Europe | Ignorance is strength

The Kremlin is rewriting Wikipedia

A new version of history is taking shape

 John Hurt in 1984
DoubleplusungoodPhotograph: Alamy

WIKIPEDIA had faced trouble from the Kremlin before, with Russian censors threatening it almost from the start of the Ukraine war in 2014. But it was only in late 2023, with the appearance of glitzy ads across Moscow, that a serious plan to replace it became clear. RuWiki, as the censors’ project is known, is mostly a straightforward copy of Wikipedia. But the most sensitive moments of history have been left out or rewritten. The Kremlin’s ideologues hope that millions of Russians will now embrace these new versions as the truth.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Ignorance is strength”

From the July 13th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Gisele Pelicot at the courthouse in Avignon

A harrowing rape trial in France has revived debate about consent

Anything less than yes is no

Illustration of a silhouette of a wolf howling at the moon, standing on a hill with mountains and trees in the background. Overlaid on the wolf is a green crosshair, suggesting it's being targeted. Surrounding the wolf is a circle of yellow stars

How the wolf went from folktale villain to culture-war scapegoat

The startling return of wolves in Europe raises hackles


Ferry housing asylum seekers in Rotterdam, Netherlands

The Netherlands’ new hard-right government is a mess

Conflicts over asylum, farms and the constitution could bring it down


Ukraine’s Roma have suffered worse than most in the war

Half of them may have fled

Pedro Sánchez clings to office at a cost to Spain’s democracy

His opponents accuse him of subverting the constitution