RT WINS PEOPLE’S VOICE AWARD AT ‘OSCARS OF THE INTERNET’ WEBBY AWARDS

MOSCOW, APRIL 25, 2018 —RT’s historical social media reenactment #1917LIVE, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, has won the People’s Voice Award in the ‘Social: News & Information’ category of the Webby Awards, a prestigious international award honoring excellence on the internet.

RT’s #1917LIVE project is one of the biggest-ever historical reenactments on Twitter. Dozens of Twitter accounts were set up as key historical characters of the period, from the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II and revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin to common workers and soldiers, tweeting events from 100 years ago in real-time. Historians from the US and UK took part in the project, as well as the world-renowned Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.

“We are grateful to all those who voted for our project. This victory demonstrates how important and how necessary such educational social-media projects like #1917LIVE and #Romanovs100 are. We hope that our audience will appreciate our new photo project, which recreates the life of the last Russian royal family through 4,000 original photos from the family’s personal archive,” said Kirill Karnovich-Valua, who was behind the idea for #1917LIVE and #Romanovs100.

In April 2018, the same team behind #1917LIVE launched #Romanovs100 to bring the story of Russia’s last royal family to life through thousands of Romanov family photographs recently unearthed from within the national archives. The large-scale, cross-platform multimedia project takes place across four platforms – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – in order to retell the last decades of imperial Russia over the 100 days leading up to the centenary of the family’s execution on July 17.

#1917LIVE has already taken home 18 international and Russian awards, including the Best in Education award and gold for Best Overall Twitter Presence at the Shorty Social Good Awards, a competition honoring those who strive to make a positive social impact. In the advertising sphere, the project received honors at the Epica Awards and Shorty Awards, a competition celebrating achievements on social networks. At the prestigious international New York Festivals, #1917LIVE took first in the Digital Special Event category of the New York Festivals, while the promo videos for the project took home silver for Cinematography. RT #1917LIVE also won the famous Adweek ARC Awards, becoming the first Russian brand to do so.

The Webby Awards, “the internet’s highest honor,” according to the New York Times, annually honor the world’s best digital projects: websites, videos, mobile apps and social media campaigns. The jury includes more than 1,000 professionals within the web and media industries.