Putin’s Proposal for a Russian Replacement of Wikipedia Isn’t New

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 6 – Vladimir Putin’s call for the creation of a Russian replacement for Wikipedia isn’t new, Elena Rotkevich says. It arose from discussions in St. Petersburg five years ago among the leaders of the two largest libraries there who complained that Wikipedia was full of errors, especially about Russia and Russian regions in particular.

            Those involved with the Russian version of Wikipedia fear that Putin’s words about the need for a replacement of Wikipedia as such is the opening salvo in a campaign to block access to the service on line and thus cut Russian off from the world wide web, the journalist says (gorod-812.ru/novaya-russkaya-gosudarstvennaya-vikipediya-pochti-gotova-ee-nachali-sozdavat-eshhe-v-2014-godu/).

            Many Russian information specialists, Rotkevich continues, are already asking how such a Russian replacement will be created and maintained, how or even whether it will have a feedback loop with its readers, and how – and especially “how quickly” – it will allow for the correction of mistakes that are inevitable in any such project. 

            But Putin’s words have encouraged those who want to try. Valentin Sidorin, the deputy general director of St. Petersburg’s Presidential Library, says that he and his colleagues are extremely pleased that Putin has come out in support of what they have been working on for several years.

            Sidorin says he and his colleagues have collected and digitalized information “connected with the history, geography, authorities and symbols of power of the regions. We have more than eight million scans!  As of now, I cannot say who will be the operator of the project of the new internet encyclopedia.”

            “We are ready to cooperate with any operator.” At the same time, Sidorin continued, “we must coordinate our work with the Great Russian Encyclopedia so that we do not duplicate one another.” His team, however, has already come up with a new name for the Russian replacement of Wikipedia, “All Russia.” 

            The Putin regime has a long history of being upset with Wikipedia and has frequently criticized its content and implied that it should be blocked in Russia. (For a discussion of that, see svoboda.org/a/30256312.html.) And it is thus unclear whether this latest Putin statement is something more.

            But it has already had at least one typical outcome: plans to spend government money via a semi-private corporation thus transferring funds from taxpayers to Putin’s entourage in yet another way (dailystorm.ru/obschestvo/pervoy-kompaniey-zarabatyvayushchey-na-sozdanii-russkoy-wikipedia-stala-firma-svyazannaya-s-rossiyskim-avtorskim-obshchestvom).