UaNetHistory project: documenting the first decades of Ukraine’s internet. An interview with Olexa Baliura and Maryna Malchenyuk

In this interview with Taras Nazaruk, researchers Olexa Baliura and Maryna Malchenyuk examine the formation of the Ukrainian internet (1990–2005), arguing that its decentralised structure emerged from institutional absence, grassroots initiatives, and strong social capital within the engineering community. Drawing on oral history interviews, archival materials, and quantitative network analysis, the researchers challenge narratives treating post-Soviet internet development as a uniform trajectory. Instead, they demonstrate that Ukraine’s socio-technical model aligns more closely with decentralised Central European markets than with centralised systems in Russia and Belarus. The conversation outlines an alternative periodisation: the engineer-led foundation of social capital (1990–1995), marketisation (1995–2000), and institutionalisation (2000–2005). Ultimately, the researchers show how this infrastructural diversity and embedded trust networks created a resilient system capable of adapting under extreme conditions, as evidenced during Russia’s full-scale invasion.