Wikipedia's first sentence called it “russian-israeli researcher who was kidnapped in baghdad in march 2023 and allegedly held by the group kata'ib h”. Today it says “russian and israeli researcher who was kidnapped in baghdad in march 2023 while conducting doctoral research in”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Elizabeth Tsurkov ( Hebrew : אליזבט צורקוב ; born November 11, 1986) is a Russian-Israeli researcher who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023, and is being held by the group Kata'ib Hezbollah , an Iraqi militia backed by Iran . The militia had denied involvement in the matter for months. On November 13, 2023, Iraqi television aired a hostage video of her in custody. Ronen Bergman ; Patrick Kingsley ; Alissa J. "Kidnapped Israeli Elizabeth Tsurkov is alive in Iraq and efforts are being made to release her" .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1298340144.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Russian-Israeli researcher (born 1986) Elizabeth Tsurkov (born 1986) is a Russian-Israeli researcher who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 and allegedly held by the group Kata'ib Hezbollah , an Iraqi militia backed by Iran . The militia has denied involvement in the matter.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178593267.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “russian-israeli researcher who was kidnapped in baghdad in march 2023 and allegedly held by the group kata'ib h”. Today it says “russian and israeli researcher who was kidnapped in baghdad in march 2023 while conducting doctoral research in”. Read the current article and compare.
Oct '23
2025
hostage
0
1
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2023, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
russian-israeli researcher who was kidnapped in baghdad in march 2023 and allegedly held by the group kata'ib h
Now
russian and israeli researcher who was kidnapped in baghdad in march 2023 while conducting doctoral research in
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
