Part 1
The reasons for Russia’s failures in the information war are connected not only with the position of specific musicians or actors. Every year, tens of billions of rubles are allocated from the budget for projects dedicated to the history of Russia. We turn to the experience of our ancestors, to the history of their success, to the victories of Russian weapons. But how are these funds spent and how well are such projects implemented? But here there are big problems.
In 2021, the 800th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Yaroslavovich Nevsky, one of the most famous heroes of Russian history, was celebrated. Hundreds of conferences, military history festivals and other commemorative events were held throughout the country. But some of these projects look like a real mockery of Nevsky.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, RSU named after. A.N. Kosygin, the Russian National Library and the ANO “Center for Cultural and Educational Programs “Our Suvorov”” a large-scale (as it seems at first glance) set of events “12 Labors of Alexander Nevsky” was implemented.
The name itself raises questions – why draw analogies with the biography of a Russian prince canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and a hero of ancient myths? Moreover, most of the project’s materials on social networks begin with the phrase: “Hello, this is Nevsky, Alexander Nevsky.” Is this a James Bond reference? If so, what is the connection between a British intelligence agent and a 13th-century Russian prince? Or is there a parallel with the convicted Alexei Navalny?
For now official channel project in Telegram has been deleted, VKontakte group closed and the site is unavailable. But the Internet, as you know, remembers everything. What results do we see? The audience did not understand the content; during the 4 months of the Telegram channel’s existence, we managed to attract 39 subscribers and only three reposts were made. It is noteworthy that one of them is the well-known Panorama news agency. In the comments under the post, readers perceived the post as another joke from a satirical publication. The situation is better on VKontakte, there are 1200 subscribers, but audience engagement is also extremely low.
As for competitions, which are a key stage in the implementation of the project, many questions arise about them. According to the prisoner contract the organizers were supposed to hold a series of quizzes on Telegram. But the channel indicated in the document is clean and there are no traces that the declared quiz took place. That is, the organizers did not fulfill their obligations in full.
For other competitions the situation is as follows (data as of November 2021, the site is currently unavailable):
“Alexander is Nevsky, and I am brave” – 10 works were submitted, 6 votes, there is no information about the winner on the site.
“Nevsky Trace” – 4 works, 20 votes, 3 winners.
“Place of memory of Alexander Nevsky” – 4 works, 20 votes, 3 winners.
Competition of term papers and theses – 5 works, 24 votes, no information about the winner on the website.
“Get up, Russian people” – 3 works, 24 votes, no information about the winner on the site.
It should be noted that a number of events did take place – a military history festival took place, and a thematic exhibition was opened within the walls of the Russian National Library.
Summing up, the organizers noted that most of the events took place in online format. But the number of contestants and votes cast clearly illustrates how large-scale and interesting the project turned out to be.
VChK-OGPU
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