Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

One after another, people from all over shared their troubles and discovered that this was the case throughout the Soviet Union.

Corruption is not unique to any one place; the difference lies in the degree. Some places have more corruption, some have less, but the nature of the problem is the same.

These posts resonated strongly, but also sparked debate: because the Soviet economy was indeed improving!

The supply of consumer goods is improving; vegetables and meat are readily available. Information technology reforms have made many previously opaque matters transparent, and information technology is indeed reducing corruption—though not eliminating it... Therefore, many people on the forum are also sincerely saying the same thing:

"Stop complaining all day long. Can't you see that life is getting better?" "All you do is grumble on the internet; you wouldn't dare to actually fill out a complaint form and march in protest."

So the shouts of abuse and the voices of defense were mixed together.

Slava scrolled through the posts. He had already seen most of them; the top few trending posts today were:

[Discussion] Prices at Tashkent's vegetable markets have dropped by 15% compared to last year, but the quality of vegetables has also decreased by 20%. Is this considered progress or regression? (238 replies)

[Complaint] Our terminal in our area crashed again. We reported it for repair a week ago, but no one has come. Do we only have one-eighth of the repairmen in the entire state? (456 replies)

[Sharing] Ten outrageous train experiences in the Soviet Union, the seventh one is hilarious (1024 replies)

Slava skipped over those and fixed his gaze on a post.

[Evaluation] How would you evaluate Ivanov's reforms to the design bureau, coupled with the retirement of several high-ranking military officers due to health reasons? (623 replies)

The post had been stacked up to 600 layers in just a few hours, and Slava scrolled down.

User "Ural's Screw":

I work in a factory in Nizhny Tagil. After the design bureau's reform, we're going to do a joint project with Kharkiv. To be honest, I'm not optimistic—the two sides have completely different technical approaches. What good stuff can we possibly produce by forcing them together?

User "Kyiv Metro Hero":

"Retiring due to health reasons"—that's hilarious! Comrade Yashin of the Strategic Rocket Force retired for health reasons, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Force retired for health reasons, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army retired for health reasons, and the Minister of the General Logistics Department retired due to work errors. Do you believe it? I certainly don't.

User "Vodka-Drunk Truth":

What does it matter whether I believe it or not? Let Ivanov be Tsar if he wants to; things are getting better anyway. I bought a new TV last year, and this year there's chicken at the market. If the Tsar gives me chicken, I'll support him!

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

The kind of person upstairs is the most dangerous. People who haven't experienced the Tsarist era often idolize the Tsar. You think he gave you chicken because he loves you? He only gave you chicken because you didn't make a fuss! Once you make a fuss, see if he gives you chicken or handcuffs.

User "Vodka-Drunk Truth":

Are you trying to bring up Stalin again? What's the comparison between Ivanov and Stalin? Stalin killed millions of people, but who did Ivanov kill? Your parents?

User "Black Sea Fisherman":

What's the point of comparing two greedy dictators? One kills, the other doesn't; the difference lies only in the means, not the nature of the act. Controlling the military, the KGB, the media—can you say he isn't a dictator?

User "Potato Hamster":

How dare you! Comrade General Secretary of the Yin-Yang Alliance, your health seems to be somewhat compromised!

User "Kyiv Metro Hero":

I'm dying of laughter, hahaha!

User "Anonymous User 3847":

What's the point of you cursing here? If you're so capable, go hold up a sign in Red Square! Is it really meaningful to be a keyboard warrior on a forum?

User "Tashkent Cotton Worker":

It's as if going to Red Square to hold up a sign would make a difference; if you went, you'd be detained for health reasons.

User "Potato Hamster":

Detained for health reasons, hahaha, this is great, I'm going to save this!

How could Slava tolerate this? He quickly put his hands on the keyboard.

User "AAA Arrest Warrant Wholesaler Bear Brother":

"You've been arguing here for over 600 floors, has even one person hit the nail on the head?"

Retirement due to health reasons is obviously an excuse; do you even need to analyze that? If you become leaders and something scandalous happens in your own families, would you expose it to your opponents as a laughingstock? Which one of you doesn't deserve to step down?

How much of the Strategic Rocket Forces' budget went into those "informal coordination" black boxes during Yashin's tenure? Has anyone checked? No! Because that data wasn't publicly available before. While military spending audit data isn't yet publicly available, it's much better than before. Instead of speculating here about whether Ivanov was a tsar, you should check the assets of retired generals—if you can find them.

As for Ivanov wanting to control the military, that's ridiculous! Which national leader doesn't control the military? The US president is Commander-in-Chief, the French president is Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and the leader of every normal country in the world controls the military. What do you call a leader who doesn't control the military? A puppet. Do you want a General Secretary who controls the military, or a General Secretary controlled by the military?

Even if we assume you're not satisfied with Ivanov, suggest a better candidate. Name him! Who? Ligachev? Ryzhkov? Gorbachev? Yakovlev?

While you may verbally criticize this person, you can't find another one who could have handled this situation as well. So stop pretending to be some keyboard warrior; instead, use that time to check the data on your local terminals—see if your district leaders have falsified production figures. That's what Soviet citizens should be doing.

OK, post with one click!

Slava leaned back in his chair. He knew this post would attract a huge wave of attacks—the rule on Soviet population forums was that any post speaking in support of the leaders would be labeled a "government troll," meaning a paid troll on the forum who was maintaining the image of the Communist Party.

Sure enough, within a few minutes—

User "Kyiv Metro Hero":

Five rubles have arrived? How much is a post? Is it paid per byte?

User "Siberian Joke Teller":

Brother Xiong always acts like this, with an air of "you don't understand, but I know better than you." Isn't it annoying?

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

This is ridiculous! Why don't you go check the local data yourself? In some places, the terminals are locked by local leaders; ordinary people can't access them. This is ridiculous for a student on leave; your priority should be finishing your winter break assignments, not posting your outrageous opinions here.

Slava frowned upon seeing this. The terminal information wasn't accessible to all citizens. Because it was the Cold War, if the CIA could easily recruit any ordinary citizen as an informant within the Soviet Union and gain access to a vast amount of public data, it would be disastrous!

He thought about it and decided to explain.

He quickly regretted replying to that post. The first law of online governance: Don't get entangled with trolls.

He made a mistake. In his reply, Slava explained how the government's public data access portal works—it does have such a function, but you need to apply to check your information, and it's limited to specific terminals—the KGB must ensure that citizens don't leak secrets.

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

Don't fucking teach me how to use a computer! You were still drinking milk when I was writing programs! Of course I know about that query port you mentioned, but the problem is that it only has summary data. You can find your factory's so-called total output value, but there are no details! The detailed data that truly reveals corruption—sorry, I don't have the necessary permissions.

That makes sense; disclosing all the details would expose too much commercial and security information. Slava then emphasized things like "data classification is necessary, it can't all be disclosed at once, for security reasons, to prevent infiltration by American imperialism and its lackeys."

The problem is that half of what he said was from the perspective of the General Secretary—he knows all too well the reasons behind those design decisions, but he forgot that an ordinary forum user could not possibly know these things.

His reply sounded like he was defending the government.

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

Are you from the State Planning Commission? That bureaucratic tone is making me sick. What do you mean by "data grading is reasonable"—reasonable my ass! It's reasonable for you because you're up there and can see it, but it's unreasonable for us because we're down here and can't see it!

Slava was somewhat annoyed, and he replied with a longer message, citing several specific data disclosure reforms in an attempt to prove that "the government is indeed moving in the direction of greater transparency, it just takes time."

However, he misspoke, using the phrase, "You should have more patience with the alliance's IT infrastructure development."

This statement caused an uproar on the forum.

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

"More patience"? You want me to be patient? We Belarusian workers have been queuing for housing since 1985, for seven years, and you're telling me to be patient? You must live in a compound in Moscow, with the heating on in the dead of winter and the windows open, and then you go online and tell us, the people queuing for housing, to be patient?

User "AAA Arrest Warrant Wholesaler Bear Brother":

Don't bring up housing; we're discussing data disclosure. If you want to talk about housing, post it in the housing forum; don't confuse the topic here.

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

Oh, getting anxious? Aren't the lack of data transparency and the inability to get housing essentially the same problem? They're both about a lack of transparency in power. You talk about information technology construction, but after five years of such construction, housing allocation in Belarus is still based on connections—those with connections cut in line, and those without continue to wait.

The conversation went off track from here. The phase of presenting facts and reasoning was over; now it was time for the classic forum flame war.

User "AAA Arrest Warrant Wholesaler Bear Brother":

You keep talking about Belarus—how much do you actually know about Belarusian economic data? You don't even know how to use the OGAS public query portal, so what right do you have to pontificate here? You're just pretending to know what you don't!

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

I don't understand? I've been programming in Minsk for three years; I've written more code than you've eaten. You're the one who doesn't understand—you're just a mouthpiece who only knows how to repeat official documents, yet you claim "great achievements have been made in information technology development"—do you keep a copy of Pravda right next to you, ready to copy official documents at any time?

User "AAA Arrest Warrant Wholesaler Bear Brother":

You've been programming for three years, how come you don't even know how to do a basic search? Did you drink too much lead? You idiot?

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

You five-ruble propaganda puppet, if you've got the guts, show us where you work. Which organization are you? Where do you work? Let everyone see what kind of organization produces a dog like you who lectures people in front of a screen?

User "AAA Arrest Warrant Wholesaler Xiong Ge":

Call me again? What business is it of yours where I work? Mind your own business.

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

Feeling guilty? Afraid to speak up? Probably some lazy bum from some ministry who doesn't do his job and is now lecturing ordinary people online!

The onlookers had already brought out their stools.

"Wow, that's awesome!" "Veteran Xiong got roasted, lol."

"To witness the epic battle between two keyboard warriors in this lifetime, even if I were captured by the KGB and sent to Siberia to dig potatoes the next second, it would still be worth the price of admission!"

The verbal battle escalated, with the language becoming increasingly offensive. Both began attacking each other's intelligence, education level, possible appearance, marital status, and family members.

finally--

User "Minsk Metro Last Train":

Forget it, I'm not wasting my time with someone as brain-dead as you. What does your 200-ruble monthly salary have to do with anything? You think you know everything after drinking a few bottles of vodka?

User "AAA Arrest Warrant Wholesaler Bear Brother":

Your priority should be to go to work and earn money to buy vodka, not to become a basement troll.

After posting this, Slava realized that her verbal battle seemed to have been too aggressive. What if she broke down the other side's defenses with her insults?

He doesn't need to regret it for too long.

[System Notification] User "AAA Arrest Warrant Wholesaler Bear Brother" has been banned from the forum for 1 hour for violating the forum's civilized speaking rules.

[System Notification] User "Minsk Metro Last Train" has been banned from the forum for 1 hour for violating the forum's civilized speaking guidelines.

The onlookers burst into laughter.

"Double kill! The administrator has made a move!"

"How many times has Brother Xiong been banned?" "According to my count, this is the fourth time."

"@AAA Five-Year Plan Writing Service, Sister Long, come and help!" "Wow, there's even off-site support!"

Slava sighed as he looked at the ban notification on the screen. If Director Nian saw this—never mind, I shouldn't tell him; otherwise, his wife would laugh at me for never having scolded him before.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Meanwhile, in the basement of an apartment building in Minsk

Lazi Bartomos squatted on a worn-out chair, a piece of black bread dangling from his mouth, his other hand rapidly typing on a keyboard.

He was just banned from speaking.

he is very angry!

Barthemos was 24 years old and a geek. In the Soviet Union of 1992, this was a rare breed. He didn't have a formal job and earned money by taking on freelance programming jobs on local forums. He wrote inventory management systems for small businesses, grade query programs for schools, and occasionally repaired terminals. His income was unstable, barely enough to cover food and rent.

His entire collection consisted of a second-hand workstation he bought from the consortium, equipped with a hard drive he had modified himself, a modem connected to the internet via a telephone line, a table he had salvaged from a previous tenant, and a chair.

He squatted on the chair, munching on bread, glaring fiercely at the ban notification on the screen.

Brother Xiong was absolutely right to call him a "basement troll"; he really broke down!

Bartmore looked down at his basement. The walls were damp, there were no windows, and a leaky pipe hung overhead.

“cyka blyat!”

Barthemos slammed his fist on the keyboard in a fit of rage. The keyboard bounced, and a keycap flew off—it was an unused key that wouldn't affect his typing, but it made him even angrier.

Then he made a decision:

He's going to open this bear box.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The term "opening the box" hadn't been coined on the Soviet internet in 1992. Barthemos himself called it "skinning," which meant the same thing: finding an anonymous user's real identity information, such as name, address, phone number, and workplace, and then making it public.

Bartmores knows how to find people online.