On May 24, 2025, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia attended a concert dedicated to the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture. By tradition, a festive concert on this day was organized on Red Square in Moscow.
The event was organized by the Government of the Russian Federation, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Government of Moscow, ANO Cultural Life, and Rosconcert.
The festive concert was opened by a combined choir, which united three Russian choral groups.: Academic Large Choir "Masters of Choral Singing" (artistic director, chief conductor — People's Artist of Russia Professor Lev Kontorovich); State Academic Choral Chapel named after A.A. Yurlov (artistic director, conductor — People's Artist of Russia Professor Gennady Dmitryak); State Academic Russian Choir named after A.V. Sveshnikov (artistic director — Ekaterina Antonenko).
The combined choir conducted by the People's Artist of Russia Lev Kontorovich performed the stichera "Russian Land" and the Easter troparion (music by A. Kastalsky).
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko were invited to the stage.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered a welcoming speech:
"Dear brothers and sisters,
Let me address it that way. This is a very familiar address for the Patriarch to his people: brothers and sisters. We are really brothers and sisters. It's not always by blood, but it's very important that we be by spirit. What could be stronger than family ties? But if the people become a family, if the Fatherland becomes a family, then such a country and such a Fatherland are invincible. That is why it is very important that personal, family, social, and even state life be based on values that connect people like a family.
Experience has shown that secular ideologies come and go, political tastes come and go, and how many of them have not changed over these hundreds and hundreds of years! And what I am talking about now does not go away, but is constantly present in the life of the people.
The fact that the founders of our written culture were Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, draws us back to the spiritual origins of our culture. Of course, we are already living in a century far removed from that epic time. But the very fact of accepting faith, accepting culture, and accepting language cannot perish under the weight of time! But he is not dying, and the evidence that we still keep in touch with our wonderful past, in which the spiritual life of our people has matured, is the celebration of the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture, the Day of remembrance of Saints Cyril and Methodius Equal-to-the-Apostles here in the center of our capital.
God grant that the memory of these great saints, the memory of all cultural workers, of all our wonderful writers, poets, philosophers, and thinkers — those who strengthened the foundations of our national life and shaped the beliefs of many generations of people — does not disappear from our memory. We live in a very rapidly changing world. A lot is changing. Political views are changing, and fashion is changing — not only for clothes, but also for lifestyle and way of thinking.
But something shouldn't change! Something must remain. Our Orthodox faith remains intact and unchanged. The spiritual and cultural basis of the life of our multinational people must remain. Because if a person does not remember his kinship, he becomes very easily controlled. Someone who is intellectually strong, militarily strong, can come and change human nature. And there have been such attempts against our country and our people! But it didn't work out, because our foundation is firm and unshakable, and one of the factors of this unshakeability is our faith and our culture.
I cordially congratulate all of you on this wonderful day — the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture, the Day of remembrance of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles. Through their prayers, their cultural feats, may the Lord preserve our country, our people and our wonderful culture, the national life of the Russian people and all those who consider themselves Russians and who are spiritually and intellectually connected with the cultural origins of our Fatherland. Christ is Risen!"
Then D.N. Chernyshenko spoke. The Deputy Prime Minister of Russia congratulated His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on His namesake Day and presented His Holiness with a bouquet of white roses. The combined choir performed "Many Summers".
The main event of this year in Russia was the celebration of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The concert program included famous wartime songs and compositions reflecting unforgettable pages of the history of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The concert program included Russian folk songs, Orthodox spiritual chants, as well as melodies from Soviet films: "Song of a Distant Homeland" by M. Tariverdiev from the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring", an overture from the music to the film "The Battle for Moscow" by A. Pakhmutova, a musical theme from the film "Young Guardia" D. Shostakovich and the legendary Katusha by M. Blanter based on the words of M. Isakovsky.
At the end of the festive concert dedicated to the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture, creative teams and soloists performed the song "I Love you, life" by Eduard Kolmanovsky based on poems by Konstantin Vanshenkin.