Lotus Development Corp announced a rouble price for Russian 1-2-3 this month and says it has already sold 1,000 copies. At the Comtek ’91 show it said Soviets will be able to buy Russian 1-2-3 for 5,000 roubles – $200 – through its distributor VNIPI StatInform – the state committee for statistics. VNIPI has established a network of 40 dealers in 20 Soviet cities since Russian 1-2-3 was shipped in January 1991. VNIPI admits that a significant number of the copies are still with dealers rather than end users: nevertheless there does seem to be a sizeable market for official copies of 1-2-3. Unlike utilities or database packages, pirated copies of spreadsheets are not usually sold with personal computers in the USSR. Until recently they were irrelevant because no-one needed to know how much their operation cost, or if it was making any profit. Now Soviet enterprises have been made budget holders, managers have been suddenly forced to get their sums right. Also, as organisations go in search of western partners, many need to present business information in a form foreigners can comprehend.
