Learn Remembering A Remarkable Soviet Computing Pioneer
In many parts of the world, today is Christmas—but inwards Russian Federation together with Eastern Europe, which run the Orthodox calendar, Dec 25 is only an ordinary day. Little known to most, however, it’s likewise a hateful solar daytime that marks the anniversary of a substitution evolution inwards European computing device history.
Sixty years agone today, inwards the Ukrainian working capital alphabetic quality of Kyiv, the Soviet Academy of Sciences in conclusion granted formal recognition to Sergey Lebedev’s pioneering MESM project. MESM, a Russian abbreviation for “Small Electronic Calculating Machine,” is regarded equally the earliest, fully operational electronic computing device inwards the Soviet Union—and indeed continental Europe.
Recently nosotros were privileged to instruct a first-hand business concern human relationship of Lebedev’s achievements from Boris Malinovsky, who worked on MESM together with is instantly a leading proficient on Soviet-era computing.
Turn on captions for the English linguistic communication translation.
Described yesteryear unopen to equally the “Soviet Alan Turing,” Sergey Lebedev had been thinking almost computing equally far dorsum equally the 1930’s, until interrupted yesteryear war. In 1946 he was made managing director of Kyiv’s Institute of Electrical Engineering. Soon after, stories of “electronic brains” inwards the West began to circulate together with his involvement inwards computing revived.
Initially, Lebedev’s superiors were skeptical, together with unopen to inwards his squad felt working on a “calculator”—how they idea of a computer—was a measurement backward compared to electrical together with infinite systems research. Lebedev pressed on regardless, eventually finding funding from the Rocketry subdivision together with infinite to piece of job inwards a derelict quondam monastery inwards Feofania, on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Work on MESM got going properly at the halt of 1948 and, considering the challenges, the charge per unit of measurement of progress was remarkable. Ukraine was silent struggling to recover from the destruction of its delineate during WWII, together with many of Kyiv’s buildings lay inwards ruins. The monastery inwards Feofania was amid the buildings destroyed during the war, thus the MESM squad had to build their working quarters from scratch—the laboratory, metalworking shop, fifty-fifty the ability station that would render electricity. Although small—just xx people—the squad was extraordinarily committed. They worked inwards shifts 24 hours a day, together with many lived inwards rooms to a higher house the laboratory. (You tin head to a lively business concern human relationship of this fourth dimension inwards programme three of the BBC’s ”Electronic brains” series.)
MESM ran its cause plan on Nov 6, 1950, together with went into full-time performance inwards 1951. In 1952, MESM was used for top-secret calculations relating to rocketry together with nuclear bombs, together with continued to assistance the Institute’s question correct upwards to 1957. By then, Lebedev had moved to Moscow to Pb the structure of the adjacent generation of Soviet supercomputers, cementing his house equally a giant of European computing. As for MESM, it met a to a greater extent than prosaic fate—broken into parts together with studied yesteryear technology scientific discipline students inwards the labs at Kyiv’s Polytechnic Institute.
*All photos thank yous to ukrainiancomputing.org.
Sixty years agone today, inwards the Ukrainian working capital alphabetic quality of Kyiv, the Soviet Academy of Sciences in conclusion granted formal recognition to Sergey Lebedev’s pioneering MESM project. MESM, a Russian abbreviation for “Small Electronic Calculating Machine,” is regarded equally the earliest, fully operational electronic computing device inwards the Soviet Union—and indeed continental Europe.
Recently nosotros were privileged to instruct a first-hand business concern human relationship of Lebedev’s achievements from Boris Malinovsky, who worked on MESM together with is instantly a leading proficient on Soviet-era computing.
Turn on captions for the English linguistic communication translation.
Described yesteryear unopen to equally the “Soviet Alan Turing,” Sergey Lebedev had been thinking almost computing equally far dorsum equally the 1930’s, until interrupted yesteryear war. In 1946 he was made managing director of Kyiv’s Institute of Electrical Engineering. Soon after, stories of “electronic brains” inwards the West began to circulate together with his involvement inwards computing revived.
Sergey Lebedev*
Initially, Lebedev’s superiors were skeptical, together with unopen to inwards his squad felt working on a “calculator”—how they idea of a computer—was a measurement backward compared to electrical together with infinite systems research. Lebedev pressed on regardless, eventually finding funding from the Rocketry subdivision together with infinite to piece of job inwards a derelict quondam monastery inwards Feofania, on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Work on MESM got going properly at the halt of 1948 and, considering the challenges, the charge per unit of measurement of progress was remarkable. Ukraine was silent struggling to recover from the destruction of its delineate during WWII, together with many of Kyiv’s buildings lay inwards ruins. The monastery inwards Feofania was amid the buildings destroyed during the war, thus the MESM squad had to build their working quarters from scratch—the laboratory, metalworking shop, fifty-fifty the ability station that would render electricity. Although small—just xx people—the squad was extraordinarily committed. They worked inwards shifts 24 hours a day, together with many lived inwards rooms to a higher house the laboratory. (You tin head to a lively business concern human relationship of this fourth dimension inwards programme three of the BBC’s ”Electronic brains” series.)
MESM together with squad members inwards 1951. From left to right: Lev Dashevsky, Zoya Zorina-Rapota, Lidiya Abalyshnikova, Tamara Petsukh, Evgeniy Dedeshko
MESM ran its cause plan on Nov 6, 1950, together with went into full-time performance inwards 1951. In 1952, MESM was used for top-secret calculations relating to rocketry together with nuclear bombs, together with continued to assistance the Institute’s question correct upwards to 1957. By then, Lebedev had moved to Moscow to Pb the structure of the adjacent generation of Soviet supercomputers, cementing his house equally a giant of European computing. As for MESM, it met a to a greater extent than prosaic fate—broken into parts together with studied yesteryear technology scientific discipline students inwards the labs at Kyiv’s Polytechnic Institute.
*All photos thank yous to ukrainiancomputing.org.