{{Short description|none}} {{good article}} {{History of computing}} [[File:Pn-pravez-class-5.jpg|thumb|alt=Adults sitting at computers|Computer class at Chkalovski Village School No. 2 in 1985–1986]] '''The history of computing in the Soviet Union''' began in the late 1940s,<ref name="chmelbr2"/> when the country began to develop its Small Electronic Calculating Machine (MESM) at the Kiev Institute of Electrotechnology in Feofaniya.<ref name="harbour99"/> Initial ideological opposition to cybernetics in the Soviet Union was overcome by a Khrushchev era policy that encouraged computer production.<ref name="wilson15"/>
By the early 1970s, the uncoordinated work of competing government ministries had left the Soviet computer industry in disarray. Due to lack of common standards for peripherals and lack of digital storage capacity the Soviet Union's technology significantly lagged behind the West's semiconductor industry.<ref name="rbth14"/>{{sfn|Ichikawa|2006|pp=18–31}} The Soviet government decided to abandon development of original computer designs and encouraged cloning of existing Western systems (e.g. the 1801 CPU series was scrapped in favor of the PDP-11 ISA by the early 1980s).<ref name="rbth14"/>
Soviet industry was unable to mass-produce computers to acceptable quality standards{{sfn|Stapleton|Goodman|1988}} and locally manufactured copies of Western hardware were unreliable.{{sfn|Judy|Clough|1989|pp=251–330}} As personal computers spread to industries and offices in the West, the Soviet Union's technological lag increased.<ref name="lat86"/>
Nearly all Soviet computer manufacturers ceased operations after the breakup of the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Prokhorov|1999|pp=4–15}} A few companies that survived into the 1990s used foreign components and never achieved large production volumes.{{sfn|Prokhorov|1999|pp=4–15}}
==History==
===Early history=== In 1936, an analog computer known as a water integrator was designed by Vladimir Lukyanov.<ref name="waterint">{{cite web|last1=Соловьева|first1=О.|title=Водяные Вычислительные Машины|url=https://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/7033/|access-date=7 November 2017|language=ru|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818063405/http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/7033/|archive-date=18 August 2017}}</ref> It was the world's first computer for solving partial differential equations.<ref name="waterint"/>
The Soviet Union began to develop digital computers after World War II.<ref name="rbth14">{{cite news|last1=Ter-Ghazaryan|first1=Aram|title=Computers in the USSR: A story of missed opportunities|url=https://www.rbth.com/science_and_tech/2014/09/24/computers_in_the_ussr_a_story_of_missed_opportunities_40073.html|access-date=22 October 2017|work=Russia Beyond the Headlines|date=24 September 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023155446/https://www.rbth.com/science_and_tech/2014/09/24/computers_in_the_ussr_a_story_of_missed_opportunities_40073.html|archive-date=23 October 2017}}</ref> A universally programmable electronic computer was created by a team of scientists directed by Sergey Lebedev at the Kiev Institute of Electrotechnology in Feofaniya. The computer, known as MESM ({{langx|ru|МЭСМ; Малая Электронно-Счетная Машина, Small Electronic Calculating Machine}}), became operational in 1950.<ref name="graham">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_wPpj64GqMC&pg=PA256 |title=Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History |author-link=Loren R. Graham |first=Loren R. |last=Graham |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1993 |isbn=0521287898 |page=256 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024232247/https://books.google.com/books?id=m_wPpj64GqMC&pg=PA256 |archive-date=2017-10-24 }}</ref> By some authors it was also depicted as the first such computer in continental Europe, even though the Zuse Z4 and the Swedish BARK preceded it.<ref name="harbour99">{{cite book|last1=Harbour|first1=Michael Gonzalez|title=Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe '99|date=1999|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9783540660934|page=[https://archive.org/details/reliablesoftware0000adae/page/181 181]|url=https://archive.org/details/reliablesoftware0000adae/page/181|language=en}}</ref> The MESM's vacuum tubes were obtained from radio manufacturers.<ref name="rezun96"/>
Government rhetoric portrayed cybernetics in the Soviet Union as a capitalist attempt to further undermine workers' rights.<ref name="wilson15">{{cite news|title=The peculiar history of computers in the Soviet Union|url=https://wilsonquarterly.com/stories/the-peculiar-history-of-computers-in-the-soviet-union/|access-date=23 October 2017|publisher=Wilson Quarterly|date=27 August 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504041648/http://wilsonquarterly.com/stories/the-peculiar-history-of-computers-in-the-soviet-union/|archive-date=4 May 2017}}</ref> The Soviet weekly newspaper ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' published a 1950 article strongly critical of Norbert Wiener and his book, ''Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine'', describing Wiener as one of the "charlatans and obscurantists whom capitalists substitute for genuine scientists".<ref name="peters12">{{cite journal|last1=Peters|first1=Benjamin|title=Normalizing Soviet Cybernetics|journal=Information & Culture: A Journal of History|date=2012|volume=47|issue=2|pages=145–175|doi=10.1353/lac.2012.0009|s2cid=144363003|url=http://www.nevzlin.huji.ac.il/userfiles/files/47.2.peters.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306062531/http://nevzlin.huji.ac.il/userfiles/files/47.2.peters.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-06|access-date=2017-11-12}}</ref> After the publication of the article, his book was removed from Soviet research libraries.<ref name="peters12"/>
The first large-scale computer, the BESM-1, was assembled in Moscow at the Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering.<ref name="rbth14"/> Soviet work on computers was first made public at the Darmstadt Conference in 1955.<ref name="metropolis14"/>
===Post-Stalin era=== [[File:Ural-1 Control Unit.jpg|thumb|alt=Gray, complex control panel|Ural-1 control unit]] As in the United States, early computers were intended for scientific and military calculations. Automatic data processing systems made their debut by the mid-1950s with the Minsk and Ural systems, both designed by the Ministry of Radio Technology.{{sfn|Judy|Clough|1989|pp=251-330}} The Ministry of Instrument Making also entered the computer field with the ASVT system, which was based on the PDP-8.{{sfn|Judy|Clough|1989|pp=251-330}}
The Strela computer, commissioned in December 1956, performed calculations for Yuri Gagarin's first crewed spaceflight.<ref name="vetter13">{{cite book|last1=Vetter|first1=Jeffrey S.|title=Contemporary High Performance Computing: From Petascale toward Exascale|date=2013|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781466568341|pages=283–284|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfs-VMPQKgYC&pg=PA283|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106011546/https://books.google.com/books?id=yfs-VMPQKgYC&pg=PA283|archive-date=2017-11-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Petrovich |first=Isaev Cladimir |title=Role of Computer Centre №1 of the USSR Ministry of Defence in the beginning Period of Space Explorations. Russian Virtual Computer Museum |url=https://www.computer-museum.ru/english/galglory_en/kitov_11.php |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=www.computer-museum.ru}}</ref> The Strela was designed by Special Design Bureau 245 (SKB-245) of the Ministry of Instrument Making.{{sfn|Ichikawa|2006|pp=18–31}} Strela chief designer {{ill|Yury Bazilevslky|ru|Базилевский, Юрий Яковлевич}} received the Hero of Socialist Labor title for his work on the project.<ref name="metropolis14">{{cite book|last1=Metropolis|first1=Nicholas|title=History of Computing in the Twentieth Century|date=2014|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9781483296685|pages=150–152|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AsvSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA192|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106011546/https://books.google.com/books?id=AsvSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA192|archive-date=2017-11-06}}</ref> Setun, an experimental ternary computer, was designed and manufactured in 1959.<ref name="vetter13"/>
The Khrushchev Thaw relaxed ideological limitations, and by 1961 the government encouraged the construction of computer factories.<ref name="wilson15"/> The Mir-1, Mir-2 and Mir-3 computers were produced at the Institute of Cybernetics of the Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian SSR during the 1960s.<ref name="rbth14"/> Victor Glushkov began his work on OGAS, a real-time, decentralised, hierarchical computer network, in the early 1960s, but the project was never completed.<ref name="bbfuture">{{cite news|last1=Baraniuk|first1=Chris|title=Why the forgotten Soviet internet was doomed from the start|url=http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161026-why-the-forgotten-soviet-internet-was-doomed-from-the-start|access-date=11 November 2017|work=BBC|date=26 October 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161212131428/http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161026-why-the-forgotten-soviet-internet-was-doomed-from-the-start|archive-date=12 December 2016}}</ref> Soviet factories began manufacturing transistor computers during the early years of the decade.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cave|first1=Martin|title=Computers and Economic Planning: The Soviet Experience|date=1980|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=9780521226172|page=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0NA8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA2|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103122739/https://books.google.com/books?id=0NA8AAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA2|archive-date=2017-11-03}}</ref>
At that time, ALGOL was the most common programming language in Soviet computing centers.<ref name="misa16">{{cite book|last1=Misa|first1=Thomas J.|title=Communities of Computing: Computer Science and Society in the ACM|date=2016|publisher=Morgan & Claypool|isbn=9781970001860|page=242|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvq3DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT242|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106011546/https://books.google.com/books?id=nvq3DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT242|archive-date=2017-11-06}}</ref> ALGOL 60 was used with a number of domestic variants, including ALGAMS, MALGOL and Alpha.{{sfn|Goodman|1979a|p=236}} ALGOL remained the most popular language for university instruction into the 1970s.<ref name="safonov10">{{cite book|last1=Safonov|first1=Vladimir O.|title=Trustworthy Compilers|date=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9780470593349|page=14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhRpBZYyHcEC&pg=PA14|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106011546/https://books.google.com/books?id=zhRpBZYyHcEC&pg=PA14|archive-date=2017-11-06}}</ref>
The MINSK-2 was a solid-state digital computer that went into production in 1962, and the Central Intelligence Agency attempted to obtain a model.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/16269-document-17-soviet-computer-memorandum |publisher=National Security Archive |title=Soviet Computer. Memorandum |first=Clyde W. |last=Elliot |date=March 31, 1965 |access-date=February 4, 2018}}</ref> The BESM-6, introduced in 1965, performed at about 800 KIPS on the Gibson Mix benchmark<ref>{{cite journal|last1 = Замори|first1 = З.|last2 = Ососков|first2 = Г.А.|last3 = Хорват|first3 = А.|title = О вычислительной мощности микропроцессоров|trans-title = On the processing power of microprocessors|language = ru|journal = Автометрия|publisher = Наука|place = Novosibirsk|year = 1976|issue = 5|pages = 76–83}}</ref>—ten times greater than any other serially-produced Soviet computer of the period,{{sfn|Goodman|1979a|pp=231-287}} and similar in performance to the CDC 3600.{{sfn|Goodman|1979a|pp=231-287}} From 1968 to 1987, 355 BESM-6 units were produced.<ref>{{cite magazine|last = Тучков|first = Владимир|title = Покоритель диджитального космоса|trans-title = The Conqueror of the Digital Space|language = ru|magazine = Суперкомпьютер|issue = 1|year = 2010|page = 26|url = http://supercomputers.ru/images/stories/arhive/Supercomputers_01-2010.pdf}}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> With instruction pipelining, memory interleaving and virtual address translation,<ref>{{cite web |title=Машина электронная вычислительная общего назначения БЭСМ-6|trans-title=General purpose computer BESM-6|language=ru|url = http://www.computer-museum.ru/histussr/28-1.htm}}</ref> the BESM-6 was advanced for the era; however, it was less well known at the time than the MESM.<ref name="graham"/>
The Ministry of the Electronics Industry was established in 1965, ending the Ministry of Radio Technology's primacy in computer production.<ref name="rezun96">{{cite book|last1=Rezun|first1=Miron|title=Science, Technology, and Ecopolitics in the USSR|date=1996|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780275953836|pages=59–65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rrULmz5IVZQC&pg=PA59|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104180641/https://books.google.com/books?id=rrULmz5IVZQC&pg=PA59|archive-date=2017-11-04}}</ref> The following year, the Soviet Union signed a cooperation agreement with France to share research in the computing field after the United States prevented France from purchasing a CDC 6600 mainframe.<ref name="impagliazzo11">{{cite book|last1=Impagliazzo|first1=John|last2=Proydakov|first2=Eduard|title=Perspectives on Soviet and Russian Computing: First IFIP WG 9.7 Conference, SoRuCom 2006, Petrozavodsk, Russia, July 3-7, 2006, Revised Selected Papers|date=2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783642228162|page=237|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-jSqCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA237|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106011546/https://books.google.com/books?id=-jSqCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA237|archive-date=2017-11-06}}</ref> In 1967, the Unified System of Electronic Computers project was launched to create a general-purpose computer with the other Comecon countries.{{sfn|Goodman|1979a|pp=231-287}}
Soyuz 7K-L1 was the first Soviet-piloted spacecraft with an onboard digital computer, the Argon-11S.<ref name="gerovitchs">{{cite web|last1=Gerovitch|first1=Slava|title=Computing in the Soviet Space Program: An Introduction|url=http://web.mit.edu/slava/space/introduction.htm|website=web.mit.edu|access-date=12 November 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161210152011/http://web.mit.edu/slava/space/introduction.htm|archive-date=10 December 2016}}</ref> Construction of the Argon-11S was completed in 1968 by the Scientific Research Institute of Electronic Machines.<ref name="gerovitchs"/> According to Piers Bizony, lack of computing power was a factor in the failure of the Soviet crewed lunar programs.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ghosh|first1=Pallab|title=What if the Soviet Union had beaten the US to the Moon?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-13041326|access-date=12 November 2017|work=BBC News|date=12 April 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170120203416/http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-13041326|archive-date=20 January 2017}}</ref>
===Semiconductor industry=== [[File:KL USSR KP580BM80A i8080 clone.jpg|thumb|The KR580VM80A, a clone of the Intel 8080 CPU]] The Soviets realized the strategic implications of semiconductors already in the late 1950s, and new facilities were set up to manufacture them in cities like Leningrad and Riga.<ref name="miller7375">{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Chris |title=Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. |date=2022 |publisher=Simon & Schuster, Limited |location=New York |isbn=9781398504110 |pages=73–75}}</ref> Soviet scientists took advantage of student exchange agreements with the US to study the technology, attending lectures by pioneers of the field such as William Shockley.<ref name="miller7375"/> The first Soviet integrated circuit was produced in 1962, under the direction of {{ill|Yuri Osokin|ru|Осокин, Юрий Валентинович}}.<ref name="miller7375"/>
Joel Barr, an American-born Soviet spy who had previously infiltrated US-based technology companies, successfully lobbied Khrushchev to build a new city devoted to the production of semiconductors. The new city was given the name of Zelenograd.<ref name="miller7981">{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Chris |title=Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. |date=2022 |publisher=Simon & Schuster, Limited |location=New York |isbn=9781398504110 |pages=79–81}}</ref>
As a local semiconductor industry began to develop in the 1960s, Soviet scientists were increasingly ordered to copy Western designs (such as the Texas Instruments SN-51) without any changes.<ref name="miller7981"/> In hindsight, the approach was poorly suited to the fast-evolving world of chip manufacturing, which continued to change according to Moore's Law.<ref name="miller7981"/>
===1970s=== [[File:Moscow Polytechnical Museum, Elbrus, soviet supercomputer (4927170301) (cropped).jpg|thumb|alt=Large computer in a museum|Elbrus computer in Moscow's Polytechnic Museum]] By the early 1970s, the lack of common standards in peripherals and digital capacity led to a significant technological lag behind Western producers.<ref name="rbth14"/><ref name="titus19711215">{{Cite magazine |last=Titus |first=James |date=1971-12-15 |title=Soviet Computing: a Giant Awakens? |url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_datamation_14170580/page/n39 |magazine=Datamation |pages=38–41 |access-date=2019-12-03}}</ref> Hardware limitations forced Soviet programmers to write programs in machine code until the early 1970s.{{sfn|Goodman|1979b|pp=539–570}} Users were expected to maintain and repair their own hardware; local modifications made it difficult (or impossible) to share software, even between similar machines.{{sfn|Goodman|1979b|pp=539–570}}
According to the Ninth five-year plan (1971–1975), Soviet computer production would increase by 2.6 times to a total installed base of 25,000 by 1975, implying about 7,000 computers in use as of 1971. The plan discussed producing in larger quantities the integrated circuit-based Ryad, but BESM remained the most common model, with ASVT still rare. Rejecting Stalin's opinion, the plan foresaw using computers for national purposes such as widespread industrial automation, econometrics, and a statewide central planning network. Some experts such as Barry Boehm of RAND and Victor Zorza thought that Soviet technology could catch up to the West with intensive effort like the Soviet space program, but others such as Marshall Goldman believed that such was unlikely without capitalist competition and user feedback, and failures of achieving previous plans' goals.{{r|titus19711215}}
The government decided to end original development in the industry, encouraging the pirating of Western systems.<ref name="rbth14"/>{{r|titus19711215}} An alternative option, a partnership with the Britain-based International Computers Limited, was considered but ultimately rejected.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Klimenko|first1=S.V.|title=Computer science in Russia: a personal view|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|date=1999|volume=21|issue=3|pages=16–30|doi=10.1109/85.778979}}</ref> The ES EVM mainframe, launched in 1971, was based on the IBM/360 system.<ref name="rbth14"/>{{r|titus19711215}} The copying was possible because although the IBM/360 system implementation was protected by a number of patents, IBM published a description of the system's architecture (enabling the creation of competing implementations).<ref>{{cite web| last = Nelson| first = H.F. Beebe| title = The Impact of Memory and Architecture on Computer Performance| date = 28 March 1994| publisher = Center for Scientific Computing Department of Mathematics University of Utah| url = https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/fonts/memperf.pdf| page = 7| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140401031054/http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/fonts/memperf.pdf| archive-date = 1 April 2014| access-date = 12 November 2017}}</ref>
The Soviet Academy of Sciences, which had been a major player in Soviet computer development, could not compete with the political influence of the powerful ministries and was relegated to a monitoring role.{{sfn|Judy|Clough|1989|pp=251-330}} Hardware research and development became the responsibility of research institutes attached to the ministries.<ref name="goodman88">{{cite book|last1=Goodman|first1=Seymour E.|title=Global Trends in Computer Technology and Their Impact on Export Control|date=1988|publisher=National Academies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA129|language=en|pages=127–131|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103122739/https://books.google.com/books?id=wkErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA129|archive-date=2017-11-03}}</ref> By the early 1970s, with chip technology becoming increasingly relevant to defense applications, Zelenograd emerged as the center of the Soviet microprocessing industry; foreign technology designs were imported, legally or otherwise.<ref name="rezun96"/>
The Ninth five-year plan approved a scaled-back version of the earlier OGAS project, and the EGSVT network, which was to link the higher echelons of planning departments and administrations.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Peters|first1=Benjamin|title=How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet|date=2016|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262034180|page=166|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hrFIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA166|language=en}}</ref> The poor quality of Soviet telephone systems impeded remote data transmission and access.<ref name="fortune85">{{cite news|title=The Great Soviet Computer Screw-Up|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1985/07/08/66122/index.htm|access-date=23 October 2017|work=Fortune.com|date=July 8, 1985|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023155445/http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1985/07/08/66122/index.htm|archive-date=23 October 2017}}</ref> The telephone system was barely adequate for voice communication, and a Western researcher deemed it unlikely that it could be significantly improved before the end of the 20th century.{{sfn|Stapleton|Goodman|1988}}
In 1973, Lebedev stepped down from his role as director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering.<ref name="chmelbr2">{{cite web|title=The Elbrus-2: a Soviet-era high performance computer|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-elbrus-2-a-soviet-era-high-performance-computer/|website=Computer History Museum|date=2013-05-08|access-date=12 November 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012013351/http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-elbrus-2-a-soviet-era-high-performance-computer/|archive-date=12 October 2017}}</ref> He was replaced by Vsevolod Burtsev, who promoted development of the Elbrus computer series.<ref name="chmelbr2"/>
In the spirit of detente, in 1974 the Nixon administration decided to relax export restrictions on computer hardware<ref name="rothstein13"/> and raised the allowed computing power to 32 million bits per second.<ref>{{cite web|title=National Security Decision Memorandum 247|url=https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdm-nixon/nsdm_247.pdf|publisher=Council on International Economic Policy Decision Memorandum 22|access-date=12 November 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103175333/http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsdm-nixon/nsdm_247.pdf|archive-date=3 November 2012}}</ref> In 1975, the Soviet Union placed an order with IBM to supply process-control and management computers for its new Kamaz truck plant.<ref>{{cite journal|title=IBM Won't Be Lone Kamaz Supplier|journal=Computerworld|date=23 April 1975|page=37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H__8AUYrLHUC&pg=PA37|access-date=12 November 2017|publisher=IDG Enterprise|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112061933/https://books.google.com/books?id=H__8AUYrLHUC&pg=PA37|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> IBM systems were also purchased for Intourist to establish a computer reservation system before the 1980 Summer Olympics.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Soviet DP Industry Still Lagging After 25 Years|journal=Computerworld|date=11 December 1978|page=97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=07X0ovA_MmEC&pg=PA97|access-date=12 November 2017|publisher=IDG Enterprise|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112061933/https://books.google.com/books?id=07X0ovA_MmEC&pg=PA97|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref>
===Early 1980s=== {{also|Academset|DEMOS}} thumb|alt=Word processors on display at a 1985 exhibition|Soviet computers in 1985 The Soviet computer industry continued to stagnate through the 1980s.<ref name="rbth14"/> As personal computers spread to offices and industries in the United States and most Western countries, the Soviet Union failed to keep up.<ref name="lat86">{{cite news|last1=Rempel|first1=William C.|title=Soviets Fear Computer Gap: Schools Main Target of Effort to Catch West|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-03-30-fi-1904-story.html|access-date=12 November 2017|work=Los Angeles Times|date=30 March 1986|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919062708/http://articles.latimes.com/1986-03-30/business/fi-1904_1_computers|archive-date=19 September 2015}}</ref> By 1989, there were over 200,000 computers in the country.<ref name="implications89">{{cite book|last1=Judy|first1=Richard W.|last2=Clough|first2=Robert W.|title=The Implications of the Information Revolution for Soviet Society|date=January 9, 1989|chapter-url=http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1989-801-5-2-Judy.pdf|access-date=22 October 2017|chapter=Soviet Computer Software and Applications in the 1980s|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828112726/https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1989-801-5-2-Judy.pdf|archive-date=28 August 2017|ref=none}}</ref> In 1984 the Soviet Union had about 300,000 trained programmers, but they did not have enough equipment to be productive.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dickson|first1=David|title=Glasnost: Soviet Computer Lag|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.241.4869.1034|access-date=23 October 2017|journal=Science|date=26 August 1988|volume=241 |issue=4869 |pages=1034|language=en|doi=10.1126/science.241.4869.1034|pmid=17747481 |bibcode=1988Sci...241.1034D |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023155445/http://science.sciencemag.org/content/241/4869/1034|archive-date=23 October 2017|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
Although the Ministry of Radio Technology was the leading manufacturer of Soviet computers by 1980, the ministry's leadership viewed the development of a prototypical personal computer with deep skepticism and thought that a computer could never be personal.<ref name="zxbyte">{{cite web|title=История создания компьютеров "Микро-80", "Радио-86РК" и "Микроша"|url=http://zxbyte.ru/history.htm|website=zxbyte.ru|access-date=2 November 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221012025/http://zxbyte.ru/history.htm|archive-date=21 December 2016}}</ref> The following year, when the Soviet government adopted a resolution to develop microprocessor technology, the ministry's attitude changed.<ref name="zxbyte"/>
The spread of computer systems in Soviet companies was similarly slow, with one-third of Soviet plants with over 500 workers having access to a mainframe computer in 1984 (compared to nearly 100 percent in the United States).<ref name="ganley96">{{cite book|last1=Ganley|first1=Gladys D.|title=Unglued Empire: The Soviet Experience with Communications Technologies|date=1996|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9781567501971|pages=27–29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NeGfprIKbi0C&pg=PA27|language=en}}</ref> The success of Soviet managers was measured by the degree to which they met plan goals, and computers made it more difficult to alter accounting calculations to artificially reach targets;<ref name="goodman88161">{{cite book|last1=Goodman|first1=Seymour E.|title=Global Trends in Computer Technology and Their Impact on Export Control|date=1988|publisher=National Academies|pages=161–162|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA161|language=en}}</ref> companies with computer systems seemed to perform worse than companies without them.<ref name="goodman88161"/>
The computer hobby movement emerged in the Soviet Union during the early 1980s, drawing from a long history of radio and electric hobbies.<ref name="stachniak15">{{cite journal|last1=Stachniak|first1=Zbigniew|title=Red Clones: The Soviet Computer Hobby Movement of the 1980s|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|date=January 2015|volume=37|issue=1|pages=12–23|doi=10.1109/MAHC.2015.11|s2cid=15910912}}</ref> In 1978, three employees of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building built a computer prototype based on the new KR580IK80 microprocessor and named it Micro-80.<ref name="stachniak15"/> After failing to elicit any interest from the ministries, they published schematics in ''Radio'' magazine and made it into the first Soviet DIY computer.<ref name="stachniak15"/> The initiative was successful (although the necessary chips could then only be purchased on the black market), leading to the Radio-86RK and several other computer projects.<ref name="stachniak15"/>
Piracy was especially common in the software industry, where copies of Western applications were widespread.<ref name="atlobscura">{{cite news|title=How Microsoft Installed Windows Behind the Iron Curtain|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-microsoft-created-a-revolution-in-soviet-computing|access-date=22 October 2017|work=Atlas Obscura|date=8 December 2015|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030234402/http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-microsoft-created-a-revolution-in-soviet-computing|archive-date=30 October 2016}}</ref> American intelligence agencies, having learned about Soviet piracy efforts, placed bugs in copied software which caused later, catastrophic failures in industrial systems.<ref>{{cite web|title=Secrets of Communist computing|url=http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/secrets-of-communist-computing-618217/2|website=TechRadar|date=26 July 2009 |access-date=23 October 2017|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170618154613/http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/secrets-of-communist-computing-618217/2|archive-date=18 June 2017}}</ref> One such bug caused an explosion in a Siberian gas pipeline in 1982, after pump and valve settings were altered to produce pressures far beyond the tolerance of pipeline joints and welds.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Russell|first1=Alec|title=CIA plot led to huge blast in Siberian gas pipeline|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html|access-date=23 October 2017|work=Telegraph|date=28 February 2004|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930083116/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1455559/CIA-plot-led-to-huge-blast-in-Siberian-gas-pipeline.html|archive-date=30 September 2017}}</ref> The explosion caused no casualties, but led to significant economic damage.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hoffman|first1=David E.|title=Reagan Approved Plan to Sabotage Soviets|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2004/02/27/reagan-approved-plan-to-sabotage-soviets/a9184eff-47fd-402e-beb2-63970851e130/|access-date=16 November 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=27 February 2004}}</ref>
In July 1984, the COCOM sanctions prohibiting the export of a number of common desktop computers to the Soviet Union were lifted; at the same time, the sale of large computers was further restricted.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hufbauer|first1=Gary Clyde|last2=Schott|first2=Jeffrey J.|last3=Elliott|first3=Kimberly Ann|title=Economic Sanctions Reconsidered: History and Current Policy|date=1990|publisher=Peterson Institute|isbn=9780881321364|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etyVmnPOrG8C&pg=PA127|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103162459/https://books.google.com/books?id=etyVmnPOrG8C&pg=PA127|archive-date=2017-11-03}}</ref> In 1985, the Soviet Union purchased over 10,000 MSX computers from Nippon Gakki.{{sfn|Stapleton|Goodman|1988}}
The state of scientific computing was particularly backwards, with the CIA commenting that "to the Soviets, the acquisition of a single Western supercomputer would give a 10%–100% increase in total scientific computing power."<ref>{{cite web |title=Total Soviet Computing Power |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000499605.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119060358/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000499605.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 19, 2017}}</ref>
==={{anchor|Perestroika period}}Perestroika=== [[File:Компьютер БК0010 фото3.JPG|thumb|alt=An early home computer|The BK-0010, the most widely produced Soviet home computer]] A program to expand computer literacy in Soviet schools was one of the first initiatives announced by Mikhail Gorbachev after he came to power in 1985.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bohlen|first1=Celestine|title=Soviets Embark on Crash Program in Computer Training|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/09/04/soviets-embark-on-crash-program-in-computer-training/05703767-d85c-4d72-becb-a0cbdcc131f2/|access-date=12 November 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=4 September 1985|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112014656/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/09/04/soviets-embark-on-crash-program-in-computer-training/05703767-d85c-4d72-becb-a0cbdcc131f2/|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> That year, the Elektronika BK-0010 was the first Soviet personal computer in common use in schools and as a consumer product.<ref name="digrus"/> It was the only Soviet personal computer to be manufactured in more than a few thousand units.{{sfn|Stapleton|Goodman|1988}}
The 12th five-year plan demanded the production of over one million personal computers, and 10 million floppy disks.{{sfn|Stapleton|1989|p=75}} Between 1986 and 1988, Soviet schools received 87,808 computers out of a planned 111,000. About 60,000 were BK-0010s, as part of the KUVT-86 computer-facility systems.<ref>{{cite conference|last = Захаров|first = В.Н.|title = Школьная информатика в России – техническая база начального периода|trans-title = School Informatics in Russia - technical base of the initial period|conference = Computer Technology in Russia and in the Former Soviet Union|conference-url = http://www.sorucom.org/en/|language = ru|year = 2011|location = Veliky Novgorod|url = http://www.computer-museum.ru/histsoft/informatika_sorucom_2011.htm}}</ref>
Although Soviet hardware copies lagged somewhat behind their Western counterparts in performance, their main issue was generally-poor reliability. The Agat, an Apple II clone, was particularly prone to failure; disks read by one system could be unreadable by others.{{sfn|Judy|Clough|1989|pp=251-330}} An August 1985 issue of ''Pravda'' reported, "There are complaints about computer quality and reliability".<ref>{{cite news|title=The Soviet Lag In High-tech Defense|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1985/11/25/66652/index.htm|access-date=12 November 2017|work=Fortune|date=November 25, 1985|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112061934/http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1985/11/25/66652/index.htm|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> The Agat was ultimately discontinued due to problems with supplying components, such as disk drives.{{sfn|Stapleton|Goodman|1988}}
The Vector-06C, released in 1986, was noted for its relatively advanced graphics capability.<ref name="vector6">{{cite web|title=Вектор-06Ц.|url=http://www.computer-museum.ru/articles/personalnye-evm/971/|website=Computer-museum.ru|access-date=7 November 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108035424/http://www.computer-museum.ru/articles/personalnye-evm/971/|archive-date=8 November 2017}}</ref> The Vector could display up to 256 colors when the BK-0010 had only four hard-coded colors, without palettes.<ref name="vector6"/>
In 1987, it was learned that Kongsberg Gruppen and Toshiba had sold CNC milling machines to the Soviet Union in what became known as the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal.<ref>{{cite news|title=Submarined by Japan and Norway|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/22/opinion/submarined-by-japan-and-norway.html|work=The New York Times|date=22 June 1987|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104181218/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/22/opinion/submarined-by-japan-and-norway.html|archive-date=4 November 2017}}</ref> The president of Toshiba resigned, and the company was threatened with a five-year ban from the US market.<ref>{{cite news|title=Toshiba Points Out French-soviet Deal|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1987/09/10/toshiba-points-out-french-soviet-deal/|access-date=12 November 2017|work=Chicago Tribune|date=September 10, 1987|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112014656/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-09-10/business/8703090151_1_toshiba-case-submarine-propeller-kongsberg|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref>
The passage of the Law on Cooperatives in May 1988 led to a rapid proliferation of companies trading computers and hardware components.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gorham|first1=Michael|last2=Lunde|first2=Ingunn|last3=Paulsen|first3=Martin|title=Digital Russia: The Language, Culture and Politics of New Media Communication|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317810742|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZL8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|language=en}}</ref> Many software cooperatives were established, employing as much as one-fifth of all Soviet programmers by 1988.<ref>{{cite book|title=Finding Common Ground: U.S. Export Controls in a Changed Global Environment|date=1991|publisher=National Academies Press|isbn=9780309043922|page=262|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=djErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA262|language=en}}</ref> The ''Tekhnika'' cooperative, created by Artyom Tarasov, managed to sell its own software to state agencies including Gossnab.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Owen|first1=Thomas C.|title=Russian Corporate Capitalism from Peter the Great to Perestroika|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195096774|page=88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p8HnCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|language=en}}</ref>
IBM-compatible Soviet-made computers were introduced during the late 1980s, but their cost put them beyond the reach of Soviet households.<ref name="museum80sevm3">{{cite web|title=Советские домашние компьютеры 1980-х. Часть III|url=http://www.computer-museum.ru/articles/personalnye-evm/937/|website=Computer-museum.ru|access-date=6 November 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621090955/http://computer-museum.ru/articles/personalnye-evm/937/|archive-date=21 June 2017}}</ref> The Poisk, released in 1989, was the most common IBM-compatible Soviet computer.<ref name="museum80sevm3"/> Because of production difficulties, no personal computer model was ever mass-produced.{{sfn|Stapleton|Goodman|1988}}
As Western technology embargoes were relaxed during the late perestroika era, the Soviets increasingly adopted foreign systems.<ref>{{cite news|title=Soviets Now Getting Computers Capitalist Way-buying Them|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/07/01/soviets-now-getting-computers-capitalist-way-buying-them/|access-date=23 October 2017|work=Chicago Tribune|date=July 1, 1990|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023155445/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-07-01/business/9002220886_1_soviet-computer-seymour-goodman-soviet-union|archive-date=23 October 2017}}</ref> In 1989, the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology acquired 70 to 100 IBM XT-AT systems with 8086 microprocessors.<ref>{{cite web|title=Russian Defense Business Directory|url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/industry/docs/rus95/m_list.htm|website=Federation of American Scientists|publisher=US Department of Commerce Bureau of Export Administration|access-date=18 December 2017|date=May 1995}}</ref> The poor quality of domestic manufacturing led the country to import over 50,000 personal computers from Taiwan in 1989.<ref name="nyt0290">{{cite news|last1=Markoff|first1=John|title=Soviet Computer People Attend U.S. Convention|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/01/business/soviet-computer-people-attend-us-convention.html|access-date=23 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=1 February 1990|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525185816/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/01/business/soviet-computer-people-attend-us-convention.html|archive-date=25 May 2015}}</ref>
Increasingly-large import deals were signed with Western manufacturers but, as the Soviet economy unraveled, companies struggled to obtain hard currency to pay for them and deals were postponed or canceled.<ref name="nyt0390">{{cite news|last1=Times|first1=Special to The New York|title=West Having Trouble Collecting Soviet Debts|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/16/business/west-having-trouble-collecting-soviet-debts.html|access-date=16 November 2017|work=The New York Times|date=16 March 1990}}</ref> Control Data Corporation reportedly agreed to barter computers for Soviet Christmas cards.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Marino|first1=Marcie|title=Bartering with the Bolsheviks: A Guide to Countertrading with the Soviet Union|journal=Dickinson Journal of International Law|date=1990|volume=8|issue=2|pages=273–274|url=http://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=psilr|access-date=16 November 2017}}</ref>
Human-rights groups in the West pressured the Soviet government to grant exit visas to all computer experts who wanted to emigrate.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lifschitz|first1=Vladimir|title=Artificial and Mathematical Theory of Computation: Papers in Honor of John McCarthy|date=2012|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=9780323148313|pages=299–300|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6F99T53jYbgC&pg=PA299|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112014656/https://books.google.com/books?id=6F99T53jYbgC&pg=PA299|archive-date=2017-11-12}}</ref> Soviet authorities eventually complied, leading to a massive loss of talent in the computing field.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Lack in the USSR|journal=Computerworld|date=20 August 1990|page=74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mte_PH276rEC&pg=PA74|access-date=12 November 2017|publisher=IDG Enterprise|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112185754/https://books.google.com/books?id=mte_PH276rEC&pg=PA74|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref>
===1990s and legacy=== {{seealso|Information technology in Russia}} In August 1990, RELCOM (a UUCP computer network working on telephone lines) was established.<ref name="soldatov15">{{cite book|last1=Soldatov|first1=Andrei|last2=Borogan|first2=Irina|title=The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries|date=2015|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=9781610395748|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7I4DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT31|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106011546/https://books.google.com/books?id=u7I4DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT31|archive-date=2017-11-06}}</ref> The network connected to EUnet through Helsinki, enabling access to Usenet.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Press|first1=Larry|title=Relcom Paper|url=http://som.csudh.edu/CIS/lpress/articles/relcom.htm|access-date=4 November 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090331123002/http://som.csudh.edu/cis/lpress/articles/relcom.htm|archive-date=31 March 2009}}</ref> By the end of 1991, it had about 20,000 users.<ref>{{cite CiteSeerX|last1=Rohozinski|first1=Rafal|title=Mapping Russian Cyberspace: Perspectives on Democracy and the Net|date=October 1999|citeseerx=10.1.1.168.3802}}</ref> In September 1990, the .su domain was created.<ref>{{cite news|title=Back in the USSR: Soviet Internet domain name resists death|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-04-18-196687842_x.htm|access-date=4 November 2017|work=USA Today}}</ref>
By early 1991, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse; procurement orders were cancelled ''en masse'', and half-finished products from computer plants were discarded as the breakdown of the centralized supply system made it impossible to complete them. The large Minsk Computer Plant attempted to survive the new conditions by switching to the production of chandeliers.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Goodman|first1=S. E.|last2=McHenry|first2=W. K.|title=The Soviet computer industry: a tale of two sectors|journal=Communications of the ACM|date=1 June 1991|volume=34|issue=6|pages=25–28|doi=10.1145/103701.122192|s2cid=8095948}}</ref> Western export restrictions on civilian computer equipment were lifted in May 1991.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Greenhouse|first1=Steven|title=U.S. and Allies Move to Ease Cold War Limits on Exports|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/25/business/us-and-allies-move-to-ease-cold-war-limits-on-exports.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=4 November 2017|work=The New York Times|date=25 May 1991|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106011546/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/25/business/us-and-allies-move-to-ease-cold-war-limits-on-exports.html?pagewanted=all|archive-date=6 November 2017}}</ref> Although this technically allowed the Soviets to export computers to the West, their technological lag gave them no market there.<ref name="rossaprim"/> News of the August 1991 Soviet coup attempt was spread to Usenet groups through Relcom.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Usenet coup: how the USSR discovered the internet in 1991|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/natalia-konradova/usenet-coup|access-date=12 November 2017|work=openDemocracy|date=16 August 2016|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171104151621/https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/natalia-konradova/usenet-coup|archive-date=4 November 2017}}</ref>
With the fall of the Soviet Union, many prominent Soviet computer developers and engineers (including future Intel processor architect Vladimir Pentkovski) moved abroad.<ref name="rbth14"/><ref name="register99">{{cite news|title=Intel uses Russia military technologies|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/07/intel_uses_russia_military_technologies/|access-date=24 October 2017|work=The Register|date=7 June 1999|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130041719/http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/07/intel_uses_russia_military_technologies/|archive-date=30 November 2016}}</ref> The large companies and plants which had manufactured computers for the Soviet military ceased to exist.{{sfn|Prokhorov|1999|pp=4–15}} Computers made in post-Soviet countries during the early 1990s were assembled almost exclusively with foreign components.{{sfn|Prokhorov|1999|pp=4–15}}
Soviet computers remained in common use in Russia until the mid-1990s.<ref name="digrus"/> Post-Soviet Russian personal computer market was initially dominated by foreign brands like Acer and IBM, which exported computers into Russia from manufacturing facilities abroad. Starting in the mid-1990s, indigenous Russian computer firms began rapidly gaining market share from imports. By 1996, locally assembled PCs accounted for around two-thirds of unit sales in Russia.<ref>{{cite news|title=Laptops from Lapland|url=https://www.economist.com/unknown/1997/09/04/laptops-from-lapland|newspaper=The Economist|date=4 September 1997}}</ref>
The Elbrus VLIW architecture, introduced in the Elbrus 2000 microprocessor launched in 2001, traces its roots to the early Soviet VLIW research.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fatkullin |first1=Andrei |title=Moscow government to support Merced killer |url=https://www.theregister.com/1999/04/09/moscow_government_to_support_merced/ |website=www.theregister.com |language=en |date=9 April 1999}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Aiken |first1=Alex |first2=Utpal |last2=Banerjee |display-authors=1 |title=Instruction Level Parallelism |date=2016 |publisher=Springer US |isbn=9781489977977 |page=15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eC2gDQAAQBAJ&dq=elbrus+vliw&pg=PA15}}</ref>
==Western sanctions==
Since computers were considered strategic goods by the United States, their sale by Western countries was generally not allowed without special permission.<ref name="rothstein13">{{cite book|last1=Rothstein|first1=Hy|last2=Whaley|first2=Barton|title=The Art and Science of Military Deception|date=2013|publisher=Artech House|isbn=9781608075515|pages=490–491|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwMgAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA490|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112014656/https://books.google.it/books?id=IwMgAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA490|archive-date=2017-11-12}}</ref> As a result of the CoCom embargo, companies from Western Bloc countries could not export computers to the Soviet Union (or service them) without a special license.<ref>{{cite book|title=Terms for Soviet Access to Western Computer Technology|publisher=Hoover Press|isbn=9780817951931|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoC4BvuL44MC&pg=PA3|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103162459/https://books.google.com/books?id=FoC4BvuL44MC&pg=PA3|archive-date=2017-11-03}}</ref>
Even when sales were not forbidden by CoCom policies, the US government might still ask Western European countries to refrain from exporting computers because of foreign-policy matters, such as protesting the arrest of Soviet dissidents.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Oberdorfer|first1=Don|title=U.S. Asks Allies To Join in Denial Of Tass Computers|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/08/15/us-asks-allies-to-join-in-denial-of-tass-computers/f6f0ebbc-38c6-4f9e-89eb-69f55b3d62a5/|access-date=12 November 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=15 August 1978|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112014656/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/08/15/us-asks-allies-to-join-in-denial-of-tass-computers/f6f0ebbc-38c6-4f9e-89eb-69f55b3d62a5/|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> Software sales were not regulated as strictly, since Western policymakers realized that software could be copied (or smuggled) much more easily.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sanger|first1=David E.|title=Computer Imports Sought By Soviets|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/08/business/computer-imports-sought-by-soviets.html|access-date=12 November 2017|work=The New York Times|date=8 February 1985|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524165350/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/08/business/computer-imports-sought-by-soviets.html|archive-date=24 May 2015}}</ref>
==Appraisal== Soviet computer software and hardware designs were often on par with Western ones, but the country's persistent inability to improve manufacturing quality meant that it could not make practical use of theoretical advances.<ref name="filfre">{{cite web|title=A Tale of the Mirror World, Part 2: From Mainframes to Micros The Digital Antiquarian|url=http://www.filfre.net/2017/06/tales-of-the-mirror-world-part-2-from-mainframes-to-micros/|website=Filfre.net|access-date=23 October 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916140020/http://www.filfre.net/2017/06/tales-of-the-mirror-world-part-2-from-mainframes-to-micros/|archive-date=16 September 2017}}</ref> Quality control, in particular, was a major weakness of the Soviet computing industry.<ref name="selin">{{cite web|last1=Selin|first1=Ivan|title=Communications and Computers in the Soviet Union|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP92B00181R000300270034-2.pdf|publisher=Signal|access-date=3 November 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123114626/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP92B00181R000300270034-2.pdf|archive-date=23 January 2017}}</ref>
The decision to abandon original development in the early 1970s, rather than closing the gap with Western technology, is seen as another factor causing the Soviet computer industry to fall further behind.<ref name="rbth14"/> According to Vlad Strukov, this decision destroyed the country's indigenous computer industry.<ref name="digrus">{{cite book|last1=Gorham|first1=Michael|last2=Lunde|first2=Ingunn|last3=Paulsen|first3=Martin|title=Digital Russia: The Language, Culture and Politics of New Media Communication|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317810742|pages=15–25|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZL8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|language=en}}</ref> The software industry followed a similar path, with Soviet programmers moving their focus to duplicating Western operating systems (including DOS/360 and CP/M).<ref name="goodman88"/> According to Boris Babayan, the decision was costly in terms of time and resources; Soviet scientists had to study obsolete Western software and then rewrite it, often in its entirety, to make it work with Soviet equipment.<ref name="rossaprim">{{cite web|title=Отставание и зависимость России в компьютерной элементной базе|url=https://rossaprimavera.ru/article/otstavanie-i-zavisimost-rossii-v-kompyuternoy-elementnoy-baze|website=Rossaprimavera.ru|access-date=10 November 2017|language=ru-RU|date=16 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120063459/http://rossaprimavera.ru/article/otstavanie-i-zavisimost-rossii-v-kompyuternoy-elementnoy-baze|archive-date=20 November 2016}}</ref>
Valery Shilov considered this view subjective and nostalgic.<ref name="shilov">{{cite web|last1=Shilov|first1=Valery|title=The Development of Computing in the USSR in Comparison with the USA and Other Western Countries|url=https://cs.hse.ru/en/HERB/shilov|website=Higher School of Economics|access-date=12 November 2017|language=en|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112231339/https://cs.hse.ru/en/HERB/shilov|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> Dismissing the notion of a "golden age" of Soviet computing hardware, he argued that except for a few world-class achievements, Soviet computers had always been far behind their Western equivalents (even before large-scale cloning).<ref name="shilov"/> Computer manufacturers in countries such as Japan also based their early computers on Western designs, but had unrestricted access to foreign technology and manufacturing equipment.<ref name="roche92">{{cite book|last1=Roche|first1=Edward Mozley|title=Managing Information Technology in Multinational Corporations|date=1992|publisher=Barraclough Ltd|isbn=9780024026903|pages=216–217|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ik0VyfSQR0C&pg=PA216|language=en}}</ref> They focused their production on the consumer market rather than military applications, allowing them to achieve better economies of scale.<ref name="roche92"/> Unlike Soviet manufacturers, they gained experience in marketing their products to consumers.<ref name="roche92"/>
Piracy of Western software such as WordStar, SuperCalc and dBase was endemic in the Soviet Union, a situation attributed to the inability of the domestic software industry to meet the demand for high-quality applications.<ref name="implications89"/> Software was not shared as commonly or easily as in the West, leaving Soviet scientific users highly dependent on the applications available at their institutions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goodman|first1=Seymour E.|title=Global Trends in Computer Technology and Their Impact on Export Control|date=1988|publisher=National Academies|page=178|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA178|language=en}}</ref> The State Committee for Computing and Informatics estimated that out of 700,000 computer programs developed by 1986, only 8,000 had been officially registered, and only 500 were deemed good enough to be distributed as production systems.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goodman|first1=Seymour E.|title=Global Trends in Computer Technology and Their Impact on Export Control|date=1988|publisher=National Academies|page=162|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA162|language=en}}</ref> According to Hudson Institute researchers Richard W. Judy and Robert W. Clough, the situation in the Soviet software industry was such that "it does not deserve to be called an industry".<ref name="implications89"/>
The Soviet Union, unlike contemporary industrializing countries such as Taiwan and South Korea, did not establish a sustainable computer industry.<ref name="strayer16">{{cite book|last1=Strayer|first1=Robert|title=Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?: Understanding Historical Change|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781315503950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=De9mDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT50|language=en|page=50|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103122739/https://books.google.com/books?id=De9mDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT50|archive-date=2017-11-03}}</ref> Robert W. Strayer attributed this failure to the shortcomings of the Soviet command economy, where monopolistic ministries closely controlled the activities of factories and companies.<ref name="strayer16"/> Three government ministries (the Ministry of Instrument Making, the Ministry of the Radio Industry and the Ministry of the Electronics Industry) were responsible for developing and manufacturing computer hardware.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Beissinger|first1=Mark R.|title=Scientific Management, Socialist Discipline and Soviet Power|date=1988|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9781850431084|pages=250–251|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cHPO_yLx5ToC&pg=PA344|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112061933/https://books.google.com/books?id=cHPO_yLx5ToC&pg=PA344|archive-date=2017-11-12}}</ref> They had scant resources and overlapping responsibilities.{{sfn|Ichikawa|2006|pp=18–31}} Instead of pooling resources and sharing development, they were locked in conflicts and rivalries and jockeyed for money and influence.<ref name="novayag14">{{cite news|title=Почему Россия не стала компьютерной державой|url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2014/10/21/61648-pochemu-rossiya-ne-stala-kompyuternoy-derzhavoy|access-date=10 November 2017|work=Новая газета|date=21 October 2014|language=ru-RU|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110195421/https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2014/10/21/61648-pochemu-rossiya-ne-stala-kompyuternoy-derzhavoy|archive-date=10 November 2017}}</ref>
Soviet academia still made notable contributions to computer science, such as Leonid Khachiyan's paper, "Polynomial Algorithms in Linear Programming".<ref name="filfre"/> The Elbrus-1, developed in 1978, implemented a two-issue out-of-order processor with register renaming and speculative execution; according to Keith Diefendorff, this was almost 15 years ahead of Western superscalar processors.<ref name="register99"/>
==Timeline== * November 1950 – MESM, the first universally programmable electronic computer in the Soviet Union, becomes operational.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Impagliazzo|first1=John|last2=Proydakov|first2=Eduard|title=Perspectives on Soviet and Russian Computing: First IFIP WG 9.7 Conference, SoRuCom 2006, Petrozavodsk, Russia, July 3-7, 2006, Revised Selected Papers|date=2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783642228162|page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-jSqCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|language=en}}</ref> *1951 – Automatic Digital Computer M-1 was completed. * 1959 – Setun, an experimental ternary computer, is designed and manufactured.<ref name="vetter13"/> * 1965 – the Ministry of the Electronics Industry is established, ending the Ministry of Radio Technology's primacy in computer production.<ref name="rezun96"/> * 1971 – the ES EVM mainframe, based on the IBM/360 system, is launched.<ref name="rbth14"/> * 1974 – NPO Tsentrprogrammsistem (Центрпрограммсистем) is established under the Ministry of Instrument Making to act as a centralized fund and distributor of software.<ref>{{cite book|title=Advances in Computers, Volume 30|date=1990|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=9780080566627|page=291|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=37sdgq5XUgkC&pg=PA291|language=en}}</ref> * November 1975 – the State Committee on Inventions and Discovery rules that computer programs are ineligible for protection under the Soviet Law of Inventions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schmidt|first1=Albert J.|title=The Impact of Perestroika on Soviet Law|date=1990|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=079230621X|page=250|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-e4u7YUiF3AC&pg=PA250|language=en}}</ref> * 1982 – the Belle chess machine is impounded by the United States Customs Service before it can reach a Moscow chess exhibition because they thought it might be useful to the Soviet military.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hilts|first1=Philip J.|title=U.S. Blocks Shipment of Chess-Playing Computer to Soviet Union|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/06/07/us-blocks-shipment-of-chess-playing-computer-to-soviet-union/42d5a437-c5fc-4b60-b9b0-b9d17a5f81f5/|access-date=12 November 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=7 June 1982|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112014656/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/06/07/us-blocks-shipment-of-chess-playing-computer-to-soviet-union/42d5a437-c5fc-4b60-b9b0-b9d17a5f81f5/|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> * 1984 – the popular video game ''Tetris'' is invented by Alexey Pajitnov.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sito|first1=Tom|title=Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation|date=2013|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262019095|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOwyRnZ1oxoC&pg=PA118|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112061933/https://books.google.com/books?id=WOwyRnZ1oxoC&pg=PA118|archive-date=2017-11-12}}</ref> * August 1988 – The Soviet Union's first computer virus, known as DOS-62, is detected in the Institute of Program Systems of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.<ref>{{cite news|title=Soviet computers hit by virus|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/12/18/Soviet-computers-hit-by-virus/6165598424400/|access-date=12 November 2017|work=UPI|date=18 December 1988|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112014656/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/12/18/Soviet-computers-hit-by-virus/6165598424400/|archive-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> * August 1990 – RELCOM (a UUCP computer network working on telephone lines) is established.<ref name="soldatov15"/> * December 1991 – the Soviet Union is dissolved.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schmemann|first1=Serge|title=End Of The Soviet Union; The Soviet State, Born Of A Dream, Dies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/26/world/end-of-the-soviet-union-the-soviet-state-born-of-a-dream-dies.html|access-date=27 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=26 December 1991}}</ref>
==See also== * History of computer hardware in Eastern Bloc countries * List of Soviet computer systems * List of Soviet microprocessors * List of Russian IT developers * List of Russian microprocessors * List of computer hardware manufacturers in the Soviet Union * Internet in Russia * Information technology in Russia
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{cite journal|last1=Goodman|first1=S.E.|title=Software in the Soviet Union: Progress and Problems|journal=Advances in Computers|date=1979a|volume=18|pages=231–287|doi=10.1016/S0065-2458(08)60585-9|isbn=9780120121182}} * {{cite journal|last1=Goodman|first1=Seymour E.|title=Soviet Computing and Technology Transfer: An Overview|journal=World Politics|date=July 1979b|volume=31|issue=4|pages=539–570|doi=10.2307/2009909|url=https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alanmi/publications/other/SEG_WP_SovietComputing&TechTransfer.pdf|access-date=23 October 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127114251/https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alanmi/publications/other/SEG_WP_SovietComputing%26TechTransfer.pdf|archive-date=27 January 2018|jstor=2009909|s2cid=154402738 }} * {{cite journal|last1=Ichikawa|first1=H.|title=Strela-1, the First Soviet Computer: Political Success and Technological Failure|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|date=July 2006|volume=28|issue=3|pages=18–31|doi=10.1109/MAHC.2006.56|s2cid=31200252|url=http://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/files/public/1/15056/20141016122659937807/IEEEAnnHisCom_28_18.pdf|access-date=2019-12-01|archive-date=2020-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221032529/https://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/files/public/1/15056/20141016122659937807/IEEEAnnHisCom_28_18.pdf|url-status=dead}} * {{cite journal|last1=Judy|first1=Richard W.|last2=Clough|first2=Robert W.|title=Soviet Computers in the 1980s: A Review of the Hardware|journal=Advances in Computers|year=1989|volume=29|pages=251–330|doi=10.1016/S0065-2458(08)60535-5|isbn=9780120121298}} * {{cite journal|last1=Prokhorov|first1=S.P.|title=Computers in Russia: science, education, and industry|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|date=July 1999|volume=21|issue=3|pages=4–15|doi=10.1109/85.778978|s2cid=17156354}} * {{cite journal|last1=Stapleton|first1=Ross A|last2=Goodman|first2=Seymour E.|title=The Soviet Union and the Personal Computer Revolution|date=June 1988|url=https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1988-802-8-Stapleton.pdf|publisher=National Council for Soviet and East European Research|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103122739/https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1988-802-8-Stapleton.pdf|archive-date=2017-11-03|access-date=2017-11-04}} * {{cite thesis |last=Stapleton |first=Ross Alan |date=1989 |title=Personal computing in the CEMA community: A study of international technology development and management |url=https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/184767 |type= |chapter= |publisher=University of Arizona |docket= |oclc= |access-date=2023-03-03}}
== External links == *[http://www.computer-museum.ru/english/ Russian Virtual Computer Museum] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20041216203725/http://www.bashedu.ru/konkurs/tarhov/ Museum of the USSR Computers history] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110509155115/http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node%2F85%2F ''Pioneers of Soviet Computing''] *[http://archive.pdp-11.org.ru/ Archive software and documentation for Soviet computers UK-NC, DVK and BK0010.] *[http://hdl.handle.net/11299/163591 Oral history interview with Seymour E. Goodman], Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota: discusses social and political analysis of computers, especially in the Soviet Union and other East Bloc states, notable the MOSAIC project including [https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/148285 Trip Reports, 1957-1970, 1981-1992]. * {{commonscat-inline|Soviet computer systems}}
{{List of Soviet computer systems}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soviet computer systems}} Category:Computing in the Soviet Union Category:Soviet computer systems Category:History of computing