From Russia with Code

“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

“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.” - Dušan I. Bjelic, Slavic Review

“From Russia with Code...is both timely and unique.... Biagioli and Lépinay’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 an extensive contribution to science, technology, and innovation studies via a series of ethnographic investigations involving Russian software engineers at home and abroad.”

“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

“Future scholars will find From Russia with Code an invaluable launching pad for further inquiries into the adventure that is Russian IT.” - Natalia Kovalyova, Anthropology of Work Review

“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