The venue of the Central House of Artists will host the festival of the Russian Geographical Society from October 31 to November 6 for the first time. It will gather the specialists in the field of geography and related sciences, enthusiastic travelers, environmentalists, and all those who seek to learn new things about Russia, to help preserve its natural and cultural heritage.

      Everybody who is fascinated by tourism, photography, local history, ethnography, archeology and underwater exploration. The festival guests will see the best photos of wildlife which are sometimes made as a result of entire expeditions, the most interesting documentaries and unique exhibits. For example, the world-famous Yucca baby mammoth and findings made during the international archaeological and geographical expedition “Kyzyl – Kuragino”.

      The Festival will present materials from ethnographic expeditions of the Society, the artifacts raised from shipwrecks, the artifacts found by search expeditions. 

      The Russian Geographical Society is one of the world's oldest geographical societies, dating to 1845 ("Imperial Russian Geographical Society"). The name reappeared in 1917 after the October Revolution, only to be replaced by the "State Geographical Society" (1926 - 1938). After 1938, the organization became identified with the USSR until 1991, when it became the Russian Geographical Society again. In 1917 the Geographical Society was composed of eleven subdivisions and 1,000 members. By 1971, membership had soared to 19,000 individuals, who sent delegates to an All-Soviet Geographical Congress held every five years. Between congresses, the affairs of the society were administered by a scientific council, selected by the delegates at the congress, and its presidium led by a president. In 1970 the Geographical Society, based in Leningrad, supervised fourteen geographical societies in the constituent republics, fifteen affiliates in the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR), and approximately one hundred subbranches. Between 1947 and 1991, the society authorized discussion of more than sixty thousand scientific papers, the convening of a wide array of scientific conferences, and All-Union Congresses in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, and several other Soviet cities. As of 2003, the Moscow affiliate alone could claim a mere 200 to 300 employees, who existed on paper only, coming to the offices in the affiliate's twenty-story skyscraper simply to retrieve their biweekly $35 salary. Former members provided consulting to the Russian government, while the more ambitious went into business.