Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia

#UkraineEverywhere is the motto of the annual international information campaign entitled Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month. The campaign is designed to create more articles about Ukraine and its culture in Ukrainian and other languages in Wikipedia.  

About the programme

Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month is dedicated to famous Ukrainian artists of cinema, music, literature, architecture, design, who have made a significant contribution to world culture and about whom there are no articles in Wikipedia. As part of the campaign, volunteers create new articles in Ukrainian and foreign languages to spread factual information about Ukraine in different regions of the world.

Partners

Ukrainian Cultural Diplomacy Month 2024

In March, the annual information campaign “Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month,” organised by the Ukrainian Institute, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the “Wikimedia Ukraine”, took place for the fourth time.

“I am grateful to each and every one of the more than two hundred participants from all over the world who, at our call, created and improved more than 1,500 Wikipedia articles on Ukraine. This is an important contribution to the decolonisation of Ukrainian culture and countering Russian appropriation, historical myths and propaganda. This is the fourth year in a row that we have held the Ukrainian Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia, and I am glad that the project is growing in scale year by year. Together, we are protecting Ukrainian identity from Russian attempts to destroy it,” 

Results

The project engaged 200 participants from around the world who improved 425 existing articles and created 1260 new ones on the platform. The materials were created in 66 languages, which was a record figure for the four years of the project. 

The results of Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month

Within the project, the participants wrote articles about Shevchenko’s ‘Testament’ in French, Kamianets-Podilskyi Fortress in German, St. Andrew’s Church in Arabic, the film ‘Earth’ in Chinese, and the ‘Pamphyr’ movie in Uzbek. Materials were also created about Iryna Tsilyk in Tamil, the Slovo Building in Urdu, Taras Kompanichenko in Berber, the Ukrainian national anthem in Breton, and Lesia Ukrainka in Manipuri.  

The participants also paid much attention to Ukrainian intangible heritage. Now Wikipedia has articles in Assamese about Ukrainian national clothing, in Esperanto about Khortytsia island, and about historical figures and events – in Georgian about Ivan Mazepa, in Cantonese about the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and in Hungarian about Anna Yaroslavna. 

Participants' feedback 

Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia
Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia
Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia

Participants' feedback 

Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia
Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia
Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia

Ukrainian Cultural Diplomacy Month 2023

In March 2023, Wikipedia hosted the Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month for the third time.

The campaign was joined by 154 participants from all over the world. They wrote 1,401 new articles and improved 85 existing ones in 64 different language sections of Wikipedia. In particular, they created articles about the phrase “Glory to Ukraine!” in Estonian, the play Natalka Poltavka in French, the films Earth and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors in Hungarian, Ivan Marchuk in Japanese, the novel The City by Valerian Pidmohylny in Arabic, and the Kuindzhi Art Museum in Chinese.

“This is the third Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched this initiative in 2020. The full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation not only failed to stop it, but made it even more significant. I am grateful to each and every author who has responded to our call this year, creating and improving almost 1,500 articles about Ukraine in 64 language sections. Through the joint efforts of the state and civil society, we are countering Russian propaganda and systematically updating the global information space with truthful facts about Ukraine and its culture,”

About the Kuindzhi Museum in Chinese and The City novel in Arabic: project's results

Participants' feedback 

“I wanted to help Ukraine somehow. One of the ways, I figured, was by raising awareness about the depth of Ukrainian culture. This time, I focused specifically on translating articles about places of interest in Ukraine, such as museums, theaters, and opera houses. I hope the information would drive more people to visit Ukraine after the war, bringing in some tourist revenue,” 

— participant Nyagoslav Zhekov from Malaysia.

I joined your Campaign to honor my late mother. She was in Europe in mid ‘60s, and cherished the children’s book based on Ukrainian fable of a mitten hosting forest animals,” 

 

— participant Omotecho from Japan, joined the project for the third time.

Results 2022

In February-March 2022, Wikipedia hosted the “Month of Cultural Diplomacy of Ukraine” for the second time. It was aimed at creating and improving articles about Ukraine and Ukrainian culture in as many languages as possible.

During the month of the campaign, 253 participants joined it. 29 of them took part in the marathon for the second time, 224 joined for the first time this year.

In total, they wrote 3,813 new articles and improved 262 existing ones in 60 different language sections of Wikipedia. That’s five times more than last year. In particular, articles about Pavlo Tychyna in Arabic, about Anna Yaroslavna in Finnish, a painting “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” in Chinese, a dance “Hopak” in Persian, about the Ukrainian avant-garde in German, and a novel “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” in French.

There are also articles in unique languages in small language sections of Wikipedia. The article about Ukraine was published in Nahuatl, about Kyiv in Shilha, Ahatanhel Krymskyi in Central Bikol, Taras Shevchenko in Tagalog, and Yurii Vynnychuk in Bashkir.

Results 2021

“Thanks to this project, hundreds of new articles have appeared on Wikipedia in different languages about Ukraine, its culture, achievements and potential. People all over the world will be able to learn something new about our country. I am convinced that this will encourage many of them to later visit Ukraine, study there or invest in it. We will definitely work for the development and success of this project in the future”.

Місяць культурної дипломатії України у Вікіпедії

"It is important for the Ukrainian Institute that culture becomes a unifying force and helps to build Ukraine’s ties with the world. In this project we managed once again to achieve it. Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month gathered participants from dozens of countries, including experienced wiki writers interested in Ukraine as well as foreign Ukrainians, students, and university professors".

Winners 2021

As part of #UkraineEverywhere campaign 2021, 172 users created and improved articles more than 1,200 times (several users could edit one article), and created at least 817 different articles in Ukrainian and foreign languages. Participants created articles about things we are used to in new languages: for example, articles “Mnohaya lita” and “Borsch” in Malayalam (India) and an article about “Executed Renaissance” in Chinese. Actively in many languages added articles to Wikipedia about the brand of Ukraine – Ukraine NOW; famous Ukrainian films of recent years – Atlantis, Donbass; Dzyga Vertov, Sofia Yablonska.

Portuguese, English and French became the leaders in the number of added and revised articles. The project aroused considerable interest in Asian countries. #UkraineEverywhere campaign covered 44 languages in total: Afrikaans, Arabic, Aragonese, Assamese, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Bashkir, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, Egyptian Arabic, English, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malayalam, Occitan, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russain, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Telugu, Ukrainian, Urdu.

The project included two webinars (in Ukrainian and English) that helped to get acquainted and better understand the writing of articles for Wikipedia. More than 150 participants joined the webinars.   

Participants’ feedback 

Місяць культурної дипломатії України у Вікіпедії
Місяць культурної дипломатії України у Вікіпедії
Місяць культурної дипломатії України у Вікіпедії
Місяць культурної дипломатії України у Вікіпедії
Місяць культурної дипломатії України у Вікіпедії
Місяць культурної дипломатії України у Вікіпедії