CEE/Newsletter/August 2019/Contents/Russia report

Group of Russian Wiki users accomplished Wiki-Ramble to Pushkin town to document little-known houses for Wikimedia

Based on the Russian Wikinews article Петербургские википедисты освоили малоизвестные пушкинские места, also erzya translation is available

The excursion people

Wikipedians of Saint Petersburg and their friends continue to maintain their activities in registration of two Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) User Groups dedicated to history and culture of North-West of Russia. As mentioned before, there are 2 applications being considered at WMF: user group UG-NWR — "North-West Russia Wiki-Historians User Group" and UG-SPB — "Wikimedians of Saint Petersburg User Group".

At the Wiki meetup on July, 30 it was decided to organize a maximum-massive wiki-excursion to a relatively reachable location—for general coordination, discussing plans and, of course, pleasant and informative time-spending. For such a location, specialists in history and geography of Saint Petersburg chose globally-known nearby town of Pushkin, formerly known as Tsarskoye Selo. It is easy to get there from St. Petersburg, of which it is an administrative part since 1936. This even allowed to include in number of participants a dog who became such a participant for a 2nd time.

The route for the excursion (it can be called wiki-expedition as well) traditionally was based on Cultural Heritage Lists, which are composed thoroughly by members of Wikimedia project called Wikivoyage — wiki-travellers and local experts. The list of heritage sites at Tsarskoye Selo is very large — because of historical significance of the town. The list is available for viewing on map which facilitates the work of creating a route to reach needed heritage sites of architecture and history. The route is basically defined by non-photographed and little-studied objects — participants try to fill gaps in the lists. Because of that, the traditional popular tourist destinations of Pushkin town — Ekaterininsky and Aleksandrovsky parks — were not included in route, while concentrating on buildings of the central part of the town. It may seem strange, but photographs of historical buildings and constructions of Tsarskoye Selo, which are located outside parks, were little represented at Wikimedia Commons until recent time. This was making difficult the illustration not only Wikivoyage lists, but also Wikipedia articles on the town's sightseeings.

Thanks to Andrey Petrov, the excursion was joined by moksha and erzya wiki-activists. One of them was Valentina Dmitrievna Alemaikina. She is a collector of moksha folklore in the settlements of Kizhevatovo, Chemodanovka and Sosnovka. She has published the "Materials on language and folklore of the Kizhevatovo settlement in Penza oblast" (in 3 parts). At her village of Stepanovka (in the same Penza oblast) Valentina publishes the magazine "Malaya Rodina" ("Little Homeland") and is popularizing ethnography and local expertise among local schoolchildren. All of these are not obstacles for interesting in other localities, such as Saint Petersburg.

Despite informal spirit of the event, which was generally dedicated to lively talks, the participants managed to fill Wikimedia Commons with more than hundred pictures of historical houses and buildings of the Tsarskoye Selo. These pictures are already actively used for illustrating corresponding articles and lists at Wikivoyage.

The stops on the path and other event happenings

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  Objects of interest were found right at the town's railway station
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  Wikipedia users are always attentive to details
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  To any details
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  In general, almost all
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  The originality of the buildings of the city of Pushkin catches the eye even of people inexperienced in architecture
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  Wikipedians are usually a group of people who are unexperienced in one and experienced in other
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  For the second time in the history of St. Petersburg Wikimedians, a dog named Andromeda Galaktika came to the wiki meeting. At the photo, she welcomes Pushkin's cats
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  Wikipedia access to some objects was hampered by the complexity of the terrain
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  Pushkin is famous for its park ensembles, but tourists were primarily interested in houses
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  There are a lot of buildings in Pushkin, and they are very different
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  There are more famous
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  There are less known, such as this hostel of the Agrarian University
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  The priority were for "less", not "more", known objects
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  Making photos was hampered by cars
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  But even them were sometimes objects of interest

All photos: c:Category:Wikimeetup in Pushkin town 2019-08-10