Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“The Man with a Micro-calculator”: Digital Modernity and Late Soviet Computing Practices

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Exploring the Early Digital

Part of the book series: History of Computing ((HC))

Abstract

Technology played a defining role in the socialist version of modernity across the entire life span of the Soviet state. During the 1980s, the Soviet popularizers of computing technology mobilized the expressive power of Vertov’s 1929 masterpiece, The Man with a Movie Camera. When the nation’s most prominent popular scientific magazine, Nauka i Zhizn' [Science and Life], started a column devoted to both playful and serious applications of programmable calculators, it was titled “The Man with a Micro-calculator.” In this chapter, I argue that this reference reflected a consistent late Soviet preoccupation with introducing the population to a “digital” version of the socialist technological modernity, where a modest digital device, the programmable calculator, played a key role. I trace the massive scale of diffusion of computing practices around programmable calculators during the last decade of the Soviet Union’s existence to exploit the nonlinear temporality encompassed in the notion of “early digital.” Breaking with the established chronology of hardware development culminating with the so-called ‘‘Personal Computer Revolution,’’ the “early digital” helps to reveal how the “man with a micro-calculator” was imagined as the man of the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For examples of bibliographies, see http://mk.semico.ru/text.htm and http://mk.semico.ru/ab_papers.htm, last accessed on March 30, 2018.

  2. 2.

    One of the major arguments against considering programmable calculators as computers emphasizes that they are not general-purpose Von Neumann machines, that is, that, unlike general-purpose computers, they stored their programs in a memory deliberately kept separate from data.

  3. 3.

    See chapter “Mikroelektronika v Ukraine: proshloe bez budushchego?” available at http://mognovse.ru/lhg-mikroelektronika-v-ukraine-proshloe-bez-budushego-stranica-2.html, last assessed on March 30, 2018.

  4. 4.

    There are detailed accounts of repair practices common among Soviet TV watchers documented by online communities brought together by Soviet nostalgia; for an example, see https://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/st/25/topic807122.html, last accessed on March 30, 2018.

  5. 5.

    Some issues of TI PPC Notes are archived at http://claudiolarini.altervista.org/pdf/TI-PPC%20Notes%20Articles.pdf, last accessed on June 25, 2018. For an example of PPC Journal issue, see http://www.hpcc.org/cdroms/cav14n7.pdf, last accessed on June 25, 2018.

  6. 6.

    Igra s komp’iuterom (1986), a film available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW_0eWBySdA, last accessed on June 25, 2018.

References

  • Arnold, David. 2013. Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India’s Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Atherton, W. A.. 1984. From Compass to Computer. San Francisco: San Francisco Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Berker T., M. Hartmann, Y. Punie and K. Ward, eds. 2006. Domestication of Media and Technologies. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blyth, Tilly. 2012. The Legacy of the BBC Micro: Effecting Change in the UK’s Cultures of Computing. London: Nesta, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boenig-Liptsin, Margo. 2015. “Making Citizens of the Information Age: A Comparative Study of the First Computer Literacy Programs for Children in the United States, France, and the Soviet Union, 1970–1990.” PhD diss., Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boltianskii, V. 1979. “Shkola i mikrokomp'iuter,” Matematika v shkole, no. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brock, David, ed. 2006. Understanding Moore’s Law: Four Decades of Innovation. Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bykhovskii, M. A. 2006. Pionery informatzionnogo veka: Istoriia razvitiia teorii sviazi. Moskva: Tekhnosfera.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, Manuel. 1998. End of Millennium, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, vol. III. Cambridge, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ceruzzi, Paul. 1998. A History of Modern Computing, 2nd Edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • CIA SOV 23306. 1989. “The Soviet Microelectronics Industry: Hitting a Technology Barrier.” A Research Paper by Office of Soviet Analysis, Office of Science and Weapons, Directorate of Intelligence, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000498658.pdf, last accessed on March 30, 2018.

  • Danilov, I. D. and G. V. Slavin. 1988. Piat’ vecherov s mikrokal'kuliatorom. Moskva: Finansy i statistika.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ershov, Andrei. 1981, “Programming, the Second Literacy.” In Computer and Education: Proc. IFIP TC-3 3rd World Conf. on Computer Education, WCCE 81. Amsterdam: North Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fink, L. M. 1988. Papa, mama, ia i mikrokal'kuliator. Moskva: Radio i sviaz'.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frolov, Serguei. “Istoria sovetskikh kal'kuliatorov,” text available: http://www.enlight.ru/post/6067, last accessed on March 30, 2018.

  • Gerovitch, Slava. 2002. From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gerovitch, Slava. 2014. Voices of the Soviet Space Program: Cosmonauts, Soldiers, and Engineers Who Took the USSR into Space. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gerovitch, Slava. 2015. Soviet Space Mythologies: Public Images, Private Memories, and the Making of a Cultural Identity. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, Loren. 1984. “Science and Computers in Soviet Society,” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science 35, no. 3, The Soviet Union in the 1980s: 124–134.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Haigh, Thomas and Mark Priestley. 2018. Colossus and Programmability. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 40, no. 4: 5–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haring, Kristen. 2007. Ham Radio's Technical Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellbeck, Jochen. 2006. Revolution on My Mind; Writing a Diary under Stalin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, Jeremy. 2007. Dziga Vertov: Defining Documentary Film. London: I. B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerr, Stephen. 1991. “Educational Reform and Technological Change: Computing Literacy in the Soviet Union.” Comparative Education Review 35, 2: 222–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komissarov, S. 1988. “Izobretaem kal'kuliator!” Nauka i zhizn', no. 6, 1988: 108–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kovalev, M, and S. Shvartsburd. 1979. “O sovremennykh uslovoiakh obucheniia schetu,” Matematika v shkole, no. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuklin, I. 2017. “Periodika dlia ITR: Sovietskie nauhno-populiarnye zhurnaly i modelirovanie interesov pozdnesovetskoi nauchno-tekhnicheskoi intelligentsii,” NLO, no. 3: 61–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lecuyer, Christophe. 2006. Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malinovskii, B. N. 1998. Ocherki po istorii vyhislitel'noi tekhniki v Ukraine. Kiev: Feniks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malashevich, B. M. 2007. “Utinaia okkhota, ili o ‘prichastnosti amerikantsev k sovetskoi mikroelektronike’,” Elektronika: Nauka, Tekhnologiia, Biznes, no. 5, at http://www.computer-museum.ru/histussr/nc_zel_4.htm, last accessed on March 30, 2018.

  • Malashevich, B. and D. Malashevich. 2011. “The Zelenograd Center of Microelectronics.” In Perspectives on Soviet and Russian Computing: First IFIP WG 9.7 Conference, SoRuCom 2006, Petrozavodsk, Russia, July 3-7, Revisited Selected Papers, edited by John Impagliazzo and Eduard Proydakov. New York: Springer, 2011: 152–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melvern, Linda, Nick Anning, and David Hebditch. 1984. Techno-Bandits: How the Soviets are Stealing America’s High-Tech Future. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mody, Cyrus. 2017. The Long Arm of Moore’s Law: Microelectronics and American Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mollick, Ethan. 2006. “Establishing Moore’s Law,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 28, 3: 62–75.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Narkiavichus, V. K. and G. I. Rachukaitis. 1985. “Ispol’zovanie mikrokal’kuliatora ‘Elektronika MK-46’ dlia avtomaticheskoi obrabotki eksperimental’nykh dannykh,” Priboryi tekhnika eksperimenta (1985), no. 2: 74–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nauka i zhizn'. 1981. No. 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nauka i zhizn', 1985. No. 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nauka i zhizn'. 1989. No. 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nauka i zhizn'. 1989. No. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nauka i zhizn'. 1989. No. 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nauka i zhizn'. 1989. No. 12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paperno, Irina. 2009. Stories of the Soviet Experience: Memoirs, Diaries, Dreams. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Benjamin. 2016, How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pravda [Speech by M. Gorbachev], June 12, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramo, S. 1962. Proceedings of the IRE 50, no. 5: 1237–1241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ristanović, D. and J. Protić. 2012. “Once Upon a Pocket: Programmable Calculators from the Late 1970s and Early 1980s and the Social Networks Around Them.” 34(3): 55–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, Graham. 2000. The Man With the Movie Camera: The Film Companion. London: I. B. Tauris, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohozinski, Rafal. 1999. “Mapping Russian Cyberspace: Perspectives on Democracy and the Net,” United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Discussion Paper 115, November, available at http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9(httpAuxPages)/879B8965BF0AE0ED80256B67005B738A/$file/dp115.pdf , last accessed on March 30, 2018.

  • Romanovskii, T. B. 1987. Mikrokal'kuliatory v rasskazakh i igrakh. Riga: Izdatel'stvo “Universitetskoe.”

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, Sonja. 2015. Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Siddiqi, Asif. 2010. The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857–1957. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sozonov, D. 1985. “Ispol’zovanie kal’kuliatora ‘Elektronika MK-46’ v izmeritel’nom komplekse,” Priboryi tekhnika eksperimenta, no. 2: 73–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svoren', R. 1976. “Fantasticheskaia elektronika,” Nauka i zhizn', no. 10: 29–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svoren', R. 1981. “Prishla pora ostavit’ schety.” Nauka i zhizn', no. 3: 46–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverstone, R. and E. Hirsch, eds. 1992. Consuming Technologies: Media and Information Domestic Spaces. London: Routledge, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tatarchenko, Ksenia. 2013. “A House with the Window to the West”: The Akademgorodok Computer Center, 1958-1993. PhD diss., Princeton University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tatarchenko, Ksenia. 2017. “‘The Computer Does Not Believe in Tears:’ Programming, Professionalization and Gendering of Authority,” Kritika 18, no. 4: 709–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tatarchenko, Ksenia. “Right to Be Wrong”: Science-fiction, Gaming and Cybernetic Imaginary in Kon-tiki: A Path to the Earth (1985-1986), unpublished manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tinn, Honghong, 2011. “From DIY Computers to Illegal Copies: The Controversy over Tinkering with Microcomputers in Taiwan, 1980–1984.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 33 no. 2: 75–88.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Trokhimenko, Ia. K., ed. 1990. Programmiruemye mikrokal’kuliatory. Ustroistvoi pol’zovanie. Moskva: Radio i sviaz'.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Fred. 2006. From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, Barbara. “Aiming for Victory: Early Cold War computer competition between the US and the Soviet Union.” Unpublished manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zakharov, V. N., A. V. Oleinik, and L. M. Soldatenko. 1983. “Programmiruemyi mikrokal’kuliator ‘Elektronika MK-64’,” Elektronnaia promyshlennost’, no. 3: 17–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Usdin, Steven. 2005. Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This chapter is a product of many discussions with the participants at the “early digital” workshops. My special thanks are to Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi for their engaged reading of the draft version and to Sergei Frolov for sharing his knowledge about Soviet calculators.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland

    Ksenia Tatarchenko

Authors
  1. Ksenia Tatarchenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Thomas Haigh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tatarchenko, K. (2019). “The Man with a Micro-calculator”: Digital Modernity and Late Soviet Computing Practices. In: Haigh, T. (eds) Exploring the Early Digital. History of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02152-8_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02152-8_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02151-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02152-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation