Thirty years ago, on April 7, 1994, the .ru domain zone was registered and added to the international directory. That milestone is why the RuNet’s birthday is celebrated today. In honor of this history, the most significant events in the Russian segment of the Internet are recalled here, tracing how it evolved from a research network to a vibrant online ecosystem.
The birth of the Internet in Russia
Long before the web pages appeared, early efforts laid the groundwork for online communication. In August 1990, the Relcom computer network connected dozens of scientific institutions across the former Soviet Union to speed up information exchange. By 1991, email via teleconferencing became possible to share messages. On September 19, 1991, the .su domain zone was established, covering Soviet Internet resources. In 1993, the first Russian Internet provider, Demos On-Line, emerged and their team created websites that would be described later in this account.
The first Russian sites
The earliest domain in Russia used the address www.ru and was known as Russia on the Net. It functioned as a simple search tool inviting users to enter keywords. The site existed from 1994 through 2002 before the domain was put up for sale. Today a working analogue can be found at www.1-9-9-4.ru.
On November 1, 1994, Lib.ru opened as the first Russian online library. Readers eagerly digitized books and shared them publicly. Later, print publications began registering their own domains. In 1995, the site ug.ru appeared, hosting electronic versions of weekly issues from the teachers’ newspaper family.
That same year, entertainment portals began to rise. Anekdot.ru became a popular hub, collecting thousands of jokes and amusing stories, posted largely without censorship. In 1998, amid a financial slump, Anekdot.ru’s prominence shifted to RBC RosBusinessConsulting, which started as a data- and stock-price information outlet and gradually evolved into a full media platform.
One of the early commercial players was 1C, launching a portal on November 12, 1996 that offered domestic and international software. In the same year, the Symbol store opened online, specializing in printed books.
Internet as a means of academic and institutional communication
By 1996, many Russian universities and research institutes connected to the Internet. Some built dedicated lines, others relied on cards and the then modest 56-kilobit-per-second connections to keep students and faculty in touch online. The result was a surge of curiosity and exploration across campuses.
MSTU Bauman is noted as one of the early universities to host its own site and presence on the web.
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The first search engines
While www.ru offered basic access to information, its capabilities were limited. Rambler emerged as the first robust Russian search engine on November 26, 1996, quickly growing into a media portal laden with features. Competitors soon followed. Aport faded from view, but Yandex, launched in 1997, rose to become the leading search engine in Russia and has remained prominent since.
This is what Yandex looked like in 1997
In 1997, a project for free electronic mail appeared on pochta.ru, but it encountered persistent bugs and was soon shut down. A similar fate befell the Extranet service. The first successful Webmail service was Mail.ru, opening on November 1, 1998 and continuing to operate today.
Marketplaces
Online shopping became increasingly common in Russia, but it didn’t happen overnight. The first full-fledged marketplace was Ozon, launched in 1998. In 2000, Yandex Market appeared, and Avito, a platform enabling peer-to-peer selling, began in 2007. Today, online shopping and home delivery have become routine for many households.
Today it is easier than ever to compare products on the Internet and have items delivered to a doorstep.
Social media
The seeds of social networks were planted in the 1990s. In December 1996, chat servers known as Crib opened, and in 2001 E-Xecutive offered a professional social network experience. It didn’t gain lasting traction, but the space evolved rapidly. In March 2006, Odnoklassniki appeared, followed by VKontakte in October that year. Those platforms are still among the most popular in Russia today.
Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte, is a notable figure in this evolution.
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Internet jargon and Upyachka
Over time, a distinct Internet slang grew in the community. It included playful distortions of common words, novel meanings, and new terms that circulated rapidly through portals like Upyachka. This jargon spread quickly as users created and shared new phrases in portals across the network.
Russian hackers
The 1990s saw the emergence of the hacker scene. In 1998, Vladimir Levin was arrested for attempting to move tens of millions of dollars from an American bank, highlighting the dramatic risks and dramatic headlines tied to early online activity.
Gaming sites
The first native gaming portal appeared in 1995 as Games. CNews.Ru and later gaming-related publications joined the Internet scene. In 1996, publishers launched portals like Gameland, and in 2011 a dedicated gaming site VGTimes emerged, sharing news and features about the gaming world.
What RuNet milestones do readers remember? Share thoughts in the comments and join the conversation about how the Russian Internet grew over time.
Source: VG Times