🚀 go-pugleaf

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 19:30:51 -0700
From: Howard Frederick <hfrederick@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Russian Networking*GlasNet*DC*Jun20

                    [Please cross-post and distribute]

            GlasNet and the Emergence of Russian Civil Society:
        Computer Networking and Democratization in the Former USSR

           Speech and Online Demonstration of GlasNet (Moscow),
        a Network of the Association for Progressive Communications

                          Monday, June 20, 7-9pm
                  School of International Service Lounge
              The American University (see directions below)
                             Washington, DC

                                SPEAKERS

  Anatoly Voronov, Executive Director, GlasNet, Moscow, Russian Republic
    "It's my hope telecommunications can do more for Russian democracy
                          than any other factor."
                                    and
   David Caulkins, North American Director, GlasNet (by teleconference)
     Moderator:  Howard H. Frederick, School of International Service

Sponsored by International Communications Program, The American University

LOCATION:  The meeting will be held Monday, June 20, 7-9pm, in the School
of International Studies lounge at The American University, located near
the corner of Nebraska and New Mexico NW on the AU campus.  There is a
metered parking lot on the north side of this corner (otherwise park on the
street).  If you take the Metro, the AU shuttle bus runs from the Tenley
Circle (red line) every 15 minutes.  Take the east Metro exit; the AU
shuttle stop is behind DC bus stop.

For more, information contact by phone:  Howard Frederick, 202-885-1635 or
reply by email to the present address.

*********************************************************************
[Here's information about GlasNet and Anatoly Voronov excerpted from
_Toronto Computes_, Nov 93]

On October 3 and 4, the world watched Moscow explode in violence.

CNN coverage certainly looked dramatic, but unless you monitored the
global computer networks, you only got half the story.  [...]

Muscovites awoke the morning of the Wednesday, October 6, to find
their newspapers full of unexplained blank spots.

Anatoly A.  Voronov, executive director of Moscow's only public
Internet connection, GlasNet, was also puzzled when he opened his copy
of the _Nezavisimaya Gazeta_ and found blank spots.

Voronov knows _Nezavisimaya Gazeta_ editor-in-chief, Vitaly Tretiakov,
personally.  He knew something was up if he permitted gaping wholes in
his paper.

"I went to their offices, and asked for copies of the censored articles,"
Voronov told Toronto Computes.  [...] Tretiakov slipped Voronov the first
censored article, and Voronov used it in GlasNet Info bulletin #1.

The international mainstream press, apparently all watching CNN
instead of the Internet, missed it.

The censored piece was entitled "Civil War or Civic Society: New State
is Emerging While People Are Laughing" -- "Grazhdanskaya Voina ili
Grazhdanskoe Obschestvo: V Hohote Naroda Rozhdaetsia Novoe
Gosudarstvo".

It is a critical look at Russia's democratic history -- which is about
nil, regardless under what economic base the country operates.  The
article concludes no one should be surprised by Yeltsin's suspension
of the constitution, nor his use of tanks to resolve a power struggle.

Voronov continues to produce GlasNet bulletins.  He has released over
10 now.

There were no repercussions for releasing that article because the
Russian government simply doesn't know about it.

"Thank God, the government is ignorant of our existence," Voronov
says.  "How long will that last, I don't know.  In Russia, the bigger
the boss, the less he deals with computers.  Our bureaucrats never
touch computers themselves.  They have technical staff for that."

Voronov, 47, is married and has two children, a boy, 19, and daughter,
15.  His wife, a fashion designer, is unemployed as nobody in Russia
currently has need for that skill.  His son has a job programming in Turbo
Pascal.

Besides Russian, Voronov speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and can
read French.  In 1975, he visited the United States as a young journalist.
His delegation was received at the White House by president Gerald Ford.
Voronov still has a picture of what he jokingly calls his "historic
handshake" with Ford.

He has also designed automatic control systems for Russian submarines
-- which necessitated security clearance, or _dopusk_ (admission), to
military installations.  His language skills got him a year's work in
Cuba, translating lectures delivered by Russian professors at the
Oriente University in Santiago de Cuba.  In 1979-81, he serviced high
voltage electric lines in southern Angola.

Politically, Voronov has always been a "low-profile dissident".  He
has published numerous pseudonym poems and articles and believes he
would have served time for "anti-Soviet activities" had his identity
been revealed.  In 1989-91, he published, under the pen name of
Avtandil Kvavadze, a satirical newspaper called _Iskra_ (The Spark).

In 1991, Voronov left _Moscow News Weekly_, where he was head of their
computer section, to establish GlasNet.

GlasNet aims to provide affordable Internet access to individual
Muscovites, and pro bono groups who could otherwise not afford it --
its Internet address is glasinfo@glas.apc.org.  It operates on
computer equipment donated by the Institute of Global Communications
(IGC).  IGC is a member of the Tides Foundation, San Francisco, CA.
IGC runs the Association for Progressive Communications, of which
GlasNet is a member.

GlasNet is staffed by eight computer enthusiasts, because the work
pays close to nothing.  Voronov's "salary", as executive director and
news bulletin editor, translates to $175 U.S./month.

"To provide Internet access at affordable prices is tough in Russia,"
Voronov says.  "The environment is hostile.  State-owned monopolies
strangulate us with absurd domestic and international phone rates,
taxes, and all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles."

Voronov says he is drawn to global computer communications for the
same reason most people are: to be able to speak with people outside
the controlled mainstream media, which often has its own editorial
agenda in reporting news.

"I always wanted freedom of self-expression," Voronov says.  "I always
wanted to get in touch with people regardless of geographical or
ideological borders.  I saw in telecommunications an opportunity to
beat the totalitarian system -- which is still alive in Russia, and
will be for a long time, even after they made their so-called
"capitalist revolution".  Russia has been Communist totalitarian
state.  Now it is turning into a Capitalist totalitarian state, with
economic coercion instead of "brute force", with 90 per cent of the
population living in misery, and 10 per cent of crooks (bureaucratic
elites, speculators, etc.) enjoying the New Order.