State Duma deputies Mikhail Matveev and Sergei Obukhov (both representatives of the Communist Party faction) appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to preserve the Great Russian Encyclopedia. The appeal of the deputies was published on Matveev’s Telegram channel.
“We ask you to give instructions for further study of the issue, considering the possibility of preserving the Great Russian Encyclopedia.” – says the text of the appeal.
Previously, Kommersant learned that the project to create the Great Russian Encyclopedia will stop receiving funding. The BDT management stated that from the end of 2023, funds were no longer allocated for the operation of the site with encyclopedia articles. Project employees even picketed central Moscow, demanding payment of back wages. The latest annual estimate of the BDT amounts to 1.1 billion rubles. The publication found out that the government will find funds to pay debts in the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation and the BDT materials will be transferred to another encyclopedic project – “Ruviki”.
BRE, the successor to the famous Great Soviet Encyclopedia, was created by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2002. In the period 2004-2017, 35 volumes containing up to 100 thousand articles were published. The printed BRE formed the basis of the “nationwide interactive encyclopedic portal” created in 2019 by order of the Russian government.
