Russian and were pioneers in the development of computing devices, electronic computers ( PC) , the mathematical foundations of computer science. In recent years, the Russian Empire Russian engineers and scientists have made important steps towards the development of computing devices . In the Soviet period, the whole group of mathematicians , among them Vladimir Kotelnikov , Andrey Kolmogorov , Israel Gelfand and others, have made a significant contribution to the development of information theory. Soviet scientists and engineers created the first digital electronic computer in continental Europe. When the American and Soviet engineers began to cooperate in the field of space exploration , in some cases, Soviet engineers " considered " tasks much faster than their American counterparts . However, in subsequent years, interest in computers is increasingly moving into the commercial plane , and the Soviet Union could not compete . Soviet scientists working in computing technology have been forced to abandon their development and adopt standards IBM. Today, the international market is not presented any significant computer manufacturer from Russia.
Russian fairly early began to show the scientific activity in the field of computers, information theory and computers. Even before the Revolution of 1917 Russian engineers and scientists have made significant progress in this area. Russian marine engineer and mathematician Alexey Krylov (1863-1945) was interested in the application of mathematical methods in shipbuilding. In 1904 he created an automatic device for solving differential equations . Another young engineer Mikhail Bonch- (1888-1940) , who also worked in St. Petersburg , studied vacuum tubes and their applications in electronics . Around 1916, he invented one of the first on-off switch (so-called cathode relay) on the basis of an electrical circuit with two cathode tubes.
One of the pioneers of information theory in the West was Claude Shannon . In 1937 at MIT , he defended his master's thesis, which showed that the complexes relay in conjunction with binary system can be used to solve problems of Boolean algebra . Results of scientific works are the basis of Shannon's theory of digital computer networks . But few in the West know that two years earlier , in 1935 , Russian logician Victor Shestakov proposed a similar theory ladder logic based on Boolean algebra , but he published his work only in 1941, four years after Shannon . Neither Shannon nor Shestakov knew nothing about each other's work .
First electronic computer in continental Europe was created in secrecy in the years 1948-1951 in a place called Theophany near Kiev . Before the revolution there was a monastery , surrounded by meadows and oak forests abounding with berries, mushrooms , wild animals here were carried out and the birds . In the early years of Soviet power in the monastic buildings housed a mental hospital . Transformation of religious institutions in research or medical institutions was quite common practice in the Soviet state . During World War II , all patients hospital were killed or missing and destroyed buildings . In spring and autumn the way to this little town were transported so that it was impossible to drive . Even in good weather, had to shake over bumps . In 1948, the dilapidated buildings were given an electrical engineer Sergey Lebedev to create an electronic computer . In Theophany Lebedev, 20 engineers and 10 assistants developed Minor electronic computers ( SECM ) - one of the fastest computers in the world, has many interesting characteristics. Its architecture was completely original and not like the architecture of American computers, which are the only in the world surpassed her at the time.
Sergei Lebedev was born in 1902 in Nizhny Novgorod (later renamed Gorky, not so long ago he was returned to its former historical name ) . His father was a schoolteacher , it is often transferred from place to place , so that childhood and adolescence Sergei were held in various cities , mostly in the Urals. Then my father was transferred to Moscow, where Sergei entered the Moscow Higher Technical School named after Bauman, today known as the Moscow State Technical University named after NE Bauman. There Lebedev interested in high voltage equipment - an area that required a good mathematical background . Upon graduation, he worked as a teacher in the Bauman University , doing research in the Laboratory of electrical networks. Lebedev was an avid mountaineer and later named one of his computers in honor of the highest peak of Europe Elbrus , which he successfully won .
In the late 1930s, Lebedev interested in binary system . In the autumn of 1941, when Moscow plunged into total darkness , fleeing from the Nazi air raids , his wife musician recalled that " usually he carried his paper and a candle in the bathroom, where the clock painted ones and zeros ." Later, during the war he was transferred to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) , where he worked for the military industry . Lebedev required computer capable of solving differential and integral equations , and in 1945 he created the first Russian electronic analog computer . At the same time he already had the idea of creating a digital computer based on a binary system . What is interesting , as we know , while he was not familiar with the scientific developments in this field nor his compatriot Shestakov nor American Claude Shannon .
In 1946, Lebedev was transferred from Moscow to Kiev, where he began work on a computer. In 1949, Mikhail Lavrentiev , a leading mathematician , member of the Academy of Sciences , who was familiar with the work of Lebedev , wrote a letter to Stalin to support work in the field of computers , stressing its importance for the country's defense. Stalin ordered Lavrentiev a laboratory simulation and computing. Lead this laboratory Lavrentiev invited Lebedev. Lebedev appeared funding and status. At the same time, Stalin's order demonstrated the role of political power - and in fact the importance of one person - in advancing technology in the Soviet Union .
Lebedev developed SECM just three or four years after the creation of the world's first electronic computer ENIAC in the U.S. and at the same time with the British EDSAC. By the early 1950s, the SECM was used to solve problems in the field of nuclear physics , comic fly , rocket , and transmission of electricity.
In 1952, following the establishment of SECM Lebedev developed another computing machine - BESM (short for Big (or Rapid ) electron- counting machine ) . It was the speed of computers in Europe , at least for a period that can compete with the best international developments in this area. It was a triumph . BESM- 1 was released in a single copy , but these models, especially the BESM -6 , made hundreds and used for different purposes. BESM-6 production was discontinued in 1987. In 1975, during a joint space project "Soyuz - Apollo" Soviet specialists treated orbital parameters "Union" on BESM-6 faster Americans.
But after such a promising start in the field of computing today Russia lags behind industry leaders. Understand the reason for this failure can only analyze the history of the industry , taking into account social and economic factors that influenced its transformation . In Western countries, the region 's leading computer technology after the Second World War was formed under the influence of the three major driving forces : the scientific community, the state (in terms of military applications ) and business circles. The role of the scientific community and the government was particularly important at the initial stage , the role of business emerged later . Area of computer technology in the Soviet Union was successful up until the development of these devices is primarily dependent on the achievements of scientific thought and government support. Support computing technologies from the state was boundless , if they were used for the needs of defense or research in the field of nuclear weapons. But then the main driving force in the West has become a business . Symbolically, this transition point is the decision of the General Electric Company in 1955 to purchase IBM 702 computers to automate payroll and other documents at its plant in Schenectady and decision Bank of America in 1959 to automate the process (using computer ERMA, created at Stanford research Institute ) .
These decisions marked the beginning of large-scale computerization of banking and business sector . In the 1960-1970 -ies electronic computers became commercial product , it entailed a reduction in their cost , improvement in terms of ease of use, which demanded market. The Soviet Union, for its planned economy , centralized noncompetitive market could not keep pace with ongoing technological advances . As a result, in the 1970s, the Soviet Union withdrew from the initially impressive attempts to develop its own independent course in Computing and adopted standards , IBM. From this point in computer technology have been Russian and remain in positions of overtaking and never was beaten in the lead. Sergei Lebedev died in 1974 . Another leading scientist , developer of the first Soviet computers Bashir Rameev deeply regretted the decision to adopt the architecture of IBM until his death in 1994. Soviet computing industry led not a lack of knowledge in this area , it was laid down by the irresistible force of the market.
Another factor , though , in this particular case, and not decisive, was the ideology . In the 1950s, Soviet ideologues treated cybernetics very skeptical , called it "science obscurantist ." In 1952, one of the Marxist philosophers condemned this area of knowledge as " pseudoscience ", raising doubts about the claim that computers can help explain human thought or social activities. In another article, published a year later , entitled " Who is cybernetics , " the anonymous author , speaking under the pseudonym " materialist ", said that the concept of cybernetics contradicts the theory of dialectical materialism of Marx and computer science described as particularly malicious attempt Western capitalists extract more arrived to replace workers who have to pay salaries, machines.
Although similar ideological accusations could theoretically have a negative impact on the development of computer technology in the Soviet Union , the development of computers , given their interest in the military- industrial complex , continued the same tempami8 . As I said in 1960, one of the Soviet scientists in this area, " we did cybernetics , just do not call her cybernetics ." Moreover, in the late 1950s - early 1960s in the Soviet Union there was a 180 degree turn in relation to cybernetics, it began to extol as a science , in order to serve the Soviet state.
In 1961 he even released a compilation entitled " Cybernetics - at the service of communism ." Many Russian universities opened departments of cybernetics. A serious political threat to the development of computer technology in the USSR emerged with the advent of personal computers. Soviet leadership liked computers while they were huge blocks in the central government, military and industrial departments , but with much less enthusiasm it reacted to the fact that computers have moved into private apartments and ordinary citizens were able to use them for the uncontrolled dissemination of information. In an attempt to exert control over the transfer of information the state has long banned ordinary citizens to own printers and copiers . Personal computer with a printer was equivalent to a small printing press . But we could do with it , the Soviet authorities
The most heated debate among members of the Soviet leadership on the computer is in the middle and late 1980s . In 1986, I discussed this issue with leading Soviet scientists in this field Andrei Ershov . He was frank , agreeing that the desire of the Communist Party have control over the information prevents the development of the computer industry . Then said: " Our leadership has not yet decided what it's like a computer : on the printing press , typewriter or phone - and much will depend on this decision. If they decide that computers are similar to the printing presses , it will want to keep in control of the industry in the same way as they now control all printing presses . Forbid their citizens to buy, they will only be in institutions. On the other hand, if our leadership decides that computers are like typewriters , let them be citizens , the authorities will not seek to control every device , although they may try to take control of the dissemination of information that is made with their help . And finally , if management decides that computers are like phones, they will have the majority of citizens , and those can do with them whatever they want , but online data transfer will be checked from time to time .
I am convinced that in the end the state will have to allow citizens to have owned personal computers and control them yourself . Moreover, it becomes apparent that personal computers are not similar to any previous communication technologies : neither presses nor typewriters , no phones . On the contrary , they are a completely new type of technology . Soon the time will come when any person anywhere in the world can almost continuously communicate with any other person anywhere in the world . It will be a real revolution - not only for the Soviet Union , but for you too. But here its consequences will be significant . "
This statement clearly demonstrates how complex a problem for the Soviet state had computers . However, this issue quickly lost its relevance. Five years after our conversation with Ershov Soviet Union collapsed , and with it stopped and control over communications technology (however, this did not affect the control over the media , in particular on the TV ) . In modern Russia, the computer industry did not catch up , that she experienced in the last years of the Soviet state . As we have seen , this gap was due to a greater extent the inability to compete in the market , rather than political control , although the latter played a role . Today in Russia there is no company - manufacturer of computer technology, which would be a significant player in the international market , despite the fact that Russian can justifiably claim to be among the pioneers in the development of computing technologies.
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