A01=Natalia Konradova
archaeology of the internet
Author_Natalia Konradova
Category=JBCT
Category=NHD
Category=UBW
communication networks
cybernetics
eq_bestseller
eq_computing
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
hackers
hacking
history of communication networks
history of cybernetics
history of technology
history of telepathy
history of the internet
Internet
internet history
media archaeology
media history
parapsychology
runet
Russia
Russian cybernetics
Russian internet
Russian science fiction
Soviet communication networks
Soviet cybernetics
Soviet hackers
Soviet hacking
Soviet internet
Soviet media history
Soviet parapsychology
Soviet science fiction
Soviet technology
Soviet telepathy
Soviet Union
telepathy
US-Soviet Space Bridge
USENET
USSR
Product details
- ISBN 9780299354008
- Weight: 399g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2026
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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For decades before the internet existed, scientists, technologists, novelists, and enthusiasts of all descriptions dreamed of instantaneous, worldwide communication systems. What forms such systems might take and what technologies could be used to accomplish this goal were open questions—questions asked by people around the world, including in the Cold War–era superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union.
Media archaeologist Natalia Konradova examines the history of the internet in Russia and its predecessor state, cutting through layers of technological history and dusting off conceptual artifacts of the past. Inspired by the fundamental question of how Soviets imagined future technologies, she investigates experiments with telepathy alongside the (then equally improbable) dream of a global, digitally connected computer network. Since the story of the Russian internet is inextricably wound up with Soviet society and the history of the Cold War, Hacking the Iron Curtain is as much a cultural and political history as it is a technological one—a history that illustrates how collective dreams can challenge geopolitical ambitions and inspire world-changing technologies.
Media archaeologist Natalia Konradova examines the history of the internet in Russia and its predecessor state, cutting through layers of technological history and dusting off conceptual artifacts of the past. Inspired by the fundamental question of how Soviets imagined future technologies, she investigates experiments with telepathy alongside the (then equally improbable) dream of a global, digitally connected computer network. Since the story of the Russian internet is inextricably wound up with Soviet society and the history of the Cold War, Hacking the Iron Curtain is as much a cultural and political history as it is a technological one—a history that illustrates how collective dreams can challenge geopolitical ambitions and inspire world-changing technologies.
Natalia Konradova is a cultural historian and journalist. She previously published a Russian-language book on the same topic, titled Arkheologiia Russkogo Interneta.
