Vadim Antonov () born May 25, 1965, is a Russian-American

software engineer Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He is known for his work on

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

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 ...

backbone network A backbone or core network is a part of a computer network which interconnects networks, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same buildin ...

s, network router hardware,

computer security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, n ...

, and

data warehouses In computing, a data warehouse (DW or DWH), also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central repositories of data in ...

. He is also known for his role in organizing

civil resistance Civil resistance is a form of political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and co ...

1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to Coup d'état, forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President ...

notable for pioneering the use of

to effect the political change.

Soviet coup d'etat attempt

During 1991 Soviet hardline

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

coup d'état attempt Vadim Antonov and his colleagues at

RELCOM RELCOM or Relcom (), an acronym for "RELiable COMmunications" is a computer network in Russia. Network It was launched in the Soviet Union on August 1, 1990 in the Kurchatov Institute in collaboration with DEMOS co-operative (although the enginee ...

used their network facilities to gather and disseminate independent information about the current situation in the country, thus undermining the

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...

ordered by the coup plotters. As a co-founder of

, Vadim Antonov was well known to the users of the network, which gave him credibility to act as the moderator for the stream of situation reports during the crisis; he anonymized the reports to protect the sources in case if the coup succeeded. In an interview to

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Mr. Antonov explained that providing the alternative to the official narrative was necessary to discourage the regional government officials from joining the coup leaders.

References

1965 births Living people Russian computer programmers Russian activists People of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt Internet in Russia {{US-engineer-stub