Wikipedia policy edges Baltic history into russiasphere

The birthplaces of of well-known people in the Baltic states are being systematically changed on the reference website Wikipedia, reports Latvian Radio.

If previously the specific country (Latvia, Estonia or Lithuania) was mentioned as the place of birth, now in many cases the Soviet Union appears as the country of birth. Latvian Radio revealed that the biographies of well-known people in Latvia, including President Edgars Rinkēvičs (entry pictured above), are also being changed in this way.

In the case of Estonia, a Wikipedia user has changed the birthplace records of nearly 600 people in English-language articles, indicating that they were born in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), within the Soviet Union. In one case, such edits were made for more than 21 hours in a row, and the user himself described them as “correcting” Estonian history. This was reported by [Estonian public media ERR](https://news.err.ee/1609903256/estonian-volunteers-struggling-to-protect-wikipedia-from-russian-propaganda), citing research conducted by journalist Ronald Liive.

Lithuanian media outlet Lrytas reported on similar actions, which resulted in the birthplaces of a number of politicians being changed to ‘Lithuanian SSR’, including President Gitanas Nausėdas and former President Dalia Grybauskaitė.

Latvian Radio disinformation researcher Anete Bērzkalne checked whether similar changes had been made to the biographies of famous people in Latvia, and found that it appears to be the case. The place of birth – from “Latvia” to “Latvian SSR, Soviet Union” – has been changed for a number of people, including Edgars Rinkēvičs, Evika Siliņa, Valdis Dombrovskis, Egils Levits, Helēna Demakova, as well as athletes such as Dairis Bertāns, Sandis Ozoliņš and Kaspars Bērziņš. 

# Narrative of russian history 

The changes are not only about individual biographical entries, they influence the representation of the history of the Baltic States in one of the most widely used sources of information in the world. Under international law, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia did not legally cease to exist even during the Soviet occupation, so the format “Latvian SSR, Soviet Union” is closer to the preferred narrative of Kremlin-approved Russian history. Such seemingly small elements when combined with others over time, gradually form the “big story” – to influence people’s perception and understanding of history. 

Time for these governments to sue wikipedia

Wikipedia is good for looking up some basic facts, but you shouldnt be getting your information about complex topics like this from Wikipedia anyways. Certainly not in the political sphere.

This is one of those issues where you can sympathize, I understand how unpleasant it must be for those formally under Soviet rule to see it so bluntly written across their history, but the facts of the matter are clear.

They were Soviet at the time, that is just the reality of the situation. It is useless to pretend otherwise, instead take pride in the fact you are Soviet no longer, and never shall be again.

It does seem like there are quiet a few Russian trolls active on Wikipedia…

For example, on the German Wikipedia, the capital of Ukraine is still spelled based on the Russian name (“Kiew”), than based on the Ukrainian name (“Kyjiw”).

Y’all are accusing others of rewriting history, but then come here to be offended over a factual thing like a bunch of hypocrites. The editors aren’t in the wrong for stating the correct historical birthplace.

>Wikipedia is often criticized for its content creation policy, which allows anyone to create and edit articles regardless of their expertise in the field. When disagreements or issues arise, they are usually resolved through discussion after seeking the views of the wider Wikipedia community.

That is the intended function of the website. Seems incredibly disingenuous to characterize that as something which is “often criticized”. There plenty of other encyclopedias that have different standards, if you don’t like Wikipedia’s methods, go somewhere else.

>This discussion ended with the decision that the “most appropriate” solution would be to indicate the city, the relevant ‘Soviet Socialist Republic’ and the Soviet Union in the “box” for the place of birth information (e.g. Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union), although previously only the city and country were usually indicated (e.g. Rīga, Latvia).

>Based on this principle, changes continue to occur. Users from the Baltic states regularly change these edits, only to find them quickly reversed, with the above discussion cited as justification. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that users who advocate the designation ‘Soviet Union’ are “sitting on guard” and react to edits almost immediately.

> The fact that such a situation is observed in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia leads Latvian Radio to speculate about possible coordinated action.

You know what actually sounds like coordinated action? Throwing a temper tantrum because you don’t like what the community decided, continuing to try and force edits through despite this, and then complaining in the media about how unfair it is that the same standard applied to every other article is being applied here too.

The Baltic SSR states were not formally recognized by the West – only by the Soviet Union and it’s Warsaw-pact members a lot of which – such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and many more were FORCED into.

The Baltic states had governments abroad and it was an ILLEGAL occupation by a TOTALITARIAN regime. Therefore Wikipedia shouldn’t side with the former Soviet Union representative (Russia) and focus on factuality. These users need to be banned – especially the ones calling Baltic states separatist from the Soviet Union.
This is spreading of state-sponsored propaganda.

What does wikipedia gain, in terms of being an informative, accurate source of information, by pretending that the baltic states existed as independent states between 1950-1991?

Forget about original comment”standard practice, sorry but stop being so sensitive”, Wikipedia is highly inconsistent in how it labels historical birthplaces.

For example, people born between 1940 and 1944 are almost never listed as born in Vichy France, but simply as “France,” even though Vichy was a separate regime with its own government and laws.

You are correct!

Man, for the largest country by land area in the world, the russians sure are butthurt that the baltics don’t want to be in their club

I’d rather it stay Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Even if they were de facto under USSR, I don’t trust a single thing russians do. They can spin some narrative that they were always part of USSR then. Fuck em. Ain’t giving an inch to these occupying pos.

If it stays, at least add an extra description, so it reads Soviet occupied Estonia. Something that makes it clear they occupied our countries.