The Moscow International Book Fair (MIBF) has been held since 1977 in late summer or early autumn. Since 2005, there has been a "guest of honor" on it - one of the countries, which is represented by an extended exposition. In 2012, the 25th forum of bibliophiles, book publishers and writers began on September 5. It lasted five days, and this time France was the guest of honor.
MIBF-2012 was held in pavilion 75 of the All-Russian Exhibition Center and brought together 1,500 exhibitors from 45 countries. They brought over two hundred thousand books to the Russian capital, and the exposition of the guest of honor - France - occupied an area of 200m². The French held several master classes for librarians, writers and illustrators, and on September 8, a round table was held on the topic "Napoleon in contemporary French and Russian culture and thought." Muscovites were able to chat with Frederic Beigbeder and Charles Dansing.
In addition to the guest country of honor, the exhibition had one more special status - “central exhibitor”. It was awarded to Armenia, which is celebrating the 500th anniversary of book printing in the country this year, and Yerevan was named by UNESCO "World Book Capital 2012". At the Armenian stand, novelties by national authors were presented, and within the framework of the MIBF events, a meeting of book publishers from Russia and Armenia took place.
The industry conference “Russian Book Market-2012” became the central event for book publishers. It was jointly organized by Rospechat and the Russian Book Union. Important issues were also discussed on the “KnigaByte digital platform” - there professionals talked about issues of intellectual property, copyright and the availability of network resources that are very topical for Russia.
In the Russian sections of the exhibition, the organizers dedicated several stands to significant dates celebrated by the country in 2012. Among them were expositions with new materials about the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Battle of Borodino, since which exactly 200 years have passed. In separate expositions, books dedicated to the 1150th anniversary of Russian statehood and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Pyotr Stolypin were presented.
As part of the MIBF author's programs, visitors were able to get to creative meetings with Zakhar Prilepin, Tatyana Ustinova, Edward Radzinsky, Mikhail Weller, Larisa Rubalskaya, Alexander Ilichevsky, Vladimir Vishnevsky.
