This document covers the things you need to successfully typeset, view, and print documents in Russian.
The description is targeted primarily to the end users. While writing it, I tried to keep the things as simple as possible. On my opinion, it is unfair to overburden the user with the X Window System or TeX implementation details, because she merely wants to type or view the nice texts in Russian. However, I don't describe what the X Window System is and how to typeset the documents with TeX and LaTeX. Consequently, having a guru at hand for the case of potential problems would be an advantage.
There is some conflict between MS-DOG and Un*x Cyrillic codesets. In MS-DOG, the most popular Cyrillic codeset is Alt (so-called alternative codeset). In Un*x, however, the traditional codeset with Russian characters is KOI-8. It is specified in the RFC 1489 ("Registration of a Cyrillic Character Set").
The difference in two codesets is usage is pretty minimal (except the TeX packages). Therefore, we will describe only KOI-8 codeset setup.
I appreciate any comments corrections and suggestions concerning the
document. Don't hesitate to contact me at
abel@wisdom.weizmann.ac.il.