The film *I Promise to Return Alive* is about a group of mostly young men and women—under 30—who are dancers, singers, and musicians in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Central Military District. They cannot provide medical care because they are not doctors. They do not go to the front lines with weapons in hand because they are not soldiers. They have chosen a different way to serve their country—by boosting the morale of our troops so that they can carry out their combat missions with honor. The Ensemble’s frontline creative troupe, led by Lieutenant Colonel Anton Sholokhov, operates in the Donbas region on a permanent basis. Artists take turns traveling from Yekaterinburg and nearby cities in the Sverdlovsk Region—so that, regardless of the weather or conditions, whether on the front lines or in the rear, amid the sounds of exploding shells or military aircraft taking off, they can perform for Russian servicemen in the zone of the Special Military Operation.
