[ih] How the Soviet Union Sent Its First Man to the Internet in 1982

Vint Cerf vint at google.com
Tue Dec 29 16:56:02 PST 2015


who ever wrote this must not have done any homework. Internet was not
turned on until Jan 1983. This sounds like simply a direct modem link to a
server in Stockholm.

v


On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 5:24 PM, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com> wrote:

>
> https://globalvoices.org/2015/12/29/how-the-soviet-union-sent-its-first-man-to-the-internet-in-1982/
>
> (excerpt)
>
> The terminal used by Klyosov to join the conference was a Soviet ES-EVM
> computer <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ES_EVM>(designed from blueprints
> stolen from IBM). It was connected to the only modem supposed to officially
> exist in all of the USSR: an antediluvian 360 baud/s device. In comparison,
> this device had a capacity 22 times less than the old 56k modems that were
> widely used in the early 2000s: the text display rate on the 360 baud/s
> modem was of one letter per second.
> This precious modem was protected by a security presence so impressive
> that Klyosov later wrote he had not seen such since his childhood, when he
> lived with his parents on the Kapustin Yar missile test polygon
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapustin_Yar> under Stalin.
> [image: An EVM ES-1033 computer with control panel. These were developed
> in the USSR in the 1970s-1980s. Image courtesy of computer-museum.ru.]
>
> An EVM ES-1033 computer with control panel. These were developed in the
> USSR in the 1970s-1980s. Image courtesy of computer-museum.ru.
>
> Surrounded by many soldiers, the computer room itself was empty. So when
> Klyosov logged in for the first time, he was alone when these words
> appeared on the screen: “You are connected to the University of Stockholm
> server. Welcome.”
>
> Once logged in, Klyosov was free to talk and exchange any information he
> wanted, without any state control. Neither the fact that the computer room
> was surrounded by military guards, nor the fact that Klyosov was forbidden
> from going abroad had any influence. We can imagine how the situation
> created by this single connected Soviet computer and its only user might
> seem paradoxical. Just remember that the Soviet Union in the early 1980s
> remained a heavily cloistered state, with the authorities attempting at all
> costs to stop the transfer to the West of any kind of “dissident” cultural
> products (samizdat publications among them). In such a context, Klyosov’s
> case was truly exceptional.
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
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