Pertsov: We are bringing ‘Every Third’ concert to Russia because people here can understand Belarus’ wartime tragedy

“People closest to us live here, people who are capable of understanding and sharing the tragedy that the Belarusian people experienced during the Great Patriotic War. We lost one in every three people. They were not only regular army soldiers, but also women, elderly people, and children who were simply killed for living on their own land. This is what our unique production is about. It combines new multimedia technologies with poetry and song, new works and what we can already call classics. It is all designed to reach today’s audience, young people in particular, and tell them about that tragedy,” Vladimir Pertsov said.

In the concert hall lobby, visitors could see the BelTA exhibition Fates Folded into a Triangle, the Partisans of Belarus exhibition by the Belarus Segodnya publishing house, and the Bread - the Invisible Force of Victory exhibition and tasting organized by Minskhlebprom. According to Vladimir Pertsov, the exhibitions were arranged to give spectators an immersive experience and allow them to get into the right atmosphere before the performance, briefly switch from everyday life, look at historical documents, and taste bread from the wartime era.

“Our work with all regions of the Russian Federation is synchronized in preserving historical memory and combating numerous fakes and false theories. A huge amount of such information is simply flooding through new digital media and, unfortunately, settling in people’s minds, especially young people’s minds, through these new digital opportunities, which they are more drawn to than traditional mass media such as newspapers, television, and radio. To dispel this, we are looking for and finding new approaches, including through emotional means. The Every Third production shows the experiences of their peers who, at the age of 17, 18, and 19, went to the front during the Great Patriotic War and sacrificed the most precious thing they had, their own lives, to bring Victory closer,” he added.

According to him, Belarus is doing everything today to preserve historical memory and pass it on to younger generations. “You can see that fascism 2.0 is raising its head, that the same states that fought against the Soviet Union are now forming a new conglomerate, harboring the same feelings and, probably, making the same plans toward the Union State. We have no right to let our heroic ancestors down. We honor their memory, remember their feats, and their names, and will do everything possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again on our land,” Vladimir Pertsov concluded.