The Russian internet (also known as the runet) is a part of the Internet with its main content in Russian. According to data from August 2019 and studies conducted by W3Techs, 6.5% of the 10 million most popular Internet sites in the world use Russian. In 2013, according to these studies, the Russian language became the second most used on the Internet after English. Since the advent of the internet, once experienced a period of relatively greater internet freedom, however, the country has progressively tightened its control over international connectivity, emphasizing its autonomy, security and gradually developing an independent website ecosystem.

Background

In the USSR, the first computer networks appeared in the 1950s in missile defense system at Sary Shagan (first they were tested in Moscow at Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering). 1957 Sputnik crisis contributed to development of computer networks both in USSR and USA. The Sputnik-1 online trajectory digital data was collected at 70 tracking stations, transmitted binarily via telegraph and then calculated at the Computing Centre of the Academy of Sciences. In the 1960s, the massive computer network project called OGAS was proposed but failed to be implemented, though stimulating development of pack of structures such as Gosplan Computing Centre established in 1959. In 1965 Kotok-McCarthy/ITEP USSR-USA computer chess game digital data was transmitted internationally via telegraph. Apollo–Soyuz USA–USSR joint space program (1972–1975) used digital data for spaceships monitoring and control and they were transmitted between participating countries via satellite links that were connected to ground networks consisting of nodes such as Star City, Russia and Houston space center. (Interview with Professor Alexander Tomilin from the Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering.) The Apollo–Soyuz 1975 flight paths were monitored and digitally processed by Soviet missile defense military programmers.https://in.wiki/?curid=159578]

Since 1972, Sirena and Express computer networks began nationwide operations connecting thousands of airline and railroad cash offices all over the country provided with keyboards, displays and printers for tickets. Later on, since the late 1970s, x.25 Soviet networks began to appear and Akademset emerged in Leningrad in 1978. By 1982 VNIIPAS institute was created in Moscow to serve as Akademset's central node. The connection was established in 1978 over X.25 permanent digital ground copper cable connection to IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria providing 9600 baud link which was divided by 4800 baud between USSR and middle-lying ČSSR (that allowed access to other worldwide networks). In 1983, VNIIPAS, together with the US government, Joel Schatz, Don Carlson, Michael Kleeman, and Chet Watson, created a Soviet X.25 service provider called SFMT ("San Francisco — Moscow Teleport") that later became Sovam Teleport ("Soviet-American Teleport"). VNIIPAS also provided X.25 services, including over satellite, to Eastern bloc countries together with Mongolia, Cuba and Vietnam.

At the time, Western users of Usenet were generally unaware of that, and considered such networking in USSR nonexistent, so one of them on April 1, 1984, made an April fools' hoax about "Kremvax" ("Kremlin VAX") that gained some popularity for subsequent years. In 1988, John Draper after a visit in the USSR wrote an Usenet summarizing message saying that he discovered developed digital culture within Soviet users of computers.https://groups.google.com/g/comp.misc/c/xT5PUC64bfU/m/6FR-INCCHh8J The first recorded Usenet message from USSR dates 26.12.1989. Later the USSR nominally joined the private Fidonet network in October 1990 when the first node of Region 50 appeared in Novosibirsk. Some of the early Soviet/Russian networks were also initiated as parts of BITNET.

Foundation of the Russian Internet

Sovam Teleport

Sovam Teleport is a Russian telecommunications company that was founded in 1990. The company was established as a joint venture of the San Francisco Moscow Teleport (SFMT) network and the All-Russian Research Institute of Automated Application Systems (ВНИИПАС). The name stands for "SOViet-AMerican Teleport".

San Francisco Moscow Teleport (SFMT) was launched in 1983 by and Joel Schatz with the support of the US government. Californian modem node of SFMT was permanently connected to VNIIPAS/IIASA trans-country copper digital line existing since 1978 and established by future VNIIPAS director Oleg Smirnov.https://www.comnews.ru/content/232523/2024-04-08/2024-w15/1013/set-nachalo It was a non-profit project with a goal to expand the Internet to the USSR. In 1986, the project changed its status and became a commercial enterprise, with financing from George Soros added in 1988. The All-Russian Research Institute of Automated Application Systems provided a data transmission network with some countries in Eastern Europe, as well as Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam, almost all of the data traffic was scientific and technical information, and in 1983 organized a non-state email network. By the beginning of the 1990s, almost half of the VNII traffic amounted to operational data from electronic mail systems.https://in.wiki/Материалы:История_развития_глобальных_компьютерных_сетей#Сетевые_коммуникации_в_80-е_годы

The New York Times newspaper on February 19, 1989 on its first page published article "New Satellite Channel Opens Computer Link to the Soviets" by John Markoff that highlighted VNIIPAS/IIASA/Sovam network development with adding of Tymnet and Sprint satellite nodes at Central Telegraph.

The company's first network was built on the X.25 protocol in 1990. In 1992, Sovam Teleport began to build a UUCP mail and terminal access system through American servers. Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Estee Lauder, Time magazine, and France Presse were among the first corporate clients of the company. Since 1992, the British company Cable & Wireless, which has its own fiber-optic channels in Europe, has become the third co-founder of the company. On June 4, 1992, the company was re-registered as a limited liability partnership, and all three co-founders - Cable & Wireless, All-Russian Research Institute of Automated Application Systems and SFMT - received almost equal shares. On July 28, 1993, a communications center in Tashkent began servicing customers. The provider domain sovam.com, which opened on February 24, 1994, became the first public Internet site in Russia.

Sovam Teleport in early 1990s became a first SWIFT network provider for emerging Russian banks (over x.25). In 1995 Sovam Teleport launched Russia Online (ROL) public dial-up ISP.

DEMOS-based network

After invading Afghanistan, the Soviet Union found itself under sanctions (already being limited by CoCom). However, a group of developers made a Russian version of the Unix operating system, secretly brought from America, and called it DEMOS. Some Unix developers, working at the Kurchatov Nuclear Energy Research Institute created a network that used DEMOS, namely RELCOM. The main feature of this network was that it was a fully horizontal network, i.e. each networked computer could directly communicate with other computers on the network. Many labs took part in joint experiments, so rapid communication was very much needed. Therefore, the first network users were mainly Soviet research institutes, so they could exchange scientific information more rapidly.

Cityline

Cityline was one of the first internet providers in Russia that aimed to counter ROL's monopoly at public dial-up market. It was founded in 1996 by Emelyan Zakharov, Demian Kudryavtsev, Egor Shuppe, Dmitriy Bosov and Rafael Filinov. The realization of the fact that the Internet was not appealing for Russian users without content led to content-oriented services. Cityline approached Anton Nosik, a journalist, and Anton would later create content for them. It led to a portal named 'Vechernii Internet' (Вечерний Интернет), where Anton Nosik published his articles. In addition, the very first Russian web designer was Artemy Lebedev, who designed websites for Cityline. One of the most popular websites on the Russian internet was Anekdot.ru, a website dedicated to humour and stories. Anekdot.ru was founded by astrophysicist Dmitrii Verner.

Search engines

Rambler In 1996, the first Russian search engine, Rambler was launched. It was created by Sergey Lysakov, Dmitry Kryukov and others, who worked as scientists in Pushchino research facility. The algorithm that served as a basis for Rambler initially was used for registering and searching for microorganisms. One of the key features was the so-called Rambler Top-100, that showed the one hundred top searched websites on the Russian internet. In the beginning of 1999, 53% of Rambler's shares were sold to investors Russian Fonds (Русские Фонды) and Orion Capital Advisors. As a result, the founders of the company became less important in the company. In 2000, as a result of the conflict between investors and the founders, Sergey Lysakov and Dmitry Kryukov left the company. Rambler later became a media company that included its own TV channel, the Rambler TV. Anton Nossik, for a short term, served as vice president of Rambler, also being a chief editor of Rambler's Lenta.ru, one of the most visited European news websites at the time (5th place in 2013https://ria.ru/20130625/945627540.html).

Yandex

September 23, 1997 — the Yandex search engine appeared, which performs a Russian search based on morphological analysis. With support by 1989-founded Comptek computer trader, the project has been formed since the early 1990s by scientists from Moscow research institutes who were engaged in machine analysis of texts (in particular, based on the work of academician Yuri Apresyan). One of their first big projects was a machine search of the Bible, as it is not protected by copyright. Ilya Segalovich and Arkadii Volozh developed a search algorithm that was based on the morphology of Russian language. Initially this algorithm was proposed to Rambler for approximately 15K dollars, but was rejected. After the rejection, Ilya and Arkady decided to found their own company, Yandex. Key figures in the company: Ilya Segalovich, Arkady Volozh and Elena Kolmanovskaya, editor-in-chief until 2012. Initially, it was a small company - employees at Yandex were friends of Arkadii Volash. Gradually Yandex became one of the leading Russian internet companies, and today, it includes several sub-companies, including Yandex.Taxi and news aggregator Yandex.News.

Social Networks

Mail.ru