Ruwiki, the Russian version of the well-known online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, is now live. Check complete details here.

New Delhi: Ruwiki, the Russian version of the well-known online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, is now officially live on January 15. According to reports from Russian media – Kommersant, the beta testing of the website with a limited audience started in mid 2023, and there were already more articles in Ruwiki than in the Russian-language segment of Wikipedia. Here are details on the same.

What is Ruviki?

One of the Internet encyclopaedia “Ruviki’s” authors, Vladimir Medeyko, who was the director of the non-profit partnership “Wikimedia RU” at the time, made the announcement on May 24, 2023, at the Russian Internet Forum in the Moscow region. He proposed that the new encyclopaedia forego news coverage and broad thematic coverage in favour of “balanced, accurate information.”

“Ruviki” is not the first recently introduced “Russian Wikipedia” equivalent. Other similar projects include those designed to replace the popular resource “Runiversalis” and the Great Russian Encyclopaedia. Collectively, there are more than 1,000 branches and mirrors of Wikipedia in the world.

The Russian Version Of Wikipedia – Ruviki, is set to go live on Monday.

“Ruviki” is available at ru.ruwiki.ru. The main page of the online encyclopaedia features a search bar that allows you to explore almost 2 million articles, as well as a menu where you can find an alphabetical index, a category tree, chronological tables, and other navigation tools. There is also a “Create Article” button for those who want to join the content of the encyclopaedia. Future authors are warned that materials copied from other resources will be deleted. Once an article is created, it will be assessed by other participants on the appropriateness of the subject matter, its significance and how it is presented in the article, the quality of the sources cited, possible copyright infringement, and the neutrality of the presentation.

Below on the main page there are materials that are in one way or another related to current world news, and the “On This Day” section, dedicated to historical events of today. There is also a section “Did you know?”, which talks about remarkable facts from different areas of life.

Other News

Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has intensified its crackdown on online content. However, Russian courts have fined the online encyclopaedia for content related to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved new alternative platforms for Wikipedia in May 2022, according to Russian media. Last week, the Izvestia newspaper, citing Ruwiki’s press service, reported that the most-read articles during the beta testing phase included a list of deaths in 2023, the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, and the highest-grossing films in Russia.

Izvestia stated that during the trial phase, users would spend an average of more than six minutes on the site, with viewers going through more than five pages on average. Kommersant said that the Ruwiki founders refused to reveal the total cost of the project or the identities of the site’s financiers.