Kremvax

2 definitions found

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  kremvax /krem-vaks/ n. [from the then-large number of {Usenet} {VAXen}
     with names of the form foovax] Originally, a fictitious Usenet site at
     the Kremlin, announced on April 1, 1984 in a posting ostensibly
     originated there by Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. The posting was
     actually forged by Piet Beertema as an April Fool's joke. Other
     fictitious sites mentioned in the hoax were moskvax and {kgbvax}. This


     was probably the funniest of the many April Fool's forgeries perpetrated
     on Usenet (which has negligible security against them), because the
     notion that Usenet might ever penetrate the Iron Curtain seemed so
     totally absurd at the time.
  
     In fact, it was only six years later that the first genuine site in
     Moscow, demos.su, joined Usenet. Some readers needed convincing that the
     postings from it weren't just another prank. Vadim Antonov, senior
     programmer at Demos and the major poster from there up to mid-1991, was
     quite aware of all this, referred to it frequently in his own postings,
     and at one point twitted some credulous readers by blandly asserting
     that he _was_ a hoax!
  
     Eventually he even arranged to have the domain's gateway site named
     kremvax, thus neatly turning fiction into fact and demonstrating that
     the hackish sense of humor transcends cultural barriers. [Mr. Antonov
     also contributed the Russian-language material for this lexicon. --ESR]
  
     In an even more ironic historical footnote, kremvax became an
     electronic center of the anti-communist resistance during the bungled
     hard-line coup of August 1991. During those three days the Soviet UUCP
     network centered on kremvax became the only trustworthy news source for
     many places within the USSR. Though the sysops were concentrating on
     internal communications, cross-border postings included immediate
     transliterations of Boris Yeltsin's decrees condemning the coup and
     eyewitness reports of the demonstrations in Moscow's streets. In those
     hours, years of speculation that totalitarianism would prove unable to
     maintain its grip on politically-loaded information in the age of
     computer networking were proved devastatingly accurate -- and the
     original kremvax joke became a reality as Yeltsin and the new Russian
     revolutionaries of `glasnost' and `perestroika' made kremvax one of the
     timeliest means of their outreach to the West.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  kremvax
       
          /krem-vaks/ Originally, a fictitious {Usenet} site at the
          Kremlin, named like the then large number of {Usenet} {VAXen}
          with names of the form foovax.  Kremvax was announced on April
          1, 1984 in a posting ostensibly originated there by Soviet
          leader Konstantin Chernenko.  The posting was actually forged
          by Piet Beertema as an April Fool's joke.  Other fictitious
          sites mentioned in the hoax were moskvax and {kgbvax}.  This
          was probably the funniest of the many April Fool's forgeries
          perpetrated on {Usenet} (which has negligible security against
          them), because the notion that {Usenet} might ever penetrate
          the Iron Curtain seemed so totally absurd at the time.
       
          In fact, it was only six years later that the first genuine
          site in Moscow, demos.su, joined {Usenet}.  Some readers
          needed convincing that the postings from it weren't just
          another prank.  Vadim Antonov, senior programmer at Demos and
          the major poster from there up to mid-1991, was quite aware of
          all this, referred to it frequently in his own postings, and
          at one point twitted some credulous readers by blandly
          asserting that he *was* a hoax!
       
          Eventually he even arranged to have the domain's gateway site
          *named* kremvax, thus neatly turning fiction into truth and
          demonstrating that the hackish sense of humour transcends
          cultural barriers.  Mr. Antonov also contributed some
          Russian-language material for the {Jargon File}.
       
          In an even more ironic historical footnote, kremvax became an
          electronic centre of the anti-communist resistance during the
          bungled hard-line coup of August 1991.  During those three
          days the Soviet UUCP network centreed on kremvax became the
          only trustworthy news source for many places within the USSR.
          Though the sysops were concentrating on internal
          communications, cross-border postings included immediate
          transliterations of Boris Yeltsin's decrees condemning the
          coup and eyewitness reports of the demonstrations in Moscow's
          streets.  In those hours, years of speculation that
          totalitarianism would prove unable to maintain its grip on
          politically-loaded information in the age of computer
          networking were proved devastatingly accurate - and the
          original kremvax joke became a reality as Yeltsin and the new
          Russian revolutionaries of "glasnost" and "perestroika" made
          kremvax one of the timeliest means of their outreach to the
          West.
       
          [{Jargon File}]