TSU Higher School of Journalism’s project on the deportation of Russian Germans to Siberia and how the Tomsk region became a place of exile for them took first place in the ‘Digital Storytelling’ nomination category at the 2022 Student Design Contest – one of the most prestigious international student media design competitions.

The project name directly translates as ‘open the link’, but with both words having multiple meanings it can also be understood as ‘discover deportation’.

A digital story about “people, who were brought to Siberia by fate and came to love it with their whole heart” was created by students Anna Litvin, Nikita Zaytsev, Eva Kineva, Svetlana Yaroslavtseva, and Aleksandra Gaaze and teachers of the Higher School of Journalism Anna Yaroslavtseva, Vasiliy Vershinin, and Ekaterina Tihonova together with the community of Tomsk Germans.

The contest awarded more than 50 works in 13 nomination categories. Students of the Higher School of Journalism are the only winners representing Russia.

“‘Think global – act local’ strategy in action. It is impossible to do modern media projects of good quality without accounting for the global context, but it is important to tell your own story,” noted Vasiliy Vershinin, design-editor of the project and a lecturer at TSU Higher School of Journalism. “An international competition is the opportunity to see your project in such a context. Students who study in Siberia are especially interested in how the jury comprised of designers from The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal will assess their project.”

The project has several sections; one of them is a story of one train that transported deported people from the Volga region to Tomsk.

“You should see it – an interactive map, an infographic with ‘deportee list of belongings’, a freight train reconstructed according to the original documents, hand-drawn portraits of their passengers – a fine, talented work!” says Anna Yaroslavtseva, assistant professor at the TSU Higher School of Journalism and the head of the RIA Tomsk.

In 2021, Anna Yaroslavtseva won a regional journalist award as a web-journalist with her texts for “Open the Link”.

“I couldn’t say that I was an illustrator before, and now I do not see myself in any other sphere. It’s weird to remember how we were asked to simply participate – to draw, to build pages - but it turns out that nothing is simple. You spread awareness about a very important topic, and you grow as well – as a person and as a professional. When I got the news that we had won, I was as excited as a child. I sent the news to all my friends and relatives saying: ‘Look! It’s us!’ I would have loved ‘Open the Link’ without any victories, because it’s a strong project with an amazing team, but it being recognized at such a high level inspires me a lot,” said Anna Litvin, a student at the TSU Higher School of Journalism.

For Nikita Zaytsev, another student who participated in the project, it became a good portfolio case. Aside from interest in the process and content, it was also a personal challenge.

“I once needed to make the same kind of map as the one in the project, but at that time I couldn’t make it – maybe it is because I had less experience. I needed to learn how to make a lot of things. The project turned out amazing! We managed to do something very cool and recognized by experts. I am very grateful for the opportunity to participate in such project and better my skills in working with web-projects,” said Nikita Zaytsev.

Previously, “Open the Link” won silver in Humani Future, an international media festival of social advertising and journalism held in Saint Petersburg.

In recent years, two projects of the TSU Higher School of Journalism were noted by the Society for News Design. “Inner Estonia” documents the life of Beryozovka, a village founded by the Estonians in 1902 with a predominantly Estonian population, and “The Selkups: Save As…” describes the life of an indigenous people in modern Siberia.

“The fact that it’s our third Student Design Contest award speaks about our faculty’s system of education, a mark for our school,” added Vasiliy Vershinin.

Get to know the Higher School of Journalism

 The project is available in the Russian and German languages.
The Student Design Contest is organized by Society for News Design (SND) based at Michigan State University. The jury is comprised of representatives of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Walt Disney Company.