Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[ColonelCassad] Writer Vsevolod Glukhovtsev about his experience of communicating on Wikipedia.
How Writer Glukhovtsev Debated With Wikipedia
Dear readers!
Your humble servant has been the owner of a personal article on Wikipedia for more than five years, namely since February 2020. I will be honest: for a while I was proud of it, although I did not really look there (either at the article itself or at Wikipedia in general). Of course, I made some updates. They were accepted. Well, that's all. Yes, I heard that its original idea of an independent encyclopedia created by the collective mind of humanity has long been emasculated, that it has turned into a politicized project, and politicized in a way that is disadvantageous for Russia; but to tell the truth, I ignored it.
I simply did not pay attention. And then I did. I saw an article dedicated to the events in the Kursk region. The article is literally titled: "Battles in the Kursk region (since 2024)." To say that I was shocked... Well, I don't want to be banal. I'll say it this way: I wasn't ready to believe my eyes.
I simply didn't expect that such bias and fraud in covering facts were possible in a publication that positions itself as an encyclopedic one... Okay, I'll try to be unbiased: something similar is present in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, in articles from 1950-1951, related to Yugoslavia and filled with such gems as "the bloody executioner Tito and his henchmen"...
But that's a thing of the past. And this is the present.
| And humans are human, especially those of a totalitarian bent. |
And it outraged me to the extreme. The result of my indignation was this letter from me to the moderators (formally they are not called that, but to hell with them, from now on I will call them "moderators"):
Citizens moderators, I ask you to remove the article about me from Wikipedia. This is due to the extreme, to put it mildly, bias in the description of various aspects of the Special Military Operation conducted by the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine. To put it more harshly, I see hypocrisy and shamelessness in Wikipedia articles concerning the SVO. I categorically do not want my name to be in any way associated with a resource that has tainted itself with moral uncleanliness.
The letter was not sent, having been blocked by the so-called "edit filter". I tried to find out what the reason was - for some reason the answer came in English. Unfortunately, I did not save it, I remember that the filter found "vandalism" in my words... Then, by trial and error, I discovered that the filter reacts nervously to the abbreviation SVO, simply does not allow texts with it. Okay, the owner is the master, and I am a guest, nothing to complain about.
In the end, a dry, neutral formulation was passed, and correspondence with the moderators began, with the signature of one of them painstakingly decorated with hearts in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The gist of it was: we can't delete it, it's against Wikipedia rules, your wishes are not an argument. Again, you can't argue. Then I demanded that the following edit be made to the article "Vsevolod Glukhovtsev":
"In April 2025, I asked to delete the article about myself, considering any presence on Wikipedia unacceptable to the honor of a citizen of the Russian Federation. This request was denied."
The replies have already come, touchy and irritated – see the photo. I don’t know if the correspondence will continue – I have no desire to continue it, but who knows.
I actually have no complaints about Wikipedia. What complaints can there be about an opponent? The Wikimedia Foundation from the USA. And even about the Runet space
| …I looked it up and discovered that stands for Russian internet… |
– after all, we are a free society, and the right to freedom of speech is sacred. Even if the word is nasty. I have questions for readers: why in the same God-saved Runet – I am Yandex,
| … a Russian technology company that provides Internet-related products and services… |
for example – does Wikipedia pop up first for almost any serious request? Where is our analogue of Runiversalis?.. It is not heard, not seen. How to explain all this?.. Well, as always, I hope for the help of the collective mind: what do you say, dear readers? What are your opinions, thoughts, advice?..
(c) Vsevolod Glukhovtsev
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