Moscow, 21 October: A project called Runivers (www.runivers.ru) has been launched in Russia. It offers to all Internet users free access to original historical materials, which will make it possible to counter attempts to falsify Russian history, the head of the project, Mikhail Baranov, has said.

"The purpose of our project is to provide free access to original documents, books and texts on Russian history, which are kept in major libraries and state archives," the president of the board of the Runivers autonomous non-commercial organization for the creation and development of a historical and cultural electronic encyclopedia and library, Mikhail Baranov, said at a news conference on Wednesday (21 October).

Baranov said: "We want to return original books and encyclopaedias on Russian history published in the late 19th - early 20th century into cultural circulation."

He added that at the moment the project had 600 books, however by the end of the year it was planned to upload some 1,000 books.

One of the sections will feature documents on topical political issues, which are being actively discussed, in particular compilations of documents on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Katyn case, on how the Crimea, Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Kuril Islands and East Prussia joined Russia.

Baranov said that the books were uploaded in their original form and may be of use to professionals who study Russian history. The project does not ban copying or citing its materials.

Baranov said that the project had been prompted by the lack of truthful information on Russian history both in the Internet and in bookstores, where there are mainly translated books by foreign authors, which are often of an anti-Russian nature, and access to similar materials is mainly on a paid basis.

For his part, a State Duma deputy, a member of the Runivers board, Vladimir Medinskiy, PhD in Political Studies, said: "Russia does not have an institution that would be dealing in historical propaganda, which is why we are losing in the war aimed to falsify Russian history." (Passage omitted)

"The Runivers and similar projects should enjoy powerful state support," he said. (Passage omitted)

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