Abstract. This is the fifth edition of the permanently enlarged and renewed famous Russian encyclopedia. By the amount of information, the 2001 edition equals 68 volumes, 600 pages each. The edition traditionally includes 27 000 bibliographic entries; the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by S. I. Ozhegov and N. Yu. Shvedova (80000 words and word combinations); the World Geographical Atlas with a step-wise resolution (over 200 interactive maps and an improved retrieval system); the sections on the Humankind Chronicle, the World War II Chronicle, the History of Science and Technology, and Tours for Inquisitive Minds (series of articles on certain subjects); photographic albums (collected photographs on different subjects).

As a supplement to the previous edition, the encyclopedia 2001 contains 8000 new and updated articles with the most significant information on all fields of science, history, literature and art, current political and social life; 3500 slides and drawings; 1300 citations from the originals (carefully selected fragments from historical documents, literary and scientific works, articles from the still actual Encyclopedic Dictionary and The New Encyclopedic Dictionary by Brockgauz and Efron. The citation collection of the encyclopedia is a sort of a miniature library that equals seven book volumes).

A remarkable collection of folk music of all countries and peoples of the world was used to increase the number of music video in 238 fragments.

Particularly valuable are new encyclopedia’s appendices: Statistical Data on Foreign Countries and Russian Regions; Krysin’s Explanatory Dictionary of Foreign Words (25000 words and word combinations); The Abridged Dictionary of Foreign Words and Expressions in Original Transcription; the History of Culture section (over 200 illustrated reviews and over 400 key persons and monuments); World Ecosystems (17 multimedia panoramas); the Epoch of Dinosaurs (5 multimedia interactive panoramas of the prehistoric world); the collected Russian Federation Laws.

The encyclopedia includes the following video appendices:

Science, Technology, Culture; Wild Life; Video-Archive of the Russian History.

Source: The Cyril and Methodius

Language: Russian

Year: 2001