{"id":868,"date":"2018-10-31T11:31:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T15:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=868"},"modified":"2018-10-31T11:38:06","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T15:38:06","slug":"irrational-mistakes-and-the-media-of-tomorrow-mikhail-zygar-and-project-1917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2018\/10\/31\/irrational-mistakes-and-the-media-of-tomorrow-mikhail-zygar-and-project-1917\/","title":{"rendered":"Irrational Mistakes and the Media of Tomorrow: Mikhail Zygar and Project 1917"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By August Hagemann<\/p>\n

On Friday, October 26th, 2018, Miami University\u2019s Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet studies hosted journalist Mikhail Zygar.\u00a0 Zygar got his start as a war correspondent with Kommersant, <\/em>but became famous as the founding editor-in-chief of Russia\u2019s only independent news station, TV-Dozhd\u2019, <\/em>and his book on Russian government corruption, All the Kremlin\u2019s Men<\/em>.\u00a0 Though these journalistic positions focusing on today are how Zygar began his career, one of his most influential recent projects focused on events that took place more than 100 years ago — Russia\u2019s 1917 revolutions.<\/p>\n

Project 1917 <\/em>presents a day-by-day, primary source account of the final year of the Russian Empire, from just before the February Revolution, through the chaotic months of rule by the Provisional Government, to the October Revolution and the first months of Communist control.\u00a0 It is not simply a collection of diaries and letters, however.\u00a0 The most notable innovation of Project 1917<\/em> is that it presents every piece of information as a social media posts.\u00a0 Lenin, Trotsky, Kerensky, and thousands of others express their thoughts through status updates, and 1917 unfolds day-by-day in much the same way one can follow news stories via social media today.\u00a0 According to Zygar, Project 1917 <\/em>is certainly an attempt to make history more known; beyond that, however, it is an attempt to socially and politically engage today\u2019s youth, in the hope of changing Russia\u2019s political culture in the future.<\/p>\n

The most obvious purpose of Project 1917 <\/em>is simply to bring the Russian Revolution into the spotlight, 100 years later.\u00a0 Despite the fact that 1917 is one of the most influential years of the last several centuries, especially in Russia, Putin\u2019s government gave almost no attention to it.\u00a0 Zygar argues that this is because the Revolution and ensuing 74 years of Communist rule do not feature into the narrative and rhetoric of the current government, which prefers to focus on the Russian Empire as a model for a globally influential Russia.\u00a0 To Vladimir Putin, the Revolutions of 1917 are at best problematic, and at worst a direct challenge to the nationalist, expansionist values he claims for Russia today.\u00a0 In addition to simply bringing attention to such a significant event, Zygar also mentioned that Project 1917 <\/em>is meant to convey a very specific theory of history, based on individual actors, and the idea that \u201chistory consists of irrational mistakes\u2026 there is no plan\u201d.\u00a0 Though many participants in 1917 had their own ideas of what exactly is driving history, most notably the Bolsheviks, Zygar\u2019s own explanation of history centers around individual actors doing their very best to adapt to coincidence and circumstance, usually acting illogically and without complete information.\u00a0 This is certainly not to say that Zygar believes all life is dumb chance, or that no Russian revolutionary had any idea what was going on — rather, it is to say that in telling a story involving thousands of characters, none of whom ever knew exactly everything else that was going on, Mikhail Zygar came to the conclusion that world history is driven by individual decisions and actions interacting in infinitely complex ways every single day, and that it is those actions that ultimately determine what path history will take.<\/p>\n

History is only part of why Project 1917 <\/em>was created, however.\u00a0 Mikhail Zygar\u2019s goal in focusing on the past was to generate action and attention in the future, by engaging Russia\u2019s youth.\u00a0 Zygar left journalism out of frustration with the way news was covered — nothing but the same coverage of the same events, mostly relating to Vladimir Putin, broadcast over the same tired television and print formats as always.\u00a0 Even liberal Russian news sources like Dozhd<\/em> had limited audiences, mostly people who already agreed with the viewpoints being expressed seeking confirmation of their values.\u00a0 Mikhail Zygar wanted to reach a newer, younger audience, one that was not already following the news cycle.\u00a0 With the belief that modern media and technology are the keys to reaching this demographic, Zygar set out to create Project 1917, <\/em>history presented as social media.\u00a0 Zygar argued that presenting information in this style, effectively treating social media as its own genre of writing, Russia\u2019s youth would find it more accessible, and engage more with it.\u00a0 The data bear out his predictions — according to Zygar, Project 1917 <\/em>reached a readership of 8 million people, with an average age between 15 and 25.<\/p>\n

By presenting a young audience with interesting, accessible historical information, Zygar hopes to empower a future Russian political culture which is more open and positive than today\u2019s.\u00a0 Arguing that \u201chistory is a rehearsal of the future\u201d, Zygar sees Project 1917 <\/em>and other attempts like it as absolutely essential adaptations to today\u2019s media, to preserve engagement and discussion.\u00a0 He does not believe that he is a visionary, single-handedly changing the Russian political landscape, or that if all young people read all of Project 1917 <\/em>Russia\u2019s political climate will suddenly become more liberal.\u00a0 However, he does believe it is crucial that today\u2019s youth, who will become tomorrow\u2019s adults, are given access to historical information, and made to think about how they can build a better world.<\/p>\n

Though every word of substance within Project 1917 <\/em>was written 100 or more years ago, the novel, engaging social media format, which stresses individual action and interaction, makes everything feel fresh and modern.\u00a0 By acknowledging and embracing new media, Mikhail Zygar hopes to use history to inspire today\u2019s young people to keep making history.<\/p>\n

For more information on Zygar’s visit, you can read pieces by Emily Erdmann<\/a> and Helen McHenry<\/a>, respectively. In addition, feel free to join the Center\u2019s next guest lecturer, prominent journalist Masha Gessen, on November 6th<\/sup> at 5 PM in Shideler 152.<\/p>\n

August Hagemann is a junior majoring in REEES.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By August Hagemann On Friday, October 26th, 2018, Miami University\u2019s Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet studies hosted journalist Mikhail Zygar.\u00a0 Zygar got his start as a war correspondent with Kommersant, but became famous as the founding editor-in-chief of Russia\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-havighurst-lecturers","category-lecture_reviews","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}