With #1917LIVE we attempted to create an alternate reality online. Developing in real time, the project creates a highly engaging experience – our audience gets a chance to follow and interact with historic figures themselves almost like via digital time machine, take part in polls, Q&As and witness the Russian Empire with their own eyes.

To support this we filmed a unique 360 VR-series bringing viewers back in time to experience 1917 Russia. The eight videos, featuring prominent actors in key roles, place the viewer in the middle of dramatic scenes: you can experience the trenches of WW1, visit revolutionary printing house, sneak into Lenin’s hideout apartment or visit Petrograd rail station in a time of chaos.

8 episodes from the series were released between 25 October-7 November 2017 to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution. The videos were being published in special 360 app, also on YouTube and Facebook.

Besides online media platforms, “Revolution in 360” VR-project was presented to the audiences at a special and unusual event. Passengers of the Moscow Metro got the chance to immerse themselves in the Russian Revolution ahead of its 100th anniversary during a unique underground VR screenings.

An improvised VR cinema was open in the foyer of the Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square) station on November 6, near the Red Square. The choice of location for VR screening was no coincidence, since the station is actually named after the 1917 events.

Additional screenings of the “Revolution in 360” series took place inside one of Moscow’s main creative exhibiting platforms - the Art Play.

“Revolution in 360” gained 1 million video views on Facebook and YouTube and thousands of interactions. The VR series helped to promote #1917LIVE project. After one year of running #1917LIVE, the combined accounts gained over 250,000 followers. More than 275,000 tweets used the hashtag #1917LIVE, generating over 75 million impressions.

#1917LIVE was followed by media influencers, reporters, politicians, researchers and history enthusiasts. Journalists from The Guardian, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, France 24 ‘retweeted the revolution’. The project received media coverage in 10+ languages (Huffington Post, El Pais, La Stampa, GQ, Telesur and others).

The project generated scientific interest among scholars and educators globally: some have requested a full data-set to enable their research. Others are using the data to teach Russian history.

Innovation in #1917LIVE was praised by many influencers and has been recognised at numerous prestigious international awards, generating powerful PR flow.

#1917LIVE is an experimental project - a historical social media role-play that introduces an engaging storytelling format that inspires younger audiences to learn and interact with history. Our task was to make history learning - entertaining.

Developing in real time, dozens of historical accounts are live-tweeting events of the Russian Revolution as if Twitter existed a century ago. Among many interactive elements - one of project's key elements is a unique VR-series immersing the viewers into the atmosphere of 1917 Russia.

We wanted to ensure this real-time dynamic publishing stream could capture history, so generations can experience it.

Our strategy was to immerse our followers into the reality of revolutionary Russia to the greatest extent possible, to create a surreal feeling as if the events from a century ago are breaking into their daily newsfeeds.

The eight videos, featuring prominent Russian performers in key roles, place the viewer in the middle of dramatic scenes.

Each of the panoramic videos is a detailed reconstruction of the life of that period, telling the stories of historic figures, but also ordinary people living through the hectic events. Conveying the general atmosphere of 1917, all the scenes unfold in authentic locations that currently look almost the same as a hundred years ago.

Have you dreamed of time travel? We tried to make it possible with our immersive time machine: we take you 100 years back to relive the Russian Revolution in real time.

We asked ourselves what would be the best new way to teach history in the social media era? How can we engage an audience used to snaps, tweets, breaking news, social media videos? So we created a large-scale Twitter role-play that reenacts history in real time. To immerse our viewers into 1917 Russia we filmed a special 8-episode VR series.

Among objectives:

- create innovative social media storytelling

- film historically authentic 360 videos

- show best-in-class VR cinematography production

- educate and inspire audience to learn

- introduce a new format which can be adapted in history education courses globally

- increase brand awareness