Moscow Shuts Down the 'Great Encyclopedia of Russia' or 'Wikipedia Killer'

The Russian government is shutting down the 'Great Encyclopedia', which has been the most important source of scientific articles in Russian for years. This comes after Vladimir Putin recently claimed full support for the project, stating that this encyclopedia would make Russian-speaking users independent from Wikipedia. However, reports now indicate a 'budget shortfall'. This year, about 40% of the Russian government's budget has been allocated to meet the needs of the military in the war against Ukraine, and next year, military-security expenditures will increase even more. The 'RuWiki' project has been designated as the successor to the 'Great Encyclopedia'. The management of 'RuWiki' describes this platform as 'containing content without any bias and in accordance with the laws of the Russian government', but among Russian-speaking internet users, this project is known as 'censored Wikipedia'. The 'Great Soviet Encyclopedia' was the largest Russian-language encyclopedia published in the former Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. In 2002, at the order of Vladimir Putin, the compilation of this encyclopedia was resumed under the title 'Great Encyclopedia of Russia', and between 2004 and 2017, 35 volumes containing over 100,000 articles were published. In 2017, the digital version of this encyclopedia was made available to the public, and by the end of last year, the management announced that about 2.5 million people use the resources of this platform each month. The annual cost of this project, with 400 employees and about 7,000 freelance authors, was reported to be around one billion rubles. According to Russian media, no budget has been allocated to this project since the beginning of this year, and the government is now determined to shut it down. According to these reports, debts to employees who have not received salaries for over eight months, as well as to the technical service provider, will be settled from the Russian Federation's reserve fund, and all resources of the 'Great Encyclopedia of Russia' will be transferred to the 'RuWiki' project. 'RuWiki' is an online encyclopedia in Russian (with some articles in other languages prevalent in Russia) that was launched last summer. At the time of its launch in June 2023, it contained about two million articles from Wikipedia in Russian, edited by an 'Expert Council'. In this 'editing', issues deemed 'wrong' and 'questionable' by the Russian government were removed and rewritten. For example, the Wikipedia article about the crimes of the Russian army in the war against Ukraine was deleted, and in its place, an article justifying this war was published. Recently, the British publication 'The Economist' in an article titled 'The Kremlin Rewrites Wikipedia' identified the main motivation for creating 'RuWiki' as the censorship of Russian-language Wikipedia articles. This publication noted that in 'RuWiki', Wikipedia articles about human rights, freedom of expression, censorship, or political prisoners in Russia are 'summarized', and the article about Alexei Navalny is 'edited' in such a way that all information about this late opposition figure's struggle against Vladimir Putin's regime is removed. It is unclear who the members of the 'Expert Council of RuWiki' are, but the project is managed by Vladimir Mediko, who was once one of the managers of 'Russian Wikipedia' but during that time, without the knowledge of other activists in this community, censored Wikipedia articles at the behest of the Russian government. The 'Russian Wikipedia' association, established in 2008 to oversee the translation, compilation, and editing of Wikipedia articles in Russian and winner of several internet awards in Russia, was active until last winter. At that time, Stanislav Kuzlovsky, a professor at Moscow University and the head of this association, was declared a 'foreign agent' and expelled from the university. The closure of this association does not mean the end of Wikipedia in Russian, although in Russia, hundreds of Wikipedia articles cannot be read without a VPN. Additionally, 'Roskomnadzor', the government agency that oversees communications, information technology, and mass media, has requested since 2022 that Wikipedia be labeled as 'violating Russian laws' in Russian sources. This agency has asked Wikipedia to delete all articles criticizing Russia's war against Ukraine. There is no mention of the financial sources of 'RuWiki' in Russian sources. Vladimir Mediko, the manager of this project, stated in an interview with TASS last summer that 'this project is not funded by the government but there are agreements with private investors who align with the goals of this project'. The research publication 'Vazhnie Istorii', which is published in Latvia after its activities were banned in Russia, is suspected of possibly being funded by VTB Bank. Since last spring, 'RuWiki' has been widely promoted. According to 'Vazhnie Istorii', 'RuWiki' banners have been seen in at least 19 major cities in Russia, and in the Moscow metro, a special advertising train for this project has been painted. Official media and Kremlin-supported bloggers also promote this project. Meanwhile, according to the newspaper 'Kommersant' and the economic news site 'RBK', the 'Great Encyclopedia of Russia' project has been shut down due to financial problems. Sergey Kravts, the editor-in-chief of the 'Great Encyclopedia of Russia', told 'Kommersant' that in recent years this project was funded by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, but this year no special budget has been allocated for this project, and after reviewing this issue in two government meetings, it was decided to shut it down. He stated that the authors' goal has always been to provide an 'ideal article, and every text has been reread, rewritten, and edited multiple times'. He added that from the perspective of Russian officials, this process is 'inefficient'. The Russian government's decision has faced opposition. Peter Lustrem, the deputy chairman of the Culture Commission of the Social Council at the Russian Parliament, wrote on Telegram: 'The merger of the Great Encyclopedia of Russia and RuWiki is a big mistake; science cannot be merged with amateur creativity, which is often accompanied by many errors.'