
From Russia with Code
Programming Migrations in Post-Soviet Times
Duke University Press
Published on 3. May 2019
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-1-4780-0184-3 (ISBN)
Description
While Russian computer scientists are notorious for their interference in the 2016 US presidential election, they are ubiquitous on Wall Street and coveted by international IT firms and often perceive themselves as the present manifestation of the past glory of Soviet scientific prowess. Drawing on over three hundred in-depth interviews, the contributors to From Russia with Code trace the practices, education, careers, networks, migrations, and lives of Russian IT professionals at home and abroad, showing how they function as key figures in the tense political and ideological environment of technological innovation in post-Soviet Russia. Among other topics, they analyze coders' creation of both transnational communities and local networks of political activists; Moscow's use of IT funding to control peripheral regions; brain drain and the experiences of coders living abroad in the United Kingdom, United States, Israel, and Finland; and the possible meanings of Russian computing systems in a heterogeneous nation and industry. Highlighting the centrality of computer scientists to post-Soviet economic mobilization in Russia, the contributors offer new insights into the difficulties through which a new entrepreneurial culture emerges in a rapidly changing world.
Contributors. Irina Antoschyuk, Mario Biagioli, Ksenia Ermoshina, Marina Fedorova, Andrey Indukaev, Alina Kontareva, Diana Kurkovsky, Vincent LEpinay, Alexandra Masalskaya, Daria Savchenko, Liubava Shatokhina, Alexandra Simonova, Ksenia Tatarchenko, Zinaida Vasilyeva, Dimitrii Zhikharevich
Contributors. Irina Antoschyuk, Mario Biagioli, Ksenia Ermoshina, Marina Fedorova, Andrey Indukaev, Alina Kontareva, Diana Kurkovsky, Vincent LEpinay, Alexandra Masalskaya, Daria Savchenko, Liubava Shatokhina, Alexandra Simonova, Ksenia Tatarchenko, Zinaida Vasilyeva, Dimitrii Zhikharevich
Reviews / Votes
"The most striking achievement of this in so many ways outstanding book rests in its ethnographic accounts of the RCS [Russian Computer Scientists] as a new type of power-knowledge intellectual.... The book is easy on technical language and should be accessible to a wide readership beyond Russian studies." - Dusan I. Bjelic (Slavic Review) "From Russia with Code...is both timely and unique.... Biagioli and LEpinay's volume demonstrates that IT professionals both in Russia and abroad have the potential to disrupt the Russian state's current conception of sovereignty...and to redefine the relationship between the state, its citizens, and the international community." - Alexandra V. Orlova (Surveillance & Society) "This book is a valuable read for those with an interest in computer programming and high-tech cultures outside the United States, in post-Soviet ethnography, and in the elusive myth of the Russian programmer." - Adam Kriesberg (Information & Culture) "From Russia with Code offers a rich and insightful view into the Russian IT sector and brings welcome scholarly attention to a population that has been overrepresented in popular journalism, but less well attended to in scholarship.... This accessibly written, engaging, and insightful volume will be of interest to broad audiences." - Julie Hemment (Anthropos) "This is a superb collection of articles on post-Soviet IT by highly accomplished scholars." - Barbara Walker (Technology and Culture) "From Russia with Code appears as essential reading for those interested in STS, cultural history, transnational migrations, and the sociology, history, and anthropology of Russian-speaking information science and information technology. . . . I am confident that the complex, grounded realities of From Russia with Code take the first necessary step on a path toward understanding how Russian-speakers coded the world." - Benjamin Peters (Soviet and Post-Soviet Review)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
656 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4780-0184-3 (9781478001843)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Mario Biagioli is Distinguished Professor of Law, Science and Technology Studies, and History at the University of California, Davis.
Vincent LEpinay is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Medialab at Sciences Po (Paris).
Vincent LEpinay is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Medialab at Sciences Po (Paris).
Content
List of Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Russian Economies of Code / Mario Biagioli and Vincent LEpinay 1
I. Coding Collectives
1. Before the Collapse: Programming Cultures in the Soviet Union / Ksenia Tatarchenko 39
2. From Lurker to Ninja: Creating an IT Community at Yandex / Marina Fedorova 59
3. For Code and Country: Civic Hackers in Contemporary Russia / Ksenia Ermoshina 87
II. Outward-Looking Enclaves
4. At the Periphery of the Empire: Recycling Japanese Cars into Vladivostok's IT Communuity / Alexandra Masalskaya and Zinaida Vasilyeva 113
5. Kazan Connected: "IT-ing Up" a Province / Alina Kontareva 145
6. Hackerspaces and Technoparks in Moscow / Aleksandra Simonova 167
7. Siberian Software Developers / Andrey Inkukaev 195
8. E-Estonia Reprogrammed: Nation Branding and Children Coding / Daria Savchenko 213
III. Interlude: Russian Maps
9. Post-Soviet Ecosystems of IT / Dmitrii Zhikharevich 231
IV. Bridges and Mismatches
10. Migrating Step by Step: Russian Computer Specialists in the UK / Irina Antoschyuk 271
11. Brain Drain and Boston's "Upper-Middle Tech" / Diana Kurkovsky West 297
12. Jews in Russia and Russians in Israel / Marina Fedorova 319
13. Russian Programmers in Finland: Self-Presentation in Migration Narratives / Lyubava Shatokhina 347
Contributors 365
Index 369
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Russian Economies of Code / Mario Biagioli and Vincent LEpinay 1
I. Coding Collectives
1. Before the Collapse: Programming Cultures in the Soviet Union / Ksenia Tatarchenko 39
2. From Lurker to Ninja: Creating an IT Community at Yandex / Marina Fedorova 59
3. For Code and Country: Civic Hackers in Contemporary Russia / Ksenia Ermoshina 87
II. Outward-Looking Enclaves
4. At the Periphery of the Empire: Recycling Japanese Cars into Vladivostok's IT Communuity / Alexandra Masalskaya and Zinaida Vasilyeva 113
5. Kazan Connected: "IT-ing Up" a Province / Alina Kontareva 145
6. Hackerspaces and Technoparks in Moscow / Aleksandra Simonova 167
7. Siberian Software Developers / Andrey Inkukaev 195
8. E-Estonia Reprogrammed: Nation Branding and Children Coding / Daria Savchenko 213
III. Interlude: Russian Maps
9. Post-Soviet Ecosystems of IT / Dmitrii Zhikharevich 231
IV. Bridges and Mismatches
10. Migrating Step by Step: Russian Computer Specialists in the UK / Irina Antoschyuk 271
11. Brain Drain and Boston's "Upper-Middle Tech" / Diana Kurkovsky West 297
12. Jews in Russia and Russians in Israel / Marina Fedorova 319
13. Russian Programmers in Finland: Self-Presentation in Migration Narratives / Lyubava Shatokhina 347
Contributors 365
Index 369