Russian Hackers is a community of hackers headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Started by Aleksandr Malyshev (left), Alexander Prosolkin (middle), and Maksim Diakov (right), the three set out to create a centralized place for all things hacking in their area and around the world to empower more Russian hackers to delve into the hacker and CS community. Through their work to raise awareness for events, they hope to reshape the perception of the tech industry and how people view “Russian hackers.”

Their community came about through the merging of two communities that were built. Maksim and Alexander created a club at their university called HSE Hackers, where they and their members would travel to compete in hackathons.

At the same time, Aleksandr was cultivating a community through his blog where he shared his experiences at hackathons in Europe and the United Kingdom. 

The trio met at a HackUPC, a hackathon in Barcelona, and shortly after, Russian Hackers started to take form. They began sharing information on how to find affordable travel to hackathons, sharing announcements for events, and creating a hub for all of the tech enthusiasts in neighboring regions. 

Russian Hackers has come a long way. Motivated by the quality of MLH events, the three set out to host their own events. Before their organization, hackathon culture in Russia was mostly geared towards completing challenges to benefit sponsoring companies rather than promoting the creation of any product. Russian Hackers revolutionized the hacker culture by making it a fun and educational space. Starting with Local Hack Day, they organized an event and had over ten sponsors. The success of the event proved that there was a need for more tech-centered events in Russia. 

They have since hosted a larger hackathon, Hack.Moscow. Originally called MoscowHack, they changed the name because they all couldn’t deny that having a URL that was the name of their event would be pretty cool. Hack.Moscow is now in its third year and has experienced an inordinate amount of growth in the past few years with over 300 attendees at their first event.

Aleks, Maksim, and Alexander actively encourage others in their community to host events of their own and have seen an increase in Local Hack Days nearby. 

The three have also created a team of 30 called the Russian Hack Team whose travel and compete in hackathons. There is a committee of people who choose out 50 hackers based on their skill sets who go through several training camps and are narrowed down to 30. These 30 are sent to hackathons and work to motivate other hackers to learn and hone their skills. 

Maksim and Aleksandr are currently working on Russian Hackers full-time while Alexander is part-time to simultaneously pursue other aspirations.