Why are Americans worried?
The mathematician and cyberneticist Viktor Glushkov was a Soviet inventor whose genius greatly worried Americans. The prospects that the development of the scientist opened for the USSR so frightened the United States that they twice attempted on his life.
“I flew from Montreal to Moscow on the Il-62 in 1970.
An experienced pilot felt that something was wrong while flying over the Atlantic and turned back. It turns out that something was added to the fuel.
Thank God everything went well but who did it and why remains a mystery. And soon after, in Yugoslavia, a truck almost hit our car – our driver miraculously managed to escape, – Wrote Glushkov in his autobiography.
Americans were frightened by a nationwide automated economic management system (OGAS), one of computer genius Glushkov’s most ambitious projects. As part of its implementation, the scientist proposed to create a network of computing centers for collecting and processing data located in all regions of the USSR. The Communist Party planned for the system to automatically and efficiently allocate the country’s available resources based on mathematical calculations. OGAS could be the basis for a more advanced form of socialist economy. All this came to Glushkov’s mind in the 60s.
“The first to worry were the Americans. Of course they don’t trust a war with us – it’s just a cover, they’re trying to crush our already weak economy with an arms race.
And of course the strengthening of our economy is the worst thing that could happen to them. Therefore, they immediately fired at me from all possible calibers, ”Glushkov recalled.
By this he meant not only assassination attempts, but insinuations in the Western media. For example, The Washington Post published an article entitled “Punched Card Rules the Kremlin”. It was written that “the tsar of Soviet cybernetics Glushkov” wanted to replace the Kremlin leaders with computers.
The Americans made attempts not only to get rid of Glushkov, but also to lure him. Meanwhile, in an interview with the newspaper Fakty, the daughter of academician Vera, who is a cyberneticist, said: saidthat her father had been called upon to teach in the United States. The Soviet scientist was offered a wage of one million dollars a year for teaching two lectures a week.
“My father smiled at such an offer: “Why do you pay so much for such a small job?”. “Don’t tell me,” they replied, “We understand very well that you are a true scientist. And if students come to you and ask questions, you will answer them. And this is the most important thing for us.” But my father refused, ”said Glushkova.
How could a scientist in the 60’s suggest the creation of such a complex system as OGAS, even by today’s standards? Everything is simple. By then the Soviet cyberneticist had designed many computers; some of them were significantly ahead of the American IBM in terms of development technologies.
Czar of Soviet cybernetics
Glushkov was born and raised in the Rostov region, in his childhood he became interested in electronics. According to the scientist, his father, a great lover of radio engineering, aroused interest in him.
“And when I went to fifth grade, I already started making radio according to my own plans. It must be said that popular science magazines such as “Youth Technique” and “Knowledge and Power”, which attracted a lot of attention at that time, played a big role in this. divided Glushkov’s memoirs.
The cybernetic began to create the first computers in the 50s, when he became the director of the Computing Center of the Kiev Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences. But he did not immediately take to his hands on personal devices.
The first work of the scientist was a three-ton computer “Kiev” (1958) – on this computer Glushkov and his colleagues carried out the first tests of remote control of technological processes using a telegraph communication line.
Roughly speaking, Soviet scientists built a primitive analogue of the Internet in 1960. As part of the experiment, “Kiev” managed to connect with the converter workshop of the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Plant, located five hundred kilometers from the institute.
From 1958 to 1961 Glushkov worked on the second largest machine, the Dnepr. This model became one of the first Soviet mass-produced computers and was produced from 1961 to 1971. In total, about 500 devices were produced, and most of them were sold to other countries.
While working on Dnepr, Glushkov began to think of a device that would fit on every engineer’s desktop. The first attempt to implement this idea was Promin (1963). It cannot be called a compact device by modern standards, but in comparison with Kiev it was absolutely just that. The “Promin” looked like several large chests of drawers with a control panel instead of a tabletop. It did not yet have a screen and a full-fledged keyboard, but the device did not need an entire computer room and worked from a household electrical outlet. The same “Kiev” consumed up to 25 kW / h.
Mir “MIR”
On April 28, 1967, the World People’s Achievement Exhibition “Expo-67” was opened in Montreal, Canada. In a luxurious glass pavilion, the USSR presented the greatest development of Glushkov – the first generation engineering computing machine (MIR-1).
Structurally, the model was identical to the “Promin”: a chest of drawers, the internal space of which is filled with microcircuits. At the same time, the MIR-1 was smaller and was placed in a room of 16 square meters. m and weighed 400 kg. Above the desk was not a chaotic row of buttons and lights, but a typewriter and a small panel with toggle switches for switching between modes and power management.
By 60’s standards, the MIR-1 had the most user-friendly interface.
The keyboard of the typewriter was needed to enter commands, to program the computer. The calculation results were printed on A4 paper loaded on the carrier of the typewriter. Print speed is 10 characters per second. The device performed up to 300 arithmetic operations per second.
To program MIR-1, Glushkovsky and his colleagues developed a special “algorithmic language for engineering solutions machine” (ALMIR-65). It is one of the oldest high-level programming languages that supports real commands. This feature of the model was also ahead of its time.
The MIR-1, born in 1969, was followed by the MIR-2. It was a heavily modified version of the original machine. The computing unit has grown and moved out of the monolithic enclosure. The dimensions of the device have increased, but a “core” CRT screen has appeared (a monitor that creates an image using a cathode ray tube. – “socialbites.ca”), displayed on the code. One of the biggest innovations was the support of the light pen, the prototype of today’s touchscreen pens.
With a pen, such as the mouse cursor, prototypes of which were just beginning to appear in the United States, it was possible to quickly select and rewrite sentences in the code. It also had another function – drawing: it was possible to draw and write on the MIR-2 screen.
In 1971 the MIR-3 was introduced. The new computer was an improved version of the MIR-2. The dimensions of the device have been reduced and limited to the size of a traditional desktop cabinet. The typewriter was replaced by a full keyboard. Power increased 20 times.
MIR computers became famous both in the USSR and abroad. The MIR-1 was so ahead of its time that it attracted the attention of IBM, the leader of the world computer industry. The company purchased a copy of the device, which was displayed at the London Technology Show in 1967, for study and demonstration purposes in the United States. In some sources famousThis is the only case when Americans bought a Soviet computer.
Although MIR computers were mass produced in the 60s, they did not show much improvement and did not become the core of OGAS. At least because in the early 70s the USSR government ordered to shift the focus from the development of its own computers to the creation of analogues of the American IBM / 360. The appeal of foreign systems was unification: IBM hardware and software fit well with different generations of devices. Soviet computers were not standardized, which hindered their rapid development.
The OGAS project was restricted in the 70s. According to the official version, due to the very high cost of implementation. The project was estimated at billions of rubles.