The message reads, in part:
“I consider your creative and patriotic project to be an important and necessary initiative. Bringing together drama and music companies from hero and combat glory cities, this festival is designed to familiarise audiences, especially young people, with the wonderful pieces created both during the Great Patriotic War and in our time. The drama and musicals praise the achievements of our people who upheld the freedom and independence of our Motherland and saved the world from Nazism. They do so in a positive and expressive way, without falsehood or pathos.
I am sure the festival will be a success, will contribute to the preservation of our national memory and become a wonderful gift for our veterans and all those who take pride in Russian history.”
The festival of professional theatres and music companies under the title We Must not Forget These Roads is timed for the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The final week will take place at various Moscow venues on October 6–12.
The festival opened in November 2019 and has been held in hero and combat glory cities of Moscow, St Petersburg, Smolensk, Volgograd, Tula, Murmansk and Minsk. In all, 32 theatre companies and drama universities are taking part in it.