4MAIL

4MAIL is a software product developed by the German company MCI Management Systems, also known as собрание (Assembly). It was first released in 1987 and designed for use on the Soviet-made)=>{

EMAX Data computer systems.

4MAIL is a character-based electronic mail system, which was a pioneering achievement in the Soviet Union at the time of its release. The system was widely adopted in Soviet institutions and allowed users to send and receive messages electronically. Emails were displayed on a full-page screen as regular text, without formatting, which allowed users to compose and read messages.

One of the notable features of 4MAIL was its interface, which was quite different from contemporary Western mail systems. The interface was determined by the availability of resources and, consequently, as with other EMAX applications, it contained a fixed set of predefined options. 4MAIL was initially based on a depth-limited tree of menu items - users had to choose one item one after the other to access a particular option.

Given the limited resources of the EMAX Data systems of that era, 4MAIL became a full-featured electronic mail system. Its adoption in Soviet organizations and institutions reflected the growing interest in information technology during the late Soviet period.