Belarusian actor-schoolboy, who recited "Goy ty, Rus' moya, rodnaya", told how he managed to visit "Artek"
15-year-old Slava Konorazov from Grodno's relatives were afraid to let him go. But the teenager managed to convince them that this trip would help him get into a theater university in Moscow.
Slava Konorazov. Here and further photos from his social media
A schoolboy from Grodno dreams of being a professional actor. He truly works hard and productively to achieve his goal. The guy graduated from the theater department of the Antanas Tyzenhauz Children's Art School and plays in the folk youth musical-drama theater "Haradzenskaya Nadzeya".
He also tries his hand at cinema. Recently, NTV showed the film "Partisans", where Slava plays an NKVD officer.
And in May, the film "Home Alone 3" was released in Russian cinemas, where the Belarusian played one of the high school students.
Many remembered him when he posted a video passionately reciting "Goy ty, Rus' moya, rodnaya", for which he got backlash from Belarusians.
Slava plans to enter one of Russia's so-called "golden five" theater universities — GITIS and the Boris Shchukin Theater Institute are his priority.
This year, the guy participated in the Russian International Competition for Young Readers "Living Classics" and reached the final, which was supposed to take place in the "Artek" camp. He shares his videos and impressions from there on social media.
The schoolboy's relatives were very afraid to let him go to the occupied territory, but Slava managed to convince them that this was a unique opportunity not to be missed. He argued that he had no connections or "blat", so he needed to find any way to meet people connected to the world of theater and cinema.
The potential danger didn't bother him much — nothing had happened to the camp guests in four years. And the counselors there were already reassuring particularly vulnerable children, telling them that air defense was installed nearby.
However, the boy saw many opportunities for himself. Previously, winners of "Living Classics" were admitted to the Boris Shchukin Theater Institute without exams through a patriotic quota. This is no longer the case, but Slava believes that successful participation in the reading competition can help him during admission.
From Grodno to Moscow, Slava traveled independently (he was on a shift in May). From there, he traveled as part of an organized group — by train to Simferopol. It was fun, because there was even a girl with a guitar in the carriage. So the teenagers sang, had fun, and chatted all the way.
Almost the last opportunity to talk normally with relatives was approximately 20 minutes before the Crimean Bridge. In Crimea, Slava could not make calls from a Belarusian SIM card. There was Wi-Fi on the camp territory, but it didn't help much: Telegram and Instagram worked terribly via VPN.
The boy was assigned to the children's camp "Polyovy".
There were a few other schoolboys from Belarus at the competition.
In general, the theme of Slava's shift was "Descendants of the Great Victory", so there were many "patriotic" events.
Slava in "Artek"
Slava's trip went without incident. But when another group went on an excursion to Sevastopol, the children were forced to hide in a bomb shelter due to the threat of shelling.
The boys in the camp didn't have enough food — everything was quite tasty and healthy, but it wasn't enough for teenagers.
And when Slava caught a cold, he didn't receive much help at the infirmary; he treated himself, needing to have his own medicine.
Slava ultimately performed successfully in "Artek" and made it to the superfinal of the competition in Moscow — he performed on Red Square and recited "He Was Not Listed" by Boris Vasilyev.