>It's the rare historian who writes a book on a topic that is not only
>developing but brand spanking new. Just a decade ago, the intellectual
>segment of the Russian Internet, commonly called RuNet, was in its infancy,
>its web sites ranging from a collection of Russian jokes to unadorned,
>text-based personal home pages. These days, it is the hub of Russia's young
>intelligentsia, with packed online libraries, philanthropic campaigns and
>blogging communities where cultural news often travels more quickly than by
>newspapers and magazines.
>
>So it took some nerve of novelist and journalist Sergei Kuznetsov to
>publish his history of the Russian Internet, "Feeling the Elephant"
>(Oshchupyvaya Slona), late last year. As with all histories of recent
>events, in which central figures are still alive, the book prompted
>outcries from the mentioned and omitted alike. Boris Kuzminsky, deputy
>editor of the web-based daily Russky Zhurnal, commented that, unlike in
>Kuznetsov's prior detective fiction, "characters are called by their real
>names, but the names are about the only real thing in the book."
>
>"It is only natural that different people view the history of RuNet
>differently," Kuznetsov said last weekend in an interview in his Moscow
>apartment. "I never claimed to have written a proper history. I was
>privileged to be a part of a group of people who, to a great degree, formed
>the content of the Internet in Russia and shaped its present form. I don't
>know much about the programmers or designers who were also instrumental in
>the process."
>
>Indeed, Kuznetsov was an integral part of the early RuNet community,
>which was so small that many of its members knew each other by name. Other
>pioneers mentioned in his book include Roman Leibov, a professor of Russian
>literature at Tartu University in Estonia, who posted a hypertext novel
>called "Roman" ("Novel," in Russian) in the mid-1990s that could be
>continued by any participant at any point, thus having an infinite number
>of plots.
>
>Similarly, Anton Nossik, a Russian-Israeli writer, helped to turn
>web-based political journalism into a mainstream phenomenon, while Kentucky-based
>physicist Dmitry Verner's Jokes From Russia site drew attention to the
>Russian Internet abroad.
>
>Kuznetsov joined the club in late 1996, when he was invited to write a
>weekly cultural column for Cityline, the first Russian internet service
>provider to emphasize content by providing news resources and other
>services. Not only did Cityline host his column, but it paid him to write
>it -- an unheard-of phenomenon in Internet publications at the time.
>Kuznetsov eventually became one of the best-known movie and literature
>critics on the Russian Internet, and co-authored a critically acclaimed
>novel, "Net," together with Linor Goralik.
>
>"Hardly anyone considered making the Internet one's profession,"
>Kuznetsov said of the early days. "But things changed during the late 1990s, when it
>became an important business and political tool. In 1996, during the
>presidential elections in Russia, there was virtually no web coverage. In
>2000, the Internet was already a major resource, with all kinds of
>propaganda, exit polls and everything."
>
>While RuNet's graphics and technology have snapped to Western
>standards, much of the Russian segment of the Internet has yet to internalize the
>copyright protections that regulate online information abroad. Numerous
>electronic libraries -- the oldest and richest among them being Maxim
>Moshkov's Lib.ru -- regularly publish copyrighted material, including
>scanned versions of brand-new print publications, with the stipulation that
>writers who would rather not have their work published online can ask to
>have it taken down. Another resource of this type is the magazine hall of
>Russky Zhurnal, which publishes extracts and complete electronic copies of
>printed literary magazines.
>
>It's an open-source approach to publication that dates from RuNet's
>earliest days, despite the fact that many of its founders are themselves
>published writers and could lose money from their works being made
>available online. The community's belief in freedom of information is so
>pervasive that, when Ad Marginem publishers cracked down on programmer
>Andrei Chernov for posting the text of Vladimir Sorokin's novel, "Blue
>Lard" (Goluboye Salo), online in 1999, the company was eventually forced to
>back down and recast the scandal as a publicity campaign.
>
>Things have changed somewhat since then, with Moshkov's Lib.ru coming
>under fire last year from the online library VIP.KM.ru, which offers books online
>for a fee. But Kuznetsov stands firm in "Feeling the Elephant" on behalf of
>the open-source approach. "Noncommercial proliferation of anything is
>ideologically acceptable and absolutely legitimate," he writes. "The only
>right the author has is the right to ask -- by no means to order -- not to
>have his work published online."
>
>After a decade of writing both on the web and in print, Kuznetsov
>recently abandoned journalism to found his own company, the Sergei Kuznetsov Content
>Group, dedicated to providing high-quality content for corporate web sites.
>"I understood that in Russia there was no niche for what I'd really like to
>do as a journalist, so I switched to business instead," he commented. "But
>what I'm doing now is the natural development of my work as a journalist."
>
>Making the move to corporate production was easier for Kuznetsov than
>might be expected, as the web theorizer has confidence that the guild solidarity
>and philanthropy that characterized RuNet's early days is being pursued as
>actively as ever in tightly knit web communities such as the free online
>blogging service LiveJournal.
>
>"These altruistic functions have just concentrated themselves in
>certain clusters of the web," he said. "Take LiveJournal, for example. In the West,
>it is mainly a medium for teenagers. In Russia, it is a serious
>professional tool and a breeding ground for intellectuals. It is also one
>of the main instruments of fundraising in the Russian Internet community
>today. Through this medium, thousands of dollars are regularly collected
>for cancer patients. A recent ad asking people to donate blood during the
>New Year holidays produced the largest flow of donors to medical centers
>ever recorded at this time of year."
>
>Another important function of the Russian Internet, Kuznetsov believes,
>is its samizdat, or do-it-yourself, guarantee of free expression. "Without a
>free press, people will have no one to complain to," the author said.
>"Abuse will go unnoticed and unpunished."
>
>Kuznetsov is talking from first-hand experience. Last month, his 2003
>novel "Seven Petals" (Sem Lepestkov) was effectively banned by the Federal Drug
>Control Service for its narcotics-related content. The book centers around
>a detective who uses drugs to untangle the mystery of two addicts' deaths.
>While Kuznetsov's publisher, Amphora, has turned to the courts to get the
>book back in stores, the writer joked that the work itself was not worth
>the fuss that authorities made of it.
>
>"On the one hand, it is absolutely absurd to prosecute a work of
>fiction
>instead of confronting drug barons," he said. "On the other hand, I am very
>angry with the drugs administration for drawing attention to this
>particular book. It is my first novel, and it's painfully bad. I have
>prepared a rewritten version, but now it will have to wait until this whole
>business is settled."
>
>While Kuznetsov has moved away from everyday journalism, he is
>currently at
>work together with his wife, psychologist Yekaterina Kadiyeva, on what he
>calls a "survival book" dedicated to helping people learn to live in the
>age of terrorism.
>
>"We speak about all kinds of situations, from hostage-taking to
>bereavement, and try to find a balanced approach," he said. "It is very
>sad, but terrorism is here to stay, at least for some time. It cannot be
>eradicated from above. What we can do is to learn to deal constructively
>with this threat, instead of engaging in useless accusations."
>
>A fittingly global concern for a man who helped to put his country on
>the
>World Wide Web.