From Russia with Code: Programming Migrations in Post-Soviet Times - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478002999 ISBN 13: 9781478002994

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2019

Synopsis

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 Lépinay, Alexandra Masalskaya, Daria Savchenko, Liubava Shatokhina, Alexandra Simonova, Ksenia Tatarchenko, Zinaida Vasilyeva, Dimitrii Zhikharevich

About this title

About the Author

Mario Biagioli is Distinguished Professor of Law, Science and Technology Studies, and History at the University of California, Davis.

Vincent Lépinay is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Medialab at Sciences Po (Paris).

Review

“From Russia with Code is a deeply informative book about the diaspora of talented Russian computer scientists who now are working in other countries: the United States, Israel, Germany, and elsewhere. It reveals the interaction between Russian computer culture and that of other countries. But it is much more than that: it tells us that computer science is not a single thing, but a skill that blossoms differently in different environments.” (Loren Graham, Professor of the History of Science Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

“Russian computer scientists are everywhere heard about, but nowhere studied—until this book. No other study in English takes up the electrifying topic of information technology and hackers in Russia and grounds it in the hard dirt of evidence. From Russia with Code demystifies a national powerhouse for global computing and will set the standard for years to come in Russia-based science and technology studies. The world needs this pioneering book.” (Benjamin Peters, author of How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet)

Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1478002999
• ISBN 13: 9781478002994
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Biagioli Mario, Lépinay Vincent Antonin