Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group/History

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The following is the history of the Wiki movement related to the development of projects in the languages of the peoples of the North Caucasus.

2000s

2005: Chechen (Vainakhish language, Northeast Caucasian family) and Ossetian (Iranian languages, Indo-European family) Wikipedia editions were opened in March. A month later, Avar Wikipedia (Avar-Andic languages, Northeast Caucasian family) was opened.
2006: Two more Wikipedia editions were opened - Kalmyk (Mongolic languages, Altaic family) in March, and Lak Wikipedia (Northeast Caucasian family) in October.

Chechen Wikipedia logo
Ossetian Wikipedia logo
Avar Wikipedia logo
Kalmyk Wikipedia logo

2007: The founder of the Ossetian Wikipedia, Viatcheslav Ivanov (Amikeco), took part in the first Russian WikiConference in St. Petersburg. Results (in Russian).
2008: December - “Collaboration of the Month” project was centrally organized in Ossetian Wikipedia. The beginning of the rapid development of the edition, which lasted about 1.5 years.
2009:
March - a series of four seminars on Ossetian Wikipedia for university teachers in North Ossetia was held in Vladikavkaz.

October - Amikeco took part in the 3rd Russian WikiConference in St. Petersburg. He was a co-organizer of the Round Table on small language editions of Wikipedia.

Round table on small wikis at Russian WikiConference 2007
Round table on small wikis at Russian WikiConference 2007
Users Amikeco and Amdf at Russian WikiConference 2009

2010:
March - Karachay-Balkar Wikipedia (Kipchak languages, Turkic languages, Altaic family) was opened.

April - The beginning of the “dark times” in the Chechen Wikipedia - the edition was seized by accomplices of international terrorism, who threatened other participants, pushed a non-neutral and marginal point of view, allowed copyvio and insults of politicians, published original research in encyclopedic articles etc.

2010s

2011:
March - Kabardino-Cherkess Wikipedia (Circassian languages, Abkhazo-Adyghean family) was opened.

September - After more than a year of development, activity in the Lak Wikipedia has completely ceased. The most active user at that time was Kmoksy from Turkey. Over the next eight years, only 19 articles were created in the section.
2012:
March - Lezgi Wikipedia (Lezgic languages, Northeast Caucasian family) was opened.

November - administrators of the Lezgi Wikipedia, Oleg Abarnikov (Soul Train) and Ilyas Bukarov (User from Dag), took part in the 6th Russian WikiConference in Moscow.

Lak Wikipedia logo
Karachay-Balkar Wikipedia logo
Kabardino-Cherkess Wikipedia logo
Lezgi Wikipedia logo

2013:
March-April - Discussion in Requests for comment/Massive sysop abuse in Chechen Wikipedia. As a result, the removal of sysop and bureaucrat rights from all current holders of these rights. Restoring Wikimedia Foundation rules in the Chechen Wikipedia.

November - Soul Train, together with colleague from the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) Nikolay Pavlov (HalanTul), held a round table on small language editions of Wikipedia during the 7th Russian WikiConference in Smolensk.

December - The number of articles in the Chechen Wikipedia increased from 1.6 thousand in February to 20 thousand in December, mostly thanks to the bot of the user Takhirgeran Umar. New participants began to edit Chechen WP, including school teachers from the Chechen Republic.

Round table on small language editions of Wikipedia at WikiConference 2012
User from Dag made a report on Lezgi Wikipedia at WikiConference 2012
Founders (in future) of the North Caucasus and Don user groups - Soul Train and JukoFF respectively - at WikiConference 2012
Soul Train at Russian WikiConference 2013

2014:
8 June - 2,000 articles were created in the Lezgi Wikipedia, which became the largest in terms of the number of articles among Wikipedia editions of Dagestan (others are Avar and Lak Wikipedias). The leader in the number of created articles in the Lezgi Wikipedia become administrator Aslan Xasiyev.

September - three administrators of the Lezgi Wikipedia took part in the 8th Russian WikiConference in Moscow - Soul Train, Mugerganets, and User from Dag.

20 December - 10,000 articles were created in the Ossetian Wikipedia.

24 December - 75,000 articles were created in the Chechen Wikipedia.
2015:
April - Soul Train, together with HalanTul, held a round table on small language editions of Wikipedia during the 1st Wiki-Sabantuy in Ufa, Bashkortostan. According to the analysis of Farhad Fatkullin (Frhdkazan), Lezgi Wikipedia took first place among the Russian Wikipedia editions in terms of the friendly atmosphere. Soul Train made a report on the development of the Chechen Wikipedia for the last 2 years (prepared jointly with Takhirgeran Umar).

8 May - 2,000 articles were created in the Kalmyk Wikipedia.

April - June - participants of the Ossetian Wikipedia took part in the Wikimedia RU contest of articles on Social entrepreneurship.

18 July - 100,000 articles were created in the Chechen Wikipedia.

19 August - 2,000 articles were created in the Avar Wikipedia.

28 August - 2,000 articles were created in the Karachay-Balkar Wikipedia.

November - Lezgi Wikipedia received a grant from the “Lezgi Luvar” Foundation, which was implemented to conduct article contests.

Wikipedians from Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Bashkortostan, Dagestan, Sakha, and Kazakhstan at WikiConference 2014
Mugerganets at WikiConference 2014
Soul Train at Wiki-Sabantuy 2015
100,000 articles in the Chechen Wikipedia logo

2016:
February - Adyghe Wikipedia (Circassian languages, Abkhazo-Adyghean family) was opened.

8 December 2015 - 29 February 2016 - The “Russian Winter” article contest was held in the Lezgi Wikipedia (users wrote articles about Russia).

15 March - 30 June 2016 - The “Dagestan Spring” article contest was held in the Lezgi Wikipedia (users wrote articles about the Republic of Dagestan).

21 September - 150,000 articles were created in the Chechen Wikipedia.

October - Amikeco (Ossetian WP), Soul Train and User from Dag (Lezgi WP), and Adam-Yourist from Ingush WP Incubator took part in the 10th Russian WikiConference in St. Petersburg. Soul Train made a report “Lezgi Wikipedia today”, in which he spoke about the article contests in the Lezgi WP and the implementation of the grant. Adam-Yourist made a report about perspectives of creation of the Ingush Wikipedia.

Adyghe Wikipedia logo
Armenian and Russian Wikipedians at Russian WikiConference 2016
Soul Train made a report at Russian WikiConference 2016
User from Dag at Russian WikiConference 2016

2017:
1-3 September - Wikimedia RU and RIA Derbent media agency organized the first “Dagestan Wiki Seminar” in the old city of Derbent. The leading role in organizing the seminar was played by the journalist Murad Shikhakhmedov (Mugerganets), the former administrator of the Lezgi Wikipedia. During the seminar, for the first time, the idea of organizing a user group in Dagestan or the entire North Caucasus was expressed.

October - Soul Train made a report about Dagestan Wiki Seminar during the 11th Russian WikiConference in Moscow. For the first time, a representative of the Chechen Wikipedia took part in the conference. A geography teacher and author of many Featured articles at CheWP, Sayd-Magamed Kadiev (Said Misarbiev) made a presentation on the Chechen Wikipedia.

1st Dagestan Wiki-Seminar in Derbent
Participants of the 1st Dagestan Wiki-Seminar, held in September 2017 in Derbent
Participants of the 1st Dagestan Wiki-Seminar at the walls of Citadel of Derbent (part of World Heritage Site)
Said Misarbiev made a report on the Chechen Wikipedia at Russian WikiConference 2017

2018:
20 March - In the Dagestan State Pedagogical University (Makhachkala), a scientific conference “Lezgian language: preservation and development” on the problems of the development of the Lezgian language was held. Reports on the Lezgi Wikipedia were made by Soul Train and Mugerganets.

April - Ingush Wikipedia (Vainakhish language, Northeast Caucasian family) was opened.

14 August - 200,000 articles were created in the Chechen Wikipedia.

September - Amikeco (Ossetian WP) and Soul Train (Lezgi WP) took part in the 12th Russian WikiConference in St. Petersburg.

Ingush Wikipedia logo
Soul Train made a report on Lezgi Wikipedia at the Dagestan State Pedagogical University
Amikeco at group photo at Russian WikiConference 2018
200,000 articles in the Chechen Wikipedia logo

2019:
November 2018 - May 2019 - for the first time, authors of Chechen and Lezgi Wikipedia editions participated in an international competition on twin cities organized by Wikimedia RU in 2018—2019.

March - During the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin, a decision to organize the international competition Wiki Loves Caucasus was made.

17 August - Mehman Ibragimov (Mehman97) (Wikimedia Georgia User Group), one of the global organizers, and Soul Train (Wikimedia RU member), regional organizer at North Caucasus, made reports on Wiki Loves Caucasus 2019 contest at Community Growth space of Wikimania 2019 in Stockholm.

28-29 September 2019 - Participation in the Russian WikiConference-2019 in Moscow. Soul Train: reports on the preparation of Wiki Loves Caucasus contest and on the current situation in Russian regional Wikipedia editions (YouTube).
7 October – 7 November 2019 - Participation in the Wiki Loves Caucasus 2019 international contest (online).
Russia (North Caucasus) ranked second in terms of the number of articles created about this country (after Azerbaijan).

Participants from the Ossetian Wikipedia wrote 13 articles, participants from the Chechen and Lezgi Wikipedia created 30 articles each. This was the first international article contest for them.
10 October - 4,000 articles were created in the Lezgi Wikipedia (during the WLC contest).
11-13 October 2019 - Participation in the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2019 (Belgrade, Serbia). On 12 October, Soul Train (as an additional participant from Wikimedia RU) made a report on the organization of the Wiki Loves Caucasus 2019 article contest.

23 October, 2019 - Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group officially recognized by the Affiliations Committee (Resolution)
27 October 2019 - Viatcheslav Ivanov made a report on the creation of the Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group at the 13th Language Festival in St. Petersburg (Section "Wikiprojects as an important tool for preserving the languages of the peoples of Russia")
8-10 November, 2019 - Organization and conduct of the first Wiki-meetup in Chechen Republic (National Library of the Chechen Republic, Grozny, Chechnya). Report for students and teachers of the Chechen State University on the upcoming competition for writing articles about outstanding graduates and mentors. Press release about the events that took place in Grozny on 8-10 November 2019 at WMRU site (in Russian).
First issue of the Booklet of Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group has been prepared (in Russian).
26 November 2019 - A workshop “Ossetian language and the Internet: problems and development tools” was held in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia–Alania. Among the topics: social network VK, MediaWiki content management system interface, the content of the Ossetian Wikipedia, other wiki-projects such as Wikinews etc. Amikeco was one of the organizers. Here is the report and interview with Viatcheslav Ivanov on the "Iryston TV" channel (11:26 - 26:01). Another article at Kavkaz.Realii. Another article at Osnova news site. Meeting report.
1 December 2019 - Soul Train made a presentation “Wiki projects as a tool for preserving the languages of the peoples of Russia” at the 14th Moscow International Festival of Languages. Photo.
1-31 December 2019 - Wikipedians of North Caucasus UG became a co-organizer of the Russian part of the 3rd edition of Bridges across Cultures international contest (together with Wikimedia Russia and Wikimedians of Bashkortostan UG). Authors from the Lezgi and Chechen Wikipedia (as well as Russian and Bashkir) took part in the contest.

Booklet of the Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group, No. 1, November 2019.
Participants of the Wiki-seminar at Chechen State University, 8 November 2019
Abubakar Sambiyev, participant of the Chechen and Russian Wikipedia, talks about his wiki experience at Wiki-seminar in Grozny
Participants of the workshop in Vladikavkaz, 26 November 2019
Oleg Abarnikov made a presentation “Wiki projects as a tool for preserving the languages of the peoples of Russia” at 14th Moscow International Festival of Languages, 1 December 2019

2020:
27 January 2020 - The first part of the interview about the results of 2019 in the Russian, North Caucasian, and Lezgian Wiki Movement has been published at FLNKA site.
In Spring 2019 Dmitry Zhukov from the Don Wikimedians UG in collaboration with Reda Kerbouche from Wikimedia Algeria UG started working on the first Russian-language textbook Wikipedia. Introductory course on Wikipedia editing. Later, other members of Wikimedia RU joined the project. One of the authors of the book became Oleg Abarnikov, one of the founding members of the Wikipedians of North Caucasus UG. The book tells about the basic rules that must be considered before creating an article, as well as practical examples, showing all stages of articles’ creating. By the autumn, the book was written. On 16 February, a new book was presented at the 2020 Vsenauka Forum in Moscow.
26 February 2020 - The second part of the interview about the results of 2019 at FLNKA site.
28 April 2020 - A number of Wikipedians took part in a seminar "Why should we write Wikipedias in the languages of Russia?" of the "Country of Languages" (Strana yazykov) Online School (text report and two parts of the video). Amire80 aka Amir E. Aharoni spoke about the Content Translation tool, which is actively used in the Russian regional Wikipedia editions. He was assisted by users from the Tatar Wikipedia (Timerkhan) and Tuvan Wikipedia (Karak-Kyzyl). In the second part, Soul Train and Amikeco spoke about the role of the regional Wikipedia editions in preserving the languages of Russia (primarily, taking into account the experience of the North Caucasus editions).
15 May 2020, 19:00 MSK (UTC+3) - Online Edit-a-thon in the Ossetian Wikipedia (via Zoom). Organizers - Amikeco and Soul Train. Video on YouTube.
30 May 2020 - Soul Train made an online presentation “Wiki projects and preserving the languages of the peoples of Russia” at the 8th Perm Festival of Languages. (video with automatic subtitles)
30 May 2020 - The Chastny Korrespondent online newspaper published an interview with Oleg Abarnikov about the Lezgi Wikipedia.
12 June - 12 July - Wikipedians of North Caucasus UG became co-organizers of the Wiki Loves Football All-Russian article competition related to the UEFA European Championship and CONMEBOL Copa América, which were originally supposed to be held in 2020 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic rescheduled to 2021. Oleg Abarnikov was one of the global organisers. The main goals of this competition are to express our solidarity with the football community, as well as to fill in the gaps related to football topics — this is especially true for regional Wikipedia editions in the languages of the peoples of Russia. Different Russian Wikipedia editions were divided into four groups that fought for virtual medals in two thematic nominations. Wikipedias in the languages of the North Caucasus, together with editions in the Finno-Ugric languages (all of them were represented by the Erzya Wikipedia), formed a group No. 4, which won a silver medal in the "America" nomination. The prize-winning trio of the 4th group (Said Misarbiev from the Chechen Wikipedia, Mugerganets from the Lezgi Wikipedia, Amikeco from the Ossetian Wikipedia) received their prizes: T-shirts of the national teams that were champions of Europe or South America, as well as a souvenir mug with a football design.
9-10 July — Oleg Abarnikov, together with Farhad Fatkullin (WMRU, Wikimedia Community of Tatar language UG) and З. ӘЙЛЕ (Wikimedians of Bashkortostan UG, Wikimedians of Turkic Languages UG), took part in the Celtic Knot Conference 2020 with the presentation Wikipedias in the languages of Russia: Challenges and solutions. Video on YouTube (in English).
26 September 2020 — Oleg Abarnikov made a report “Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group. Annual report 2020” at the 14th Russian WikiConference in St. Petersburg. (video on YouTube — from 58:49)
27 September 2020 — Oleg Abarnikov made a short report on Russian regional language editions of Wikipedia. Viatcheslav Ivanov also took part in the WikiConference. (video on YouTube — from 4:21:43) (in Russian).
30 September — Wiki-seminar and workshop for students and teachers of the Grozny Oil Research Institute on the “Alumni and Mentors of Russia-2020” competition for writing articles about outstanding alumni and mentors was held in Grozny, Chechen Republic. Press release about the event at WMRU site (in Russian). Report about the event on Instagram of the Institute of Applied Information Technologies of the Grozny Oil Research Institute.
8 October 2020 — 300,000 articles were created in the Chechen Wikipedia.
20 August — 10 October — Participation in the “Graduates and Mentors of Russia-2020” competition.
October 2020 — Participation in the Wiki Loves Caucasus 2020 competition.
See Report 2020

7 November 2020 — North Caucasian Wiki-meetup in the National Library of the Chechen Republic (Grozny). (Press release on the Wikimedia RU website)
24 November 2020 — Viatcheslav Ivanov made a report “Language Activism. Language using on the Internet” within the 17th International Book Fair in Thessaloniki (online) and within the Greek-Russian Year of Language and Literature 2020. (video in Greek language)
26 November 2020 — Viatcheslav Ivanov lectured on language activism (with examples from Wikipedians' movement as well) at the National Literatures Festival (natlitrf.ru) online (video in Russian).
November 2020 — Lezgi and Avar Wikipedias made their debut participation in the Asia Month.
12 December 2020 — An article by Viatcheslav Ivanov “The phrase 'Ossetian language is dying' is imprecise and useless” was published in the LES magazine.
17-18 December 2020 — Viatcheslav Ivanov made a report on digital platforms in the Ossetian language, with a large part dedicated to the Ossetian Wikipedia, during the educational webinar “The Ossetian language in the digital environment”. Article at Sputnik-Ossetia, Video on YouTube
27 November – 20 December — Participation in the Our Universities article competition.

Wikipedia. Introductory course book.
300,000 articles in the Chechen Wikipedia logo
Wiki-seminar and workshop for students and teachers of the Grozny Oil Research Institute, 30 September 2020
Booklet of the Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group, No. 2, November 2020.
Participants of the North Caucasian Wiki-seminar 2020.

2020s

2021:
17 January 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group
19 January 2021 — The results of the Russian part of the WLM-2020 international photo competition have been summed up. Among the 10 winners — a photo showing the Architectural complex “Dargavs” in North Ossetia. Photo by Alexander Baidukov.
12 February 2021 — The founders of the Group decided to establish a governing body — the Council. Our Council includes the following users: Soul Train, Amikeco, Takhirgeran Umar, Mugerganets. The number of members of the Council can be increased as a result of democratic discussion.
21 February 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group.
5 March 2021 — The interview with Oleg Abarnikov (Soul Train) about the results of 2020 in the Russian, North Caucasian, and Lezgian Wiki Movement has been published at FLNKA site.
21 March 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group.
8 March – 8 May 2021 — Participation in the “WikiGap 2021 Russia” competition.
13 April 2021 — A small workshop took place at the Lezgi Wikipedia. User Mugerganets created his first article (about Anna Akhmatova) using the Content translation tool.
We are fixing a sad bug (together with Amir Aharoni and WMF technicians) — there is a Dargin Wikipedia project in the WM Incubator with more than 400 articles there, but in Translatewiki, there was no interface for translating into the Dargin literary language. We also want to left a request to create an interface for the Tsudakhar language (one of the languages of the Dargin group) and plan to create the Incubator of the Tsudakhar Wikipedia.
18 April 2021 — A meeting in Moscow with the Lak community was organized by Natalia Senatorova. The topic of the meeting is the revitalization, preservation, and development of the Lak Wikipedia; participants also discussed the translation of MediaWiki's most important messages into Lak language (in April — June, with the help of native speaker Abdul, we increased the translation of those messages up to 53%). (11.00 msk)
18 April 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group. (15.00 msk)
23 May 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group.
27 June 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group.
4-17 July 2021 — Oleg Abarnikov visited Armenia, Georgia, and Dagestanian cities Derbent and Makhachkala. Colleagues from Wikimedia Armenia organized for Oleg two Wiki-excursions in UNESCO World Heritage Sites — in Holy Etchmiadzin, as well as in Geghard and Temple of Garni. Russian guest also visited Wikimedia Armenia's office in Yerevan. In Derbent, Oleg together with Lezgi Wikipedia administrator, Mugerganets (Murad Shikhakhmedov), made a report about Wikipedia and Wiki-Movement to representatives of the Local Lezgin National-Cultural Autonomy. In Makhachkala, Oleg communicated with activists who want to create Wikipedia in one of the Dargin languages — the Tsudakhar language — and developed a roadmap with them. (Here is the report on “RIA Derbent” news agency site)
22 August 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group.
19 September 2021 — Participation in the Online meeting of the Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community Group.
25-26 September 2021 — Participating in the WikiConference 2021 in Moscow. Soul Train held a round table on Russian regional Wikipedia editions. He also made a report “Wikipedians of North Caucasus User Group. Annual report 2021.” Video on YouTube
16 October 2021 — A small Online workshop took place at the Lak Wikipedia. User Ruzanna, assisted by Oleg Abarnikov (Soul Train), learned the changes in the MediaWiki and started to edit Wikipedia after a 12-year break.
See Report 2021

Alexander Baidukov's photo of the Architectural complex “Dargavs” in North Ossetia became one of the 10 winners of the WLM-2020
A meeting in Moscow with the Lak community
Chechen Wikipedia reached 400,000 articles
Mugerganets and Soul Train in Derbent, 13 July 2021