LENIN AND STALIN IN SAFEHOUSE – LATEST ‘REVOLUTION 360’ VIDEO UNVEILED BY RT
MOSCOW, OCTOBER 31, 2017 – RT released its newest 360 video illustrating scenes from Revolutionary Russia, this time featuring revolutionaries Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin hiding out in a safe house. “Revolution 360” is an eight-part series presented as part of RT’s groundbreaking, year-long historical re-enactment project, #1917LIVE. The mini-documentaries, all published in the fully-immersive, 360-degree video format, recreate events surrounding the Russian Revolution that began on October 25 (November 7, New Style), 1917.
In the latest video, viewers find themselves immersed in a safe-house. Vladimir Lenin has just been accused of having secret ties to Germany, and Joseph Stalin is discussing how to change Lenin’s appearance in order to safely smuggle the future leader out of the capital. Filming took place in the former apartment — now a museum — of fellow revolutionary Sergey Alliluyev in Saint Petersburg.
This is the fourth video in the eight-part “Revolutionary 360” series. Each video in the series tells a different story of life in the revolutionary era — from the trenches of World War I to the tumultuous streets of the capital. All videos will be published on the #1917Live website, as well as on RT’s social media platforms and RT’s VR app RT360 (Google Play, App Store, Oculus) until November 7, 2017, marking the centennial of the historic event.
In late 2016, RT launched one of the biggest ever historical re-enactments on Twitter. Brought together under a flagship feed called the Russian Telegraph (RT), a fictional media outlet, the innovative project consists of dozens of Twitter accounts set up as key historical characters of the time period, from the last Russian tsar Nicholas II and revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin to common workers and soldiers. The project includes a series of specially produced promos recreating the events that took place 100 years ago, such as the abdication of Nicholas II, the starvation in Petrograd, and Lenin’s famous speech.
Historians from the US and UK have taken part in the project, as well as Paulo Coelho, world-renowned Brazilian author of The Alchemist, Veronika Decides to Die, and The Zahir. Coelho runs the Twitter account of Margaretha Zelle, a famous double agent during WWI better known by her stage name Mata Hari. There are over 80 accounts in total, tweeting in real time. Nearly 200,000 people are now following the project’s accounts, and the #1917LIVE hashtag has been used in over 170,000 tweets.
RT’s project sparked interest in audiences across the world and inspired many followers to join in. Any Twitter user can create an account to participate in the project under #1917CROWD.
RT’s #1917LIVE historical re-enactment on Twitter caught the eye of various public figures, journalists and academics in the US, Europe and Latin America. #1917LIVE participants or followers include British and Italian MPs, the Spanish ambassador to Russia, the British ambassadors to Estonia and Ukraine, and the Russian Mission to the UN. Journalists at the Guardian, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and France 24 are following the project, while stories about #1917LIVE have been published in more than 10 languages.
In October 2017 #1917LIVE made it to the finals of The Drum Social Buzz Awards in the “Most Innovative Use of Social” category, the finals of the 2017 Clio Entertainment for “Best TV Promo Campaign”, and the finals of the Shorty Social Good Awards.
