Passengers of the Moscow Metro are getting a chance to immerse themselves in the Russian Revolution ahead of its 100th anniversary as RT is staging a unique underground VR screening of its 360 videos as part of its #1917LIVE project.
RT’s VR cinema was open in the foyer of the Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square) station on Monday, November 6.
The Revolution 360 panoramic videos immerse the viewers in the atmosphere of the revolution era, telling the stories of historic figures, such as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, and ordinary people living through the events, which changed the course of history for both Russia and the world for decades to come.
The clips on display features those already available online, as well as three new videos to be exclusively premiered in the metro.
One of the videos take the audience to an underground printing house which makes leaflets and newspapers to spread the revolutionary message.
In another video, a posh suburban estate is being redecorated with revolutionary slogans as peasants and workers move in after its previous owners fled.
The third shows a prison riot, with convicts attacking guards and torching records of their crimes, so that no future government can persecute them.
“Each of our videos is a detailed reconstruction of the life of that period. We have tried to treat the era that we were recreating with extreme care; to convey the general atmosphere of 1917 as accurately as possible. All the scenes unfold in locations that currently look almost the same as a hundred years ago,” said Aleksandr Scryabin, Revolution 360 director.
“The technology of panoramic filming, on the one hand, greatly complicates the task of the director. But on the other hand, it allows the viewer to literally become an eyewitness of those historical events. No film shot in the traditional format can provide such a level of immersion,” he added.
The choice of location for RT’s VR screening was no coincidence, since the station is actually named after the 1917 events.
“The Moscow Metro is a unique monument of history, architecture and culture, which is closely connected with the fate and history of our country. For this event, we chose the Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square) station, which has the events of 1917 featured in its architecture,” said Roman Latypov, First Deputy Head of the Moscow Metro for Strategic Development and Client Work.
November 7 marks 100 years since the Russian Revolution when the Bolsheviks, leftists led by Vladimir Lenin, took control of the country. They replaced the provisional government, which was put into power after the monarchy was abolished in Russia earlier in the year.
To learn more about the Russian Revolution, turn to Twitter and check out the hashtag #1917LIVE. RT has been running a huge historical re-enactment with dozens of characters, including Lenin and Nicholas II, tweeting as though the social media platform had been available to them at that time. The main anchor of the project is the Twitter account of the Russian Telegraph, a fictional newspaper which breaks the latest news of 1917 and retweets the historic figures taking part in the project.