The laureates of the Znanie.Award were announced at the National Centre RUSSIA

On November 27, an on-site meeting of the Honorary Jury for the Znanie.Award — the flagship project of the Russian society Znanie — took place at the National Centre RUSSIA in Moscow. Distinguished state and public figures evaluated the projects of 110 nominees from 30 regions of Russia and three foreign countries. The 31 laureates will be announced at the award ceremony in February 2025.

The meeting of the Honorary Jury was traditionally opened by Sergei Kiriyenko, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of the Russian Federation. In his opening remarks, he noted the growing interest in the Znanie.Award.

"In the fourth season of the Award, the number of applications increased sixfold to 19,500. The number of participating countries also doubled, reaching 56; all continents except Australia and Antarctica are represented among the participants. There are very strong candidates: governors, State Duma deputies, senators, prominent scientists, and world-renowned cultural figures," said Sergei Kiriyenko.

Sergei Kiriyenko expressed gratitude to the National Centre RUSSIA, established by the decision of the President of the Russian Federation, for hosting the Honorary Jury’s work and invited all nominees to collaborate with the Centre: "The Centre was created to showcase everything that our country is proud of. And each person stepping onto this stage and each project is also a source of pride."

Additionally, Sergei Kiriyenko presented the idea to the Honorary Jury of expanding the project by introducing a regional stage for the Award in the next season. This initiative aims to create more opportunities to support and implement the initiatives of educators from the regions.

In 2024, the Honorary Jury included Tatyana Golikova, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Sergei Kravtsov, Minister of Education of the Russian Federation; Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; Olga Lyubimova, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation; Vladimir Medinsky, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation and Chair of the Russian Military Historical Society; Igor Levitin, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation and Special Representative for International Transport Cooperation; Yelena Yampolskaya, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation; Grigory Gurov, Head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh); Alexander Khinshtein, Chair of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, and many others.

After the meeting of the Honorary Jury, residents of Russia can cast their votes — the winners in the "People's Choice" category will be determined through online voting, which will traditionally take place via a mini-application in the VKontakte social network from November 28 to January 15. Users will be able to vote for their favorite nominees through the special mini-application "Znanie Enlightenment Award."

In total, 61 educators, 43 projects, and six companies from Russia, the USA, Argentina, and Slovakia competed for the Award. All of them were shortlisted by the decision of the Znanie.Award Expert Council, which in the fourth season included 163 renowned managers from various fields. This year, 19,523 applications were submitted from 89 regions of Russia and 56 foreign countries. The most popular categories were "For Enlightenment Activities in Schools" (2,440 applications), "For Contributions to Enlightenment in the Sphere of Promoting the Russian Language and the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation" (1,989 applications), and "Advisor-Enlightener" (1,858 applications).

The Znanie.Award is held with the support of its general information partner, TASS. Its information partners include Rambler&Co, Lenta.ru, Gazeta.Ru, the Komsomolskaya Pravda media group, the Zvezda broadcasting company, the Izvestia Media Centre, and the publishing house Argumenty i Fakty. 

The Znanie.Award is the country's main educational accolade, established by the Russian society Znanie in 2021 to recognize the achievements of educators, lecturers, authors, bloggers, science communicators, and other enlightenment figures, as well as to honor educational projects and companies across various fields. Information about the nominees and laureates of the Znanie.Award from 2021 to 2023 is available on its official website.

The Russian society Znanie traces its origins to a Soviet public organization founded in 1947 at the initiative of Soviet intellectuals as the "All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge" (renamed the All-Union society Znanie in 1963 and the Znanie Rossii society in 1991). Its members focused on popularizing science and delivering lectures on the achievements of Soviet industry and economy. In 2016, the Znanie Rossii society was reorganized into the Russian society Znanie, a nationwide public-state educational organization. On April 21, 2021, in his Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, President Vladimir Putin emphasized the need to relaunch the Russian society Znanie as a modern digital platform.

The National Centre RUSSIA was established by order of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, to preserve the legacy of the International RUSSIA EXPO and to showcase the achievements of the country and its citizens on a permanent basis. Federal government agencies, state companies, corporations, and regions take part in the Centre’s work.

The National Centre RUSSIA is located at 14 Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment, Moscow. The Centre is open from 10:00 to 20:00 every day except Monday.