FREE ESSAY ON INTERNET IN RUSSIA

INTERNET IN RUSSIA

Russia has always been a country full of contradictions, as it was said once in a movie:
"They weep when getting married, and sing going off to war." Large cities, such as Moscow
and St. Petersburg, are showing off the latest models of executive cars (always full
option) and open up new boutiques of top couturiers almost daily. Nevertheless as soon as
one gets outside the urban area, running water is considered a luxury. 
Technology as a whole was never Russia's strongest asset. This means that some
technological advances considered a "must-have" in the west are still ignored in this
country. For example, the quality of agricultural machinery is almost at the pre-historic
level. While at the same time the range of household technological supplies is greater
and more advanced than in most European countries. It is only what is heeded prosperous
to have, that is being developed and spent money on. 
Computers were known as "a tool for the wizard" for quiet some time in Russia. University
students used typewriters for their papers up to 1996 at least. Even nowadays, lots of
government organisations and some students still don't use computers for the paperwork.
Internet was literally unheard of in the masses until around 1995. I find it ironic that
one of the first and most scandalous hacker incidents happened in Russia. In the early
nineties a young man from St. Petersburg broke into a Swiss bank computer system. The
crook ended up messing with millions of dollars. When the incident went public, the
people didn't understand the concept of online communication or Internet services, the
only thing that was talked about was the dollar amount that could have been stolen. 
The first spread of Internet use among the non-scientific population was for commercial
purposes. It is when russian entrepreneurs understood the importance of communication and
publicity, especially towards the west, that Internet providers found a source of income
in Russia. As in most fields of technological advances, after the first push the wheel of
demand instantaneously gains its speed. In the span of three years 86% of non-government
organisations based in large cities had a web page. 
Even though the above seems to show an immense change, there is still a boundary between
Russia and the rest of the world, even on the web. There is such a thing as a "Russian
Internet"; most russian users don't go beyond that. The most obvious reason is a language
barrier, as well as the letter difference. Unfortunately these are not the only reasons
for the lack of interest towards the "foreign Internet"; since Russia is an enormously
large country, most of its inhabitants feel that it is the whole world. Most of these
people will never have the chance to go anywhere outside of Russia, so they show
ignorance towards the life and events outside of it. 
In order to be able to surf on the Russian Internet and be able to take advantage of all
the information offered, one has to have a bilingual keyboard; with both Russian and
Latin alphabets. The names of the sites are using Latin letters, that is the requirement
to get on the World Wide Web. The information is usually in Russian. This causes a
problem, because if one doesn't have a special translating system installed, the russian
letters turn into chaotic symbols and it is impossible to have access to the information
on this site. Some sites are getting a double version, for both Russian and
English-speaking users; they are the ones that are aimed at the west. 
Anyone who has ever gone on the Internet has used such browsers as "Yahoo" or
"AltaVista", they obviously help one to get around the net and find relevant information.
There are Russian equivalents of these search engines, based on the same system of usage.
The first Russian Web Directory was "Russia On The Net", it still exists, but it is
rarely used, since more advanced systems have been developed. The most well known browser
is "Aport 2000". The reason for its popularity is the automatic translation of foreign
sites into Russian, as well as the automatic compatibility to any computer system.
Another reason is the ability for the user to type in the information in English and get
the feedback in Russian. "Aport 2000" is giving Russian users the ability to surf on the
"foreign internet" and overcome the language barrier, unfortunately a user that is not
familiar with the Russian language is unable to use this particular system.
Other famous Russian search engines are "Yandex", often used because the looked for words
are highlighted in red, "Rambler", "AU", "Deol WebGuide", "City Line"; and a special web
directory for visitors of the country called "Russia for Visitors".
Internet is used not only for information retrieval, but also for leisure and
communication purposes. Chatrooms are as famous among Russian users, as they are in the
rest of the world. For the same old reason, as a language barrier, Russian people prefer
to go to Russian chatrooms. The most used ones are: "Chatpage", "Bessedki" and
"KPOBATKA". You find people using both Russian and Latin letters to spell russian words,
depending on their keyboard capacity. 
In the past year great advances in the Internet have happened in Russia. Today almost all
of the famous bands and singers have a website, where the fans can enjoy their latest
albums and singles. The bands attach a personal note to the users, explaining that it's
obvious that these songs are going to be copied to the MP3's. The users are asked to make
a donation of $ 0.20 per song to the band, so that it would be possible for the singers
to continue making music and have new releases. The example of such a band is "Mummy
Troll". I know from personal experience that there are young people who make these
donations, so the notes are not made for nothing. 
There has been a growing amount of privately owned newspapers in Russia since 1992. Most
of them can't afford to put all of their articles on their WebPages. Some of them don't
even have WebPages. Nevertheless there are Internet magazines that get updated every day,
that feature the most relevant articles from numerous newspapers. One example of such
magazine is "Meranga". It features not only newspaper articles, but also online radio
shows and news, the top 20 of the Russian Pop music, etc. Newspapers owned by large
companies, or the ones supporting a powerful political group have the capacity to put all
of their article on their sites, such as the newspaper "KOMEPCAHT". 
Until approximately two years ago, television and radio shows used a pager to get
feedback from their viewers and listeners. The first television show to get an Online
Internet Service was "MTV", in Russia it is a show, not a channel like in Europe; even
though it is the same corporation. Unfortunately very few people use this service, most
prefer to use the telephone and sent a message through the pager service.
Another famous Internet Online service is for the channel "NTV" for the programme
"Segodniachko". It is the programme that deals with recent events on a personal level;
the literate translation is "Todayko", which comes from the word "today", and that is the
way one can find it on the web. This particular Online Service has a great importance to
the Russian people all over the world. There are only two Russian television channels
that can be watched all over the world "OPT" and "NTV". It is often the only connection
for lots of Russian people who are living outside of the country with the opinions and
events in Russia. For the people living in foreign countries it is easier and cheaper to
use the Internet, while for the people in Russia it is easier and cheaper to use the
phone. Since both services are available, people can communicate and exchange opinions
across the continents. The reason for me being so supportive of this particular service,
is that I took part in the discussions when important and disturbing events happened in
my country: i.e. The war in Chechnya, the president elections; and I felt closer to my
country because of it.
Russia is in the beginning stage of the capitalistic economy, which means that there is
no monopolisation of the market. There isn't an equivalent of UUNET as in Belgium, or
America On Line. When I looked up the Internet Service Providers in Russia on the web, it
gave me a list of six pages long with 188 names. The reason for so many is because Russia
isn't very centralised, and people prefer to invest or pay to someone who is
geographically closer. For example people in Kamchatka, which is the eastern side of
Russia would feel very uncomfortable to transfer their money to someone in Moscow, which
is more than 10,000 km away. If they had a problem with the Internet connection it would
be costly and almost impossible to reach them by phone. The problem from the side of the
provider, is that to base an office in every region in Russia is too costly. The most
widespread provider in Russia is INSAR. In Moscow there are more than a few, the most
used ones are CityLine Ltd., Matrex, Elvis telecom, Demos. These providers service the
whole city and a few regions close to Moscow. There are also providers that service
specific districts in Moscow; an example of such is Ramenskoye Internet Service Provider.
Examples of Internet Service Providers in the rest of Russia are: PO "Sibiteks" which
works around Siberia, KamchatSvyazinform WWW which services Kamchatka, ISP in Kingisepp
Leningrad region which services St. Petersburg region, Nizhniy Novgorod Information
Networks which services the city of Nizhniy Novgorod, etc. 
Most of the universities in Moscow and other big cities are involved in the foreign
exchange programmes. This makes a WebPages a necessity. Some universities offer an
english version, while some leave it to the reader to translate the information. Moscow
State University has an English and a Russian WebPages with detailed information about
the history of the university, the teaching professors, as well as information about the
campus and the living arrangements. Other examples of such west orientated universities
are: Plechanovskiy Academy, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, Moscow
Economics State Institute, etc. 
Even though most of the modern students are familiar with the Internet, universities
still can't afford to provide free usage of computers connected to the web. There is no
such thing as a "computer room" like in Vesalius, where students can research and keep up
with current events through the web. The reason for that is the fact that in Russia users
have to pay $ 0.12 per Kb for every page they read on the World Wide Web. This is
considered unaffordable since most universities are officially free, and an average
salary is 4,000 rubbles, which is approximately $ 135. For the same reason Internet is
still accessible to the privileged only, and of course scientific workers.
Government organisations don't give any information that would be available to the
citizens on the web. Every district has a central office, called "Zhek" a left-over from
the communist way of life, which deals with electricity, renovation, pension incomes and
other civil aspects of every day life. I had to deal with the structure and regulations
of the above organisation recently, since I was formalising the ownership of my
apartment. Only in the central district "Zheks" they use computers to fill in the forms,
while in others they are all done by hand. Internet is unheard of, unused and this
innovation isn't planned for the nearest future.
This is the case with all government civil organisations: schools, hospitals, post
offices. The ones closer to the upper levels of the government, the FSB, the quarters of
the Duma, the White House are obviously using high technology for their work,
unfortunately none of it is available for the average public. There are two reasons for
this, which are interconnected. The first one is the fact that average Russian citizen,
let alone a pensioner, doesn't have the means to use the Internet nor the knowledge, so
it is easier to use the telephone. The above average Russian citizen doesn't use
government services. He or she would go to a private hospital, send the children to a
private school and have the lawyers deal with the rest. All of the mentioned above
privately owned organisations have a WebPages and do give information on the Internet.
The second reason is, the official charges for government services are extremely low. An
example of such is: the cost of having a 200 msq. Apartment incl. water, gas,
electricity, telephone (which is still an abonnent cost basis charge of 45 rubbles, or $
1.5 per month and one can call unlimited amount of times and hours in Moscow, if one
calls outside the charge is per minute but also at an unsubstantial price) and tax is
900 rubbles, which is approximately $ 30. War veterans and households with more
than three children pay only 15% of the cost. There are also other permissions for
invalids and pensioners. The money paid officially is not sufficient to make use of the
Internet, which is paid by WebPages Kb since the telephone connection is extremely
cheap.
There is another side to government services being so cheap, they are scarce. The way
it's connected to Internet usage is the following. There is a law that unless the
premises are registered for use for a company based for trade or other related purposes
not more than one telephone line is allowed. Some new-based districts on the outskirts of
Moscow are still waiting for the telephone lines to be installed. Mobile phones, which
could also be used as a connection to the Internet, are also strongly regulated. There is
a law that mobile telephone usage for private purposes isn't allowed. Which means that a
household can't have one, only a company or a firm can. Selling and buying isn't
controlled, but if one is stopped by the police, which is almost inevitable since the
explosions in September '99, and there is no official permission for the mobile phone, it
is confiscated. 
In my attempt to write about the spread of the Internet in Russia I cannot come to a fair
closing without mentioning the RUSLANet project. It is based and carried out by the St.
Petersburg State Technical University. The project is a future library system for the
Northwest of Russia, so that libraries in these regions can have access to and from the
world wide information resources. It was started two years ago, and involves careful
planning, sponsor searching, lots of PR skills, as well as computer science knowledge.
Today the project is at the following stage: the OPAC (which supports multi user access
for any access level simultaneously) has been realised, fulltext databases, hierarchy of
WBs, WWW server, search means for Internet clients. This is only the first step in the
whole project. 
The second phase is about the development of practical interlibrary communications and
dispersal of the developed and creates greater availability of the service to numerous
libraries in the region. This project is going to bring incredible advantages to the
scholars of that region. The boundaries of access are going to step back if not disappear
all together. This project is going to allow libraries to go on the net without Internet
direct connection. Which is going to be done through the master server. The RUSLANet
project is going to eliminate some of the difficulties I have mentioned before in this
paper. This network is going to allow Internet to be used not only for entertainment or
commercial purposes, but for educational purposes too, like it is being used in the
west.
Even though Russia doesn't use all of the advantages of the web, the country is known for
its' speedy decisions and changes. We were struggling for almost seventy-five years and
look, our kids are also eating Kellogg's Corn Flakes for breakfast, just like in the
west. Who knows, maybe give us another seventy-five years and we can order pizza through
the Internet, just like in the west. Unfortunately the majority of the population falls
into the average category, so the government has to look out for them. Now with the new
economical programmes, may be Russia will be able to finally get out of the poverty. With
the rise of the general living standards, there will also be a rise in modern technology
usage. Maybe that will be the time when Internet users will prefer to use a Russian web
browser, because it is more advanced, and will base their email on the Russian net, who
knows?
Works cited.
www.aport.ru
"AIF Liubov'". Moscow, 2000: vol. 3: pg. 9.
www.mumiitroll.ru
www.gorussia.about.com
Plemnek A., Sokolova N., 'RUSLAnet - a New Generation Library System Project in Russia",
The Electronic Library, Vol.14, No. 4, August 1996.
Plemnek A, "Current and Perspective Tasks of the Open Library Systems Center",
Transactions of SPSTU, No. 1, 1996.
www.au.ru
Bibliography
Works cited.
www.aport.ru
"AIF Liubov'". Moscow, 2000: vol. 3: pg. 9.
www.mumiitroll.ru
www.gorussia.about.com
Plemnek A., Sokolova N., 'RUSLAnet - a New Generation Library System Project in Russia",
The Electronic Library, Vol.14, No. 4, August 1996.
Plemnek A, "Current and Perspective Tasks of the Open Library Systems Center",
Transactions of SPSTU, No. 1, 1996.
www.au.ru