在俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京建议他的国家开发一种替代广受欢迎的维基百科免费在线百科全书的方法几周后，一位著名的编辑透露他正致力于此。
伟大的俄罗斯百科全书执行编辑谢尔盖·克拉韦茨星期四对国营的塔斯社说，他正在开发普京委托的著名的21世纪伟大的苏联百科全书的数字版本。“该项目始于7月，预计需要33个月，”他说。"它将在2022年春天或夏天完成."
这个名字还没有被选中，但是克拉韦茨说他想找一个既能唤起伟大的俄罗斯百科全书声望又能给当代年轻观众带来这样一部作品的标题。
“多达35%的学生知道它的存在，他们认为它是可靠的，但有点过时。至于教授，几乎100%的人都熟悉百科全书，并相信它是基础和可靠的，”他说。“如果我们创造新的东西，我们需要保持连续性、可信性、深度和可靠性，但与此同时，我们应该消除它的陈旧性，并拓展到新的领域。”
2017年12月20日，俄罗斯大百科全书谢尔盖·克拉韦茨(左)和俄罗斯科学院成员尤里·奥西波夫在莫斯科克里姆林宫向俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京(中)展示了大百科全书的完整版本。
多年来，建立俄罗斯维基百科风格的数据库一直是俄罗斯争论的焦点。这一想法是由立法者庞雅文·延波尔斯卡娅提出的，她是普京执政的统一俄罗斯党的成员，也是苏联的直言不讳的支持者。在2016年12月的一次文化艺术委员会和俄语委员会联席会议上，她呼吁普京提供更多本土形式的体育、文化和娱乐。
“我们需要一个国家参考系统，这样人们就可以使用维基百科之外的资源，”延波尔斯卡娅说，她去年成为俄罗斯议会文化委员会下院的主席，指责手机游戏《神奇宝贝围棋》是“魔鬼的作品和全球阴谋的产物”
一年后，2017年，克拉韦茨与俄罗斯科学院成员尤里·奥西波夫一起会见了普京，向他展示了俄罗斯领导人的最后一卷，即俄罗斯大百科全书的第35卷。这两个人感谢普京的指导，但呼吁在将这项庞大的工作放到网上时给予更多支持，他立即称赞了这项努力。
“你说得对，当人们在网上阅读维基百科时，他们会得到许多多样而重要的信息。然而，当它不完全准确时，弊大于利，”普京当时说。"这就是为什么这个信息试金石如此有价值."
两年后，克里姆林宫在一份法律草案中宣布，将在2020年至2022年期间斥资2700万美元建立一个俄语维基百科的替代版本，但在本月早些时候的一次会议上，普京表示在国内外引起了一些争议一些人认为他可能会阻止访问原始网站，该网站有超过150万篇俄文文章。
维基百科创始人吉米·多纳尔·威尔士于2010年12月14日在俄罗斯莫斯科郊外的莫斯科管理学院参加俄罗斯经济现代化和技术发展委员会会议。克里姆林宫试图将斯科尔科沃创新中心改造成俄罗斯自己的硅谷。
普京于11月2日举行了俄罗斯语言总统委员会会议。在会议期间，在总统发言之前，另外两名与会者提出了维基百科的主题，他们都质疑维基百科的准确性，并警告维基百科对社会的影响以及俄语知识的扩散。
普京说:“关于维基百科，这里已经提到过了:最好用新的电子形式的俄罗斯大百科全书来代替它，我们现在正在和我们的同事讨论这个问题。”。"顺便说一句，无论如何，这将是一种良好、现代的可靠信息."
据塔斯社报道，几天后，克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫对这位俄罗斯领导人的言论发表了澄清，称“维基百科是一个广受欢迎和尊重的自我更新资源”。
“总统和[在理事会会议上的一些发言人]的意思是，恕我直言，没有人能保证维基百科上信息的可信度，”佩斯科夫说。"总统强调需要创建一个百科全书式的知识来源，并使其易于获取。"
“这就是伟大的苏联百科全书，”他补充说，强调“不能，也没有任何禁止或限制对维基百科的访问。”
RUSSIA IS BUILDING ITS OWN WIKIPEDIA AFTER PUTIN SAYS THE COUNTRY NEEDS ONE
Weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that his country develop an alternative to the massively popular Wikipedia free online encyclopedia one prominent editor has revealed he was working to do just that.
Speaking Thursday to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency, Great Russian Encyclopedia executive editor Sergei Kravets said that he was developing a digital version of the famed 21st-century Great Soviet Encyclopedia commissioned by Putin. "The project, which began in July, is anticipated to take 33 months," he said. "It will be completed by the spring or summer of 2022."
The name has not been selected, but Kravets said he sought a title that both evoked the prestige of the Great Russian Encyclopedia and could bring such a work to a contemporary, young audience.
"As many as 35 percent of students are aware of its existence, they consider it to be reliable but a bit outdated. As for professors, nearly 100 percent are acquainted with the encyclopedia and believe it to be fundamental and reliable," he said. "If we create something new, we need to maintain continuity, credibility, depth and reliability, but at the same time, we should eliminate its antiquatedness and reach out to new areas."
Great Russian Encyclopedia Sergei Kravets (L) and Russian Academy of Sciences member Yury Osipov present to Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) the complete edition of the Great Russian Encyclopedia at the Kremlin, Moscow, December 20, 2017.KREMLIN PRESS OFFICE
Establishing a Russian Wikipedia-style database has been a source of debate in Russia for years. The idea was brought up by lawmaker Yelena Yampolskaya, a member of Putin's ruling United Russia Party and an outspoken supporter of the Soviet Union, at a December 2016 a joint meeting of the Council for Culture and Art and the Council on the Russian Language during which she appealed to Putin for more indigenous forms of sports, culture and entertainment.
"We need a national reference system so that people have resources other than Wikipedia at their disposal," Yampolskaya, who last year went on to become head of the Russian lower house of parliament's culture committee, said, berating mobile game Pokémon GO as "the devil's work and the product of a global conspiracy."
A year later, in 2017, Kravets met with Putin alongside Russian Academy of Sciences member Yury Osipov to present the Russian leader the final, 35th volume of the Great Russian Encylopedia. The two men thanked Putin for his guidance but called for more support in bringing the vast work online, an endeavor he immediately praised.
"You are right, when they read Wikipedia online, people get a lot of varied and important information. However, when it is not entirely accurate, it does more harm than good," Putin said at the time. "This is why this information touchstone is so valuable."
Two years later, the Kremlin announced in a draft law that it would spend up to $27 million in establishing a Russian-language Wikipedia alternative during 2020-2022, but at a meeting earlier this month Putin elicited some controversy at home and abroad with comments that some took to mean he may move to block access to the original site, which has more than one and half a million articles in Russian.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attends a meeting of the commission for Russian economy's modernization and technological development at Moscow School of Management Skolkovo on December 14, 2010 in Skolkovo outside Moscow, Russia. The Kremlin has sought to transform the Skolkovo Innovation Center into Russia's own version of Silicon Valley.SASHA MORDOVETS/GETTY IMAGES
Putin held a meeting of the Presidential Council on the Russian Language on November 2. During the session, before the president weighed in, two other participants brought up the subject of Wikipedia, both questioning its accuracy and warning of its effect on society and the proliferation of Russian-language knowledge.
"Regarding Wikipedia, this has already been mentioned here: It is better to replace it with the new Great Russian Encyclopedia in electronic form, we are now talking about this with our colleagues," Putin said. "This will be, in any case, reliable information in a good, modern, by the way, form."
Days later, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov issued a clarification on the Russian leader's comments, saying "Wikipedia is a popular and respected self-updated resource," according to Tass.
"What the president and some of the speakers [at the Council's meeting] meant was that with all due respect, no one guarantees the credibility of information available on Wikipedia," Peskov said. "The president highlighted the need to create an encyclopedia-style source of knowledge and make it accessible."
"That's what the Great Soviet Encyclopedia is," he added, emphasizing that "there cannot be, nor have there been any bans or restrictions on access to Wikipedia."
