Akademset (, Academic Network), or All- Union Academic network — was a

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

for providing

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

connection of scientific and civil institutions across the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, that was established in 1978. In fact, it was a Soviet forerunner to the Internet and had a connection with ARPANET and other western analogues using the common digital standard called

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for Packet switched network, packet-switched data communication in wide area network, wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the CCITT, International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Co ...

. After

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

it was re-created under the name ROKSON (РОКСОН),Академическая компьютерная сеть С.-Петербурга
�— журнал «Электросвязь» № 5, 2003 г., стр. 17. and nowadays its surviving components may be considered as a

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...

within the

Runet The Russian Internet () or Runet (), is the part of the Internet that uses the Russian language, including the Russian-language community on the Internet and websites. Geographically, it reaches all continents, including Antarctica (due to Russ ...

and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

Creation and development

LVC

In 1974 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, at the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, a computing subdivision was established that was entitled Leningrad Computing Center (ЛВЦ/LVC) of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

(АН СССР/AN SSSR). The main goal of LVC was the creation of the Computing Center for Collective Use (ВЦКП/VCKP) for staff of all of the institutions (over 40) of the Leningrad Scientific Center (ЛНЦ/LNC). It was proven effective, that was specially remarked by AN SSSR and the authorities of the city and the country, and by the end of 1977 the VCKP was used by over 15 city's scientific institutions, that exploited

computer performance In computing, computer performance is the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system. Outside of specific contexts, computer performance is estimated in terms of accuracy, efficiency and speed of executing computer program instruction ...

of the Center. Following that, the Presidium of the AN SSSR asked the

Government of the Soviet Union The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest organ of state power, highest body of state authority, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, All-Union Supreme Soviet. It ...

to convert LVC into the Leningrad Research Computer Center (ЛНИВЦ/LNIVC) that was founded on January 19, 1978. Non-academic institutions, including factories, began to join its computing network. The network became known as ИВСКП/IVSKP — "Information and computing system for collective use". LNIVC was in fact functioning as a central node of the forming city-wide computer network which began to be called LIVSAN/ЛИВСАН — "Leningrad information-computer network of the AN" (SSSR). In 1979 scientists at the AN considered it to be a success and began planning such network country-wide under the name ''Akademset''.The Status of Soviet Civil Science: Proceedings of the Symposium on Soviet Scientific Research, NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, 1986
/ref> In 1978 LNIVC was reformed into an institution nowadays known as St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1982 in Moscow, a dedicated

research institution A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

VNIIPAS The All Union Scientific Research Institute for Applied Automated Systems (VNIIPAS/ВНИИПАС) was a Soviet research institute that provided a computer network service, including international digital connections. It was the central node of i ...

, was established to serve as the central node of the Akademset with the abroad

connection to Austria to

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an independent International research institute located in Laxenburg, near Vienna in Austria, founded as an East-West scientific cooperation initiative during the Cold War. Th ...

. Links to most of "

socialist countries A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. This article is about states that refer to themselves as socialist states, and not specifically ab ...

" were also established, including satellite ones to Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam.

NATO study

In 1986 in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, a NATO analysis was published, entitled ''"The Status of Soviet Civil Science"''. It contained a dedicated section about Akademset, including its planned all-Union scheme. It was stated that "the first phase of the network was accepted for operation in 1986 by a governmental commission, including about 55 interactive computers". The book also reads:

"The initial problems encountered in building Akademset’ have stemmed from the communications and hardware limitations ... For instance, in order to achieve high speeds using a protocol such as OSI, it is necessary to have sufficient main memory in order to pass packets and headers from level to level ... Shortages of communications peripherals remain, and the cost of leased lines remains high ... These problems can be solved largely by better hardware. More serious is the absence of trained personnel at the centers that are supposed to be connected to Akademset’." <...>
"Will the
Communist Party of the USSR The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
(CPSU) permit electronic mail? On the surface, it would appear to amount to electronic publishing without censorship, because messages could be sent practically instantaneously to a large number of users. However, the CPSU may also view electronic mail as nothing more than a faster version of regular mail. It would be possible to delay the delivery of some messages while they were checked, to use random searches, and to monitor all transactions by individuals under surveillance. The interference could be crude enough that most users would be aware of it and would practice self-censorship, particularly in communications with foreigners. The party could reap the benefit of more efficient communications without a substantial threat of increased activity by dissidents."

Hudson study

USA's

Hudson Institute Hudson Institute is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation. Kahn ...

published a research of Akademset in 1989. It emphasizes resemblance of Akademset to early

ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...

and also reads:

"The general architecture of Akademset' is that of a meta-network of regional networks . The various regional networks, in turn, are presently divided into two "zones": the working zone and the experimental zone. The latter is developmental in nature and the place where new network solutions are tried and tested after which, in theory, the accepted designs are passed to industry for production and implementation in the working zone. Among the basic architectural solutions already accepted for Akademset' is the decision to make it an open, packet switching network with a modified ISO X .25 layer protocol implemented throughout . Users are to have access, from their individual terminals, " ...to all information resources (data banks, information systems, mathematical models, computer capabilities, etc .)"

Creation and development

LVC

NATO study

Hudson study

See also

References

Further reading