The Russian authorities are actively rewriting history, creating its version of Wikipedia, which caused anxiety among experts and journalists. According to The Economist, at the end of 2023, it became apparent that Moscow had a plan for replacing the original Wikipedia, which was already faced with pressure from Putin's regime.
The Ruwiki project is a direct copy of Wikipedia, but with serious changes. The new version is the most sensitive moments of history are either rewritten or simply missed. The Kremlin's ideologues hope that millions of Russian citizens will accept these new versions as the truth. For example, the atrocities of Russian invaders in Bucha in 2022 are presented as "Ukrainian and Western misinformation campaign".
Ruwiki reieters try to avoid discussing sensitive topics such as LGBT rights, oral sex, Soviet history and war in Ukraine. Kherson, destroyed by Russian bombs, is mentioned without a word about the war, and the tragedy of the shooting of Polish officers in Katyn in 1940 is distorted in such a way as to call into question the archival documents proving the involvement of the Soviet special services.
In Ruwiki, all references to the Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February 2024, was changed to present him as a simple "blogger". This testifies to the desire of the authorities to control the information space and distort reality.
Journalists have noted that most new edits are introduced in working hours, indicating the participation of paid authors in this process, unlike the Volunteer Model "Wikipedia". This emphasizes the systematic approach of the authorities to manipulating information.
Despite the long differences, the Russian authorities have not yet introduced the Wikipedia to the black list, and both platforms continue to exist in parallel. However, significant investments in Ruwiki indicate that the days of the original "Wikipedia" can be polished. This creates new challenges for free access to information in Russia and emphasizes the importance of struggle for truth in the world where facts are victims of propaganda.
