Computer Russification
# Computer Russification

In computing, Russification involves the localization of computers and software, allowing the user interface of a computer and its software to communicate in the Russian language using Cyrillic script.

Problems associated with Russification before the advent of Unicode included the absence of a single character-encoding standard for Cyrillic (see Cyrillic script#Computer encoding).

## History of the MS-DOS Russification

The first official Russification of MS-DOS was carried out for MS-DOS 4.01 in 1989/1990, released on 9 April 1990 (1990-04-09). In Microsoft, the Russification project manager and one of its main developers was Nikolai Lyubovny (Николай Любовный). A Russian version of MS-DOS 5.0 was also developed in 1991, released on 9 August 1991 (1991-08-09). Based on an initiative of Microsoft Germany in March 1991, derivates of the Russian MS-DOS 5.0 drivers used for keyboard, display and printer localization support (DISPLAY.SYS, EGS.CPI , EGA2.CPI, KEYB.COM, KEYBOARD.SYS, MSPRINT.SYS, COUNTRY.SYS, ALPHA.EXE) could also be purchased separately (with English messages) as part of Microsoft's AlphabetPlus kit. This enabled English issues of MS-DOS 3.3, 4.01 and 5.0 to be set up for Eastern European countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria.

## Russification of Microsoft Windows

A comprehensive instruction set for computer Russification is maintained by Paul Gorodyansky. It is mirrored in many places and recommended by the U.S. Library of Congress.

