, V. P. Terin, E. Yu. Soloviev, V. S. Styopin , V. I. Tolstykh, V. G. Fedotova, D. E. Furman , V. Yu. Tsarev , A. S. Tsipko, P. G. Shchedrovitsky ;
• economists A. R. Belousov, A. V. Buzgalin , S. Yu. Glazyev , V. I. Danilov-Danilyan , A. I. Kalganov, S. A. Magaril, Yu. V. Yakovets.

The Free Word Club collaborated with the Gorbachev Foundation , for many years it was supported by the School of Cultural Policy (SKP) and the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation .