  We consider the coherent stimulated Raman process developing in an optically
dense disordered atomic medium, which can also incoherently scatter the light
over all outward directions. The Raman process is discussed in the context of a
quantum memory scheme and we point out the difference in its physical nature
from a similar but not identical protocol based on the effect of
electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We show that the Raman and EIT
memory schemes do not compete but complement one another and each of them has
certain advantages in the area of its applicability. We include in our
consideration an analysis of the transient processes associated with switching
the control pulse off or on and follow how they modify the probe pulse dynamics
on the retrieval stage of the memory protocol.
