The Lukashenka family is at the top. Who is popular in Russian Wikipedia?
While pro-Russian activists and cultural figures ended up at the top in Belarusian Wikipedia, the Russian-language segment demonstrates entirely different priorities. Here, interest in representatives of power, pop culture, and relatives of Alexander Lukashenka dominates.
This is evidenced by the data from the "Digital Barometer of Belarus" study, whose authors analyzed page visit statistics for 2025. Researchers call this method "proxy sociology": in the absence of independent surveys, users' digital footprints show the real, not declared, interest of society.
Who do people read about in Russian?
The undisputed leader in the Russian-language segment remains Alexander Lukashenka — his biography was opened more than 1 million times (1,002,254).
Immediately after him is popular YouTuber Vlad A4 (576,527 views) and tennis player Aryna Sabalenka (574,725).
It is notable that fourth place in the ranking is occupied by Nikolai Lukashenka. The article about the politician's youngest son was viewed over 300 thousand times. This is more than the page views of Max Korzh (5th place) or Siarhei Tsikhanouski (6th place).
Also in the top ten were Kolya Lukashenka's mother and chief physician of the Presidential Administration Hospital Iryna Abelskaya, democratic leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, NOC head Viktar Lukashenka, and singer Dzmitry Koldun.
At the same time, analysts record a general decrease in interest in Belarusian politics. Compared to 2023, page views have decreased: Tsikhanouskaya's indicators fell by 11.4%, and Lukashenka's by 18.1%. The 2025 presidential campaign did not cause a significant surge in attention, apart from short-term searches for the names of spoiler candidates.
English-speaking world: only sports
English-language Wikipedia shows a completely different picture. For a global audience, Belarus is primarily about sports.
Aryna Sabalenka became the absolute record holder here with a cosmic figure of almost 6 million views (5,991,367). This is six times more than Alexander Lukashenka in the same language section (857 thousand). Third place is occupied by another tennis player - Victoria Azarenka. Political figures, obviously, interest the English-speaking world significantly less.
Comments
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Рускія палітыкі папулярныя ў рускай вікі, усё як мае быць