The 12th World Festival of Youth and Students was held from 27 July to 3 August 1985 in Moscow, capital city of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

[7] The opening of the festival took place at a four hour parade and ceremony at Luzhniki stadium and was broadcast live on Soviet television.

The festival was opened with a welcome speech from the newly-elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev: Here, in the homeland of the great Lenin, you can directly feel how deeply our young people are devoted to the noble ideals of humanity, peace and socialism.

[8]The festival included an exhibition of young artists, a photo exhibition, and concerts by amateur and ethnic groups, as well as professional performers from the socialist states such as Zemlyane, Mashina Vremeni, Tsvety, Integral, Dean Reed, Bajaga i Instruktori, Bijelo Dugme and Western musicians Bob Dylan,[9] and Everything but the Girl.

The emblem brought the USSR a net profit of 450,000,000 Soviet rubles (through surcharges for products with festival symbols).