The Usenet coup: how the USSR discovered the internet in 1991
By Natalia Konradova, 16 August 2016
- https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/usenet-coup/

"The programmers' idea was to share software with one another and
keep in touch at the same time. They couldn't have imagined that a
few years later, thousands of people working at universities in the
USA and across the world would connect to the Usenet, calling it
"the soul of the Internet" and "the place where important things
happen".

For the next 15 years, the system was to remain a platform for
serious international discussion, a tool for self-organisation and
even a basis for building political utopias. "What was once
impossible, is now possible... Usenet is conducted publicly, and is
mostly uncensored. This means that everyone can both contribute and
gain from everyone else's opinion", wrote Michael Houben, an early
enthusiast and first historian of the internet community.
These words appeared in an essay entitled "The computer as a
democratizer", in which Hauben hailed the dawn of a new age of real
democracy, based on local, grassroots communication and
cooperation.
The USSR joints the network... Just kidding!
From its earliest days, Usenet was very effective in serving itself
- capable of conducting interactive monitoring of its
communications, creating its own 'Halls of Fame" and recording its
activity in its own chronicles.
An important entry in any imagined Usenet chronicle would relate to
1 April 1984, the day it published a welcoming letter signed by the
Soviet Union's then Communist Party chief Konstantin Chernenko. The
letter announced that the USSR had signed up to Usenet and read,
"Well, today, 840401, this is the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics joining the Usenet network at last and saying hallo to
everyone. The reason we have joined this network is to have a forum
for open discussion with the American and European people and make
clear to them our resolute efforts towards maintaining peaceful
coexistence between the peoples of the Soviet Union and those of
the United States and Europe"." ...

There are some more details about the "Relcom" network used at the
time in this paper from 1992:
http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/articles/relcom.htm

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not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:

> The Usenet coup: how the USSR discovered the internet in 1991
> By Natalia Konradova, 16 August 2016
> - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/usenet-coup/
>
> "The programmers' idea was to share software with one another and
> keep in touch at the same time. They couldn't have imagined that a
> few years later, thousands of people working at universities in the
> USA and across the world would connect to the Usenet, calling it
> "the soul of the Internet" and "the place where important things
> happen".
>
> For the next 15 years, the system was to remain a platform for
> serious international discussion, a tool for self-organisation and
> even a basis for building political utopias.
>
> [snip]
>
> An important entry in any imagined Usenet chronicle would relate to
> 1 April 1984, ....

That's the notorious post from KREMVAX. right?

the day it published a welcoming letter signed by the
> Soviet Union's then Communist Party chief Konstantin Chernenko. The
> letter announced that the USSR had signed up to Usenet and read,
> "Well, today, 840401, this is the Union of Soviet Socialist
> Republics joining the Usenet network at last and saying hallo to
> everyone. The reason we have joined this network is to have a forum
> for open discussion with the American and European people and make
> clear to them our resolute efforts towards maintaining peaceful
> coexistence between the peoples of the Soviet Union and those of
> the United States and Europe"." ...
>
> There are some more details about the "Relcom" network used at the
> time in this paper from 1992:
> http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/articles/relcom.htm

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>
> not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:
>
>> The Usenet coup: how the USSR discovered the internet in 1991
>> By Natalia Konradova, 16 August 2016
>> - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/usenet-coup/
>>
>> An important entry in any imagined Usenet chronicle would relate to
>> 1 April 1984, ....
>
> That's the notorious post from KREMVAX. right?

Yes the paragraph below where I left off the extract goes on to
say:

"This April Fools' Day hoax, posted by Dutch internet pioneer Piet
Beertema in the year of Orwell's Anti-utopia, used the fake ID
"Kremvax" and was a huge success among users."

Anyway the article is mainly about real posts from the Soviet Union
during the 1991 coup attempt. I did a particly bad job of cutting
out the start, leaving out the first paragraph, but I spent way too
much time reading articles on the internet today and was a bit
glazed over.

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