Two IEM PR Center staff members won Wordsmith awards
Anna Yaroslavtseva, head of IEM Public Relations Center, and Ekaterina Krivolapova, a specialist at the Center, won awards at the Wordsmith-2021 annual regional journalism contest.
Anna won the Online Journalist of the Year award for Deportation. space, a large-scale media project, while Ekaterina won the Corporate Media of the Year award for Vestochka children's magazine, published under the Kolpashevo eparchy of the Tomsk Metropole, Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
Deportation. space was created by the lecturers and students of the Higher School of Journalism, TSU, together with the TomskGermanautonomy. It tells the story of how the region became the place of exile, what famous people were deported here, with a particular focus on the Volga Germans– the project was created to commemorate the 80th anniversary of their deportation to Siberia. Anna was responsible for compiling all the text content for the project.
“I think that there are several factors that propelled me to victory. First of all – the scale of the project. The amount of work put into it is comparable to a doctoral thesis; it summarized a lot of information from archives, articles, and monographs. Second – the text is very vivid because it includes people’s unique stories, their emotions, and interesting details. We even managed to find the passengers of the very train that arrived in Tomsk on September 17, 1941! Among them were: a violinist in the philharmonic, the basketball player who trained Sergey Belov – the world champion, an accountant of the Yantar store. Third – a lot of things were done for the first time. We managed not only to retrace the route of the freight train that brought the deportees here, but also to learn how it was like on the inside, even the cost of a bowl of soup that they servedin the train station canteen. We compiled a “deportee’s shortlist” consisting of the most essential things that people took with them to the place of their new life. Finally, for the first time in history, we chronicled the deportation of Soviet Germans to Tomsk Region, and answered the question ofwhy they were deported here three times,” reflects Anna.
Tomsk Review published a comprehensive article about the project, which can be viewed here.
Vestochka – the only Orthodox Christian children’s magazine in Tomsk Region – has been published for 10 years now.
“In 2021, our magazine celebrated its 10th anniversary,” says Ekaterina Krivolapova. “I’ve been working on it since 2013 as its editor. Our team is very happy about this victory, because this projectis genuinely wonderful. The magazine is meant for kids, but is read with pleasure by parents as well, and by teachers, who often use it as teaching aid for their Basics of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics classes. Nearly everybody on our team – all wonderful journalists, artists, designers and correctors – works on the project as a volunteer. It brings people joy. That’s why I frequently call our children’s magazine a “joy project”. We cooperate with various educational institutions, with authorities of the region’sdistricts. We have big development plans: we want to create a high-quality website and a big collection of the best works we ever published to help teachers. The journalist community’s recognition is very valuable for me as the project leader.”
Tomsk Time TV filmed a segment about the magazine, which you can watch here.
The contest is sponsored by the Tomsk Regional Branch of the Russian Union of Journalists and is supported by the Administration of Tomsk Region.
Anna won the Online Journalist of the Year award for Deportation. space, a large-scale media project, while Ekaterina won the Corporate Media of the Year award for Vestochka children's magazine, published under the Kolpashevo eparchy of the Tomsk Metropole, Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
Deportation. space was created by the lecturers and students of the Higher School of Journalism, TSU, together with the TomskGermanautonomy. It tells the story of how the region became the place of exile, what famous people were deported here, with a particular focus on the Volga Germans– the project was created to commemorate the 80th anniversary of their deportation to Siberia. Anna was responsible for compiling all the text content for the project.
“I think that there are several factors that propelled me to victory. First of all – the scale of the project. The amount of work put into it is comparable to a doctoral thesis; it summarized a lot of information from archives, articles, and monographs. Second – the text is very vivid because it includes people’s unique stories, their emotions, and interesting details. We even managed to find the passengers of the very train that arrived in Tomsk on September 17, 1941! Among them were: a violinist in the philharmonic, the basketball player who trained Sergey Belov – the world champion, an accountant of the Yantar store. Third – a lot of things were done for the first time. We managed not only to retrace the route of the freight train that brought the deportees here, but also to learn how it was like on the inside, even the cost of a bowl of soup that they servedin the train station canteen. We compiled a “deportee’s shortlist” consisting of the most essential things that people took with them to the place of their new life. Finally, for the first time in history, we chronicled the deportation of Soviet Germans to Tomsk Region, and answered the question ofwhy they were deported here three times,” reflects Anna.
Tomsk Review published a comprehensive article about the project, which can be viewed here.
Vestochka – the only Orthodox Christian children’s magazine in Tomsk Region – has been published for 10 years now.
“In 2021, our magazine celebrated its 10th anniversary,” says Ekaterina Krivolapova. “I’ve been working on it since 2013 as its editor. Our team is very happy about this victory, because this projectis genuinely wonderful. The magazine is meant for kids, but is read with pleasure by parents as well, and by teachers, who often use it as teaching aid for their Basics of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics classes. Nearly everybody on our team – all wonderful journalists, artists, designers and correctors – works on the project as a volunteer. It brings people joy. That’s why I frequently call our children’s magazine a “joy project”. We cooperate with various educational institutions, with authorities of the region’sdistricts. We have big development plans: we want to create a high-quality website and a big collection of the best works we ever published to help teachers. The journalist community’s recognition is very valuable for me as the project leader.”
Tomsk Time TV filmed a segment about the magazine, which you can watch here.
The contest is sponsored by the Tomsk Regional Branch of the Russian Union of Journalists and is supported by the Administration of Tomsk Region.