Russian Wikipedia

The Russian Wikipedia (Russian: Русская Википедия, romanized: Russkaya Vikipediya) is the Russian-language edition of Wikipedia. As of February 2021, it has 1,697,754 articles. It was started on 11 May 2001.[1] In October 2015 it became the sixth-largest Wikipedia by the number of articles. It has the fifth-largest number of edits (112 million). In June 2020, it was the world's 6th most visited language Wikipedia after the English Wikipedia, the Japanese Wikipedia, the Spanish Wikipedia, the German Wikipedia and the French Wikipedia.[2]

Russian Wikipedia
Screenshot
Main Page of the Russian Wikipedia in April 2013
Type of site
Internet encyclopedia project
Available inRussian
HeadquartersMiami, Florida
OwnerWikimedia Foundation
URLru.wikipedia.org
CommercialCharitable
RegistrationOptional
Launched20 May 2001 (2001-05-20)
Content license
Creative Commons ShareAlike License 3.0

It is the largest Wikipedia written in any Slavic language, surpassing its nearest rival, the Polish Wikipedia, eightfold by the parameter of depth.[3] In addition, the Russian Wikipedia is the largest Wikipedia written in Cyrillic[4] or in a script other than Latin script. In April 2016, the project had 3,377 active editors who made at least five edits in that month, ranking third behind the English and Spanish versions.

Policies

Difficult issues are resolved through the Arbitration Committee, which handles content disputes, blocks users or prohibits certain users from editing articles on certain topics.[5]

Administrators (currently 81) are elected through a vote; a minimum quorum of 30 voters and 66% of support votes are required if the request is to be considered successful. Administrators who have become inactive (i.e. have not used administrative tools, such as "delete" or "block" buttons, at least 25 times in six months) may lose their privileges by an Arbitration Committee decision.[6]

Content

As of 1 June 2012, some of the biggest categories (which contain more than 5,000 articles) in the Russian Wikipedia are:[7]

  • 176,411 biographical articles. Although the Western name order (given name(s) followed by family name) is generally used in Russian, the Russian Wikipedia uses lexical order (last name, comma, given name(s) and also the patronymic for most people from ex-Soviet countries) for all articles on non-fictional persons. This order has been traditionally used in major Russian language encyclopedias, like the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
  • 144,322 human settlements articles.
  • 28,187 river articles
  • 19,302 film articles
  • 16,925 animal articles
  • 16,517 scientific articles
  • 16,133 surname articles
  • 13,936 footballers' articles
  • 11,247 Musicians' articles
  • 10,755 Writers' articles
  • 9,243 album articles
  • 9,237 articles on recipients of the Order of Lenin
  • 7,307 Company's articles
  • 6,734 plant articles
  • 6,574 street articles
  • 6,265 NGC astronomical articles
  • 6,157 actors articles
  • 5,719 artist articles
  • 5,580 music group articles
  • 5,292 Hero of the Soviet Union articles

10,340 articles contain material from the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. More than 47,000 articles were translated from the English Wikipedia.

Namespaces

In addition to common Wikipedia namespaces, the Russian Wikipedia has three custom ones: "Incubator" (# 102–103) – which is used as a training camp for new users and their first articles, "Project" (# 104–105) – for Wikipedia projects and "Arbitration" (# 106–107) – for arbitration requests.

User pages

On user pages, users are able to see their outreach, the culumative view count of pages they have edited.

Criticism

In 2015, Roman Leibov, a professor at University of Tartu, in an interview opined that articles related to humanities in the Russian Wikipedia are of considerably inferior quality compared to English Wikipedia, and some articles even deteriorate with time. He suggested that this effect is due to overzealous policing of intellectual property rights by the community and bemoaned poor editing skills of some Wikipedians.[8]

Timeline
Number of Russian Wikipedia articles in 2005–2020 (thousands).
Russian Wikipedia logo on 11 May 2013
Russian Wikipedia logo on 1 October 2018
  • The main page was created on 7 November 2002.[9]
  • On 30 December 2004, the 10,000th article was created.
  • On 23 December 2005, the 50,000th article was created.
  • On 16 August 2006, the 100,000th article was created.
  • On 29 November 2006, the Russian Wikipedia received the National Runet Award in the Educational section.
  • On 10 March 2007, the 150,000th article was created.
  • On 4 September 2007, the 200,000th article was created.
  • On 27 November 2007, the Russian Wikipedia received the National Runet Award in the Educational section.
  • On 17 March 2008, the 250,000th article was created.
  • On 18 July 2008, the 300,000th article was created.
  • On 22 January 2009, the 350,000th article was created.
  • On 16 June 2009, the 400,000th article was created.
  • On 25 November 2009, the Russian Wikipedia received the National Runet Award in the Science and Education section.[10]
  • On 25 February 2010, the 500,000th article was created.
  • On 8 October 2010, the 600,000th article was created.
  • On 12 April 2011, the 700,000th article was created.
  • On 10 December 2011, the 800,000th article was created.
  • On 8 September 2012, the 900,000th article was created.[11]
  • On 11 May 2013, the 1,000,000th article was created.[11]
  • On 27 March 2014, the 1,100,000th article was created.
  • On 19 March 2015, the 1,200,000th article was created.
  • On 29 March 2016, the 1,300,000th article was created.
  • On 14 June 2017, the 1,400,000th article was created.
  • On 1 October 2018, the 1,500,000th article was created.[12]
  • On 26 February 2020, the 1,600,000th article was created.

History

Early years
Celebration logo for 500.000 articles plays a pun as "half a lemon" means "half a million" in Russian jargon.
Awards of RuWiki. "Golden site" prize (2007) and four Runet Prizes (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010)

The Russian Wikipedia was created on 20 May 2001 in the first wave of non-English Wikipedias, along with editions in Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, German, Esperanto, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.

The countries in which the Russian Wikipedia is the most popular language version of Wikipedia are shown in light blue.

The first edit of the Russian Wikipedia was on 24 May 2001, and consisted of the line "Россия – великая страна"("Russia is a great nation"). The following edit changed it to the joke: "Россия – родина слонов (ушастых, повышенной проходимости – см. мамонт)" ("Russia is the motherland of elephants (big-eared, improved cross-country capability, see Mammoth.")[13]

For a long time development was slow (especially after some participants left for WikiZnanie), but in the 12-month period between February 2005 and February 2006 it surpassed nine editions in other languages – the Catalan, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Finnish, Norwegian, Chinese, Esperanto and Danish Wikipedias. In 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010[14] the Russian Wikipedia won the "Science and education" category of the "Runet Prize" (Russian: Премия Рунета) award, supervised by the Russian government agency FAPMC.[15]

Troubles with the government
Russian Wikipedia Main Page during 10 July 2012 blackout. "Imagine a world without free knowledge" written.

On 10 July 2012 Russian Wikipedia closed access to its content for 24 hours in protest against proposed amendments to Russia's Information Act (Bill No. 89417-6) regulating the accessibility of Internet-based information to children. Among other things, the bill stipulates the creation and country-wide enforcement of blacklists, which would block access to forbidden sites. Several aspects of this amendment drew criticism from various civil rights activists and Internet providers. In particular, the blacklist inclusion criteria were characterized as "too vague" and "paving the way for Internet censorship".[16]

Supporters of the amendment stated that it is aimed only at widely prohibited content such as child pornography and similar information, but the Russian Wikimedia chapter has declared that conditions for determining the content falling under this law will create a thing like the "great Chinese firewall". They further claimed that existing Russian legal practice demonstrates a high likelihood of a worst-case scenario, resulting in a country-wide ban of Wikipedia.[17][18] The second and the third readings of the law were held in the State Duma on 11 July; no essential corrections were introduced. The law will come into force after three readings in the State Duma, one reading in the Federation Council and presidential approval.[19]

On 10 July, Nikolai Nikiforov, Russian Minister for Telecommunications and Mass Media announced in his Twitter account, that the organization of the List of the prohibited websites (that was sited on the Law Project No. 89417-6) will be suspended until 1 November 2012.[19][20] On the same day Yelena Mizulina, a Duma deputy and the head of the subcommittee which sponsored the law, said that the blackout is an attempt to blackmail the Duma and was sponsored by the "pedophile lobby".[21]

Also, since 2012, Russian foreign agent law resulted in reduced funding available for the Russian Wikipedia and its volunteers, who no longer can receive financial aid from abroad, including their share of funds raised through global Wikipedia fundraisers.[22]

On 5 April 2013, it was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media that Wikipedia had been blacklisted over the article "Курение каннабиса" ("Cannabis smoking") on Russian Wikipedia.[23][24] On 31 March 2013, The New York Times reported that Russia was 'Selectively Blocking [the] Internet',[25] though Wikipedia itself was not blocked at that time.

Articles on Russian Wikipedia, and also on other Wikipedia versions, concerning the flight MH17 down-shoot and the 2014 Ukraine conflict have been targeted by Internet propaganda outlets associated with the Russian government. Some of the edits were spotted by a Twitter bot which monitors Wikipedia edits made from Russian government IP addresses.[26][27][28]

The entire Russian Wikipedia was blocked in the Russian Federation for a few hours in August 2015 due to the contents of the article on charas.[29]

In November 2019, Russian president Vladimir Putin called for a government-run alternative to Wikipedia. The Guardian reported state funds had already been allocated according to official documents published the previous September. The new electronic alternative was intended to be based on the Great Russian Encyclopedia.[30] According to the London Times, the proposal had been abandoned by mid-May 2020,[31] however, according to Great Russian Encyclopedia employee Yekaterina Chukovskaya, only the working group was disbanded and work on the project as a whole will continue.[32]

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Monthly overview, Wikimedia Statistics, 11 July 2020.
  3. All Wikipedias ordered by number of articles
  4. List of Wikipedias given in decadic logarithm
  5. (in Russian) ru:WP:Arbitration Committee
  6. (in Russian) ru:WP:Administrators (rus)
  7. Most linked categories
  8. Усыскин, Лев (5 June 2015). "Википедия – знакомая и неизвестная". Гефтер. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  9. "Базовая статья". Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  10. Номинанты Премии Рунета — 2009. Интернет-проекты Archived 15 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
  11. "Русский раздел Википедии преодолел рубеж в 1 миллион статей". cit.ua. Сервисные интернет технологии. 11 May 2013. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  12. "Русскоязычный раздел Википедии преодолел рубеж в 1 500 000 статей". RosKomSvoboda (in Russian). 1 October 2018. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  13. В русской Википедии появилась 200-тысячная статья (in Russian). Lenta.ru. 4 September 2007. Archived from the original on 8 February 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
  14. "Номинанты и Лауреаты 2010 года". Премии Рунета. Archived from the original on 23 August 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  15. Главная премия российского интернета стала государственной (in Russian). Lenta.ru. 29 August 2005. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
  16. "Russian Lawmakers Set to Debate Internet Blacklist". RIA Novosti. 6 July 2012. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  17. "Забастовка Википедии на русском языке". 10 July 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  18. "Russian Wikipedia goes dark in protest at censor law". BBC News. 10 July 2012. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  19. "Wikipedia down in protest in Russia". Euronews. 10 July 2012. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  20. "Николай Никифоров". Archived from the original on 24 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  21. Доброхотов, Роман; Никита Лашук; Маргарита Белодедова (10 July 2012). Елена Мизулина: Википедия – прикрытие педофильского лобби (in Russian). Slon.ru. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  22. "Knowledge is power: why is the Russian government editing Wikipedia?". Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  23. "Russia May Block Wikipedia Access Over Narcotics Article". RIA Novosti. Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  24. "Russian media regulator confirms Wikipedia blacklisted". Russia Beyond the Headlines. 5 April 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  25. Andrew E. Kramer (31 March 2013). "Russians Selectively Blocking Internet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 April 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  26. Sorokanich, Robert. "A Tweetbot Caught the Russian Gov't Editing Flight MH17 Wikipedia Info". Archived from the original on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  27. Dewey, Caitlin (21 July 2014). "Flight MH17's Wikipedia page edited by Russian government; An IP address associated with Vladimir Putin's office has made multiple edits to the Wikipedia page for the MH17 flight page". Toronto Star. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  28. Zeveleva, Olga (6 August 2014). "Knowledge is power: why is the Russian government editing Wikipedia?". The Calvert Journal. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  29. Russia Cancels Short-Lived Wikipedia Ban Archived 28 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine, The Associated Press
  30. "Vladimir Putin Calls for 'Reliable' Russian Version of Wikipedia". The Guardian. AFP. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  31. Bennetts, Marc (15 May 2020). "Kremlin drops plans for state-approved Wikipedia". The Times. Retrieved 15 May 2020. (subscription required)
  32. "Власти России отказались от идеи создавать аналог "Википедии" за два миллиарда рублей" (in Russian). Meduza. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
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