Story of idea
The idea came unexpectedly, as it usually does, but later I realized that I had been moving toward it for the past four years.
Since the day when, as a taxi driver without documents or savings, with my family – my wife and son – after two years in America, sitting in a taxi in a long line at Philadelphia airport, I read an article in a Russian newspaper about the importance of realizing one's talents. At that moment, I made a promise to myself: when shaping my life plans, to base them not on life circumstances but on my potential–that is, to give free rein to my imagination and forget about my situation. From that day on, the search for myself and for that main idea in which I could fully realize myself began.
This time, the trigger was a conversation with comrades that took place late one spring morning in 1998.
There were four of us. In a black Town Car, dressed in black suits, we sat in the car waiting for a meeting scheduled in the parking lot of a Brooklyn diner.
I was in the back seat, resting my shoe on the asphalt, enjoying smoking a cigar.
We were "Russian" gangsters, members of the largest "Russian" gang in New York. My friend Denis was sitting next to me, reading a magazine. Setting the magazine down on the seat, he stretched, pressing his hands against the ceiling, then reached into his inner pocket for cigarettes, lit one, and shared with us what he had read.
I got out of the car.
I began to get worked up, usually being somewhat detached about everything created before me,
I asked, realizing this was an important conversation for me. Stepping a little away from the car, I looked down at my feet thoughtfully.
Grishka joined in from the passenger seat window. A cigarette smoldered in his dangling hand.
I started to get angry, feeling more than I could express.
That very conclusion set me on a special kind of protest – my own. "What the hell?" I thought. "We only get one life, and we have to live in compromise?! What if I don't resonate with how everything is arranged?! Why should I conform?" I deliberately asked myself naïve questions.
It's as if, being born, we enter a certain game that dominates a particular territory, and we begin to be prepared for the conditions of this game, nurtured to develop some kind of winning qualities, forced to accept the meaning of life as the pursuit of a result dictated by the demands of the game, and so on. But where is truth in all this? Where am I, for example? There is only the statistical player of one single game that has been played for hundreds of years on the territory where I happened to be born, – I mentally wound myself up. – Where is freedom of choice here?! Well, okay, immigration, – I argued with myself.
From Brooklyn to Manhattan: The Path to an Idea
In the evening, on the way home from Brooklyn to Manhattan, I was setting myself up to look for a solution, to enjoy an intellectual detachment from all the criminal routine that was already beginning to weigh on me.
The idea of an Internet republic came that evening. It flickered vaguely in half-tones of promising – I could feel it – thoughts. A kind of revelation happened on the roof of the building where I rented a one-bedroom apartment. On the roof, arranged for parties, with deck chairs and tables, where I suddenly decided to go out because the apartment walls didn't give my thoughts room to expand, and they were buzzing somewhere near my temple, irritating me with their elusiveness.
I paced around the room, still in my suit and shoes, wearing everything I'd come home in, and still holding a smoldering cigar (I somehow think better with cigars); smoke trailed behind me as I walked or hovered in a cloud that I would walk back into on my return. I walked onto the roof with a decisive step, with some manic certainty.
And there, under the night sky, surrounded by the glowing city, I remembered the movie Hackers, specifically the moment when the computer's insides were shown as a city. And then came the idea – an Internet republic! A republic we would create based on the main principle that every person must be themselves and create according to their talents, and precisely this personal progress – independent from market demands and survival necessities – would be rewarded by our currency. How it would work and how to create it, of course, I did not know then. But one thing I understood or sensed for sure: it was real and it couldn't not be created; it would be the fairest community of all possible existing ones.
Two main aspects of this solution were obvious in light of the morning conversation about youth and drugs: if a young person realizes their uniqueness; unites worldwide with others related by talent; and gains the opportunity to create and even earn from striving to be themselves – this person will not put their future at risk nor deprive themselves of the pleasure of the creative process. Creative people understand what I'm talking about here.
When you are invited to be yourself, what kind of protest or self-destruction can there be? And also, which is important – if you want, you can join and become a citizen-creator; and if you don't like it (although I doubt anyone could dislike it here), you can simply leave, just like leaving a social network or a game. That is, there is no territorial dictate.
Later, in prison, while selecting books for self-development and working on the concept, I analyzed social problems and the principles on which our world is built more thoughtfully. In doing so, I not only confirmed – more than once – the correctness of the direction of my thinking but also expanded my understanding of my own idea: how deeply and comprehensively we can change the world for the better.
Through brainstorming and long hours or days of reflection on how one or another aspect of the program could work, I eventually developed the concept of the republic: an economically self-sufficient internet community with equal rights and opportunities for creative self-realization.
I am absolutely confident that, taking into account all factors or trends that determine the nature of our path into the future, it will become clear – the future belongs to the Internet republic or republics that one can enter and leave at will. Economically self-sufficient republics with their own philosophy, principles, currency, culture, etc. And this will be a huge step toward freedom of choice.
On the pages of this site, I present the idea as best I can, in my own words, and I hope that you will see in it not only promise but also absolute necessity and decide to participate.
I will gladly answer any of your questions, listen to your criticism, additions, or alternative solutions. I believe that together, by starting a discussion and joint work on this idea, we will ultimately create and defend the first Internet republic in our history.
Art From Inside
In prison, I also discovered my artistic talent and style. Here are some of my paintings.
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