Project 1917 and RT: The Russian Revolution in the Age of Facebook and Twitter

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jglobfaul.4.2.0163
• Published date: 01 February 2018
• Date: 01 February 2018
• Pages: 163-166
• Author: Kyril Drezov

Journal of Global Faultlines, 2018

Vol. 4, No. 2, 163–166.

163

Project 1917 and RT: The Russian Revolution

in the Age of Facebook and Twitter

Kyril Drezov*

The centenary of the Russian Revolution(s) in 2017 turned out to be problematic and contro-

versial for both the government and the liberal opposition in Putin’s Russia. The events of

1917, popularly subsumed under the captions of February and October Revolutions, were felt

to be at odds with the government promotion of an Imperial-Soviet synthesis that empha-

sized only those dates that promoted national unity. The liberal opposition was also at a loss

of what to commemorate: it felt no sympathy for the Russian Empire that collapsed in 1917,

but also found it hard to identify even with the first – February – Revolution, carried under a

red flag and dominated by socialists of various parties. Only the distinctly minority groups of

communists and monarchists felt no ambivalence: the more numerous communists followed

the Soviet tradition of focusing on the October Revolution and of celebrating February only

as prelude to October, while the puny monarchist groups and sympathizers saw both sets of

events of 1917 as unmitigated disasters and as stepping stones to unprecedented national

catastrophe.

In the countdown to the centenary both government and liberal opposition decided

to focus on parallel multimedia projects that presented the events of 1917 without any “offi-

cial” comment. Thus both sets of political agents saw the centenary primarily as an educa-

tion opportunity, clearly hoping that the “right” conclusions would be drawn, but wisely

leaving the choice to the individual Internet users. This article discusses the paradoxes and

controversies of such multimedia “twinning” of government and opposition in Russia.

In November 2016, a prominent opposition personality launched day-by-day cover-

age of events a hundred years ago in a Facebook format, which was named “Project1917.”1

The director, creator and primary instigator of this unique enterprise was journalist, writer

and historian Mikhail Zygar, former Chief Executive of opposition television channel Dozhd

(Rain) in Russia and author of the popular monograph All the Kremlin’s Men.2

Zygar had put together a group of about 40 budding historians (the team included

students, researchers and journalists) to conduct archival research in order to find “evoca-

tive and original material relating to this pivotal moment in world history.”3 Drawing entirely

on primary sources, many previously unpublished, Project1917 provided daily postings of

selected excerpts from the writings of about 300 historical figures “as they witnessed and

participated in the making of history.”4

An English-language version was launched in February 2017 in London with the sup-

port of Pushkin House.5 Pushkin House Director Clem Cecil declared his organization’s full

support of “the values and aims of Project1917 – to make the primary sources of 100 years ago

available, without editorial intervention or spin.”6 In the words of Pushkin House Co-Chair

Craig Kennedy,

* KyrilDrezov is co-founder and core researcher of the Keele Southeast Europe Unit (SEU). He has

contributed extensively to the BBC World Service and Oxford Analytica and has advised international

consultancies, banks, and governments. His publications include “Macedonian Identity: An Overview of

the Major Claims” in The New Macedonian Question (ed. James Pettifer), Macmillan 1999 and “Collateral

Damage: The Impact on Macedonia of the Kosovo War” in Kosovo: The Politics of Delusion (eds. M.

Waller, B. Gokay and K. Drezov), Frank Cass 2001.