"Awakening" is a Nizhny Novgorod public award, presented since 2012 for socially significant achievements, deeds, and projects that have left a noticeable mark on the life of the city. It was founded by the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club and the information and consulting center "Media Strike"; the statuettes are alarm clocks[1][2].
How Winners Are Chosen
The award's shortlist is compiled from proposals by members of the expert club and past laureates — a selection principle that the nominees themselves call its main distinguishing feature[1].
The laureates are determined by an independent jury: editors-in-chief and heads of regional mass media outlets, Nizhny Novgorod public figures, and winners of previous years[2]. There are about ten categories; the permanent ones include "Deed of the Year," "Expert of the Year," "Leader of the Year," "Professional Journalism Project," "For a Journalist's Integrity," and "For Personal Contribution to the Development of Civil Society."
Ceremonies
The sixth ceremony was held on December 14, 2017, at the "Media Strike Hall." That year's "Leader of the Year" was named as Alexander Sergeyev, who had been elected president of the Russian Academy of Sciences earlier in the same year, while the award for "Professional Journalism Project" went to Reporter-NN", an online publication that was not yet even six months old[1][3].
The ninth ceremony took place on March 1, 2021, and was held online for the first time: 27 contenders in ten categories reached the final, and the broadcast was streamed on a social network[2]. It opened with a tribute outside the categories — in memory of the Nizhny Novgorod journalist Slavina Irina; participants and the jury honored her with a minute of silence[2].
Who Was Honored
The award deliberately mixes professions. In 2020, the "Deed of the Year" was awarded for the work of Yulia Garevskaya, chief physician of City Hospital No. 29: after contracting bilateral pneumonia, she isolated herself in her own office and continued to run the hospital, which had been converted into a COVID hospital[2].
In the journalism categories that year, the winners were Kommersant-Privolzhye — "a publication combining a high level of professionalism, objectivity, and reputation" — Roman Kryazhev, deputy editor-in-chief of the Nizhny Novgorod edition of Kommersant, "for impartiality and objectivity," and Aleksandr Pichugin (listed in the register of foreign agents) as a "leader of social (online) journalism"[2].
Work outside the media is also recognized: in 2020, the award went to Aleksey Merkuryev, chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the armed forces veterans' organization, for preserving the memory of Nizhny Novgorod residents, heroes of the wars of the twentieth century[2].
The Meaning of the Name
The award's name is played on literally: winners are presented with alarm clocks, and the ceremony's decor repeats the phrases "Time to act," "Time to wake up," and "Time to believe in yourself."
The organizers describe the award as a sort of chronicle of the achievements of Nizhny Novgorod residents and of the city itself, rather than an industry prize: the same list of laureates includes a doctor, a veterans' organization, a business publication, and the author of a Telegram channel[1][2].
Sources
- reporter-nn.ru — Reporter-NN — "Reporter-NN" Receives the "Probuzhdeniye-2017" Prize (archive)
- Open Nizhny — Laureates of the "Probuzhdeniye 2020" Prize Honored (archive)
- nn.rbc.ru — RBC Nizhny Novgorod — "Probuzhdeniye" Prize Presented in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)