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Comment by cyberax | Hacker News Reader

That's really exaggerated.

The first institute tasked with creating computers was set up in 1948, the same year the word "cybernetics" appeared. The USSR had nothing against computer science, and the initial progress in that area was not that bad (given the post-war scarcity). The USSR mainly had issues with some of the more philosophical parts of Norbert Wiener's books.

The USSR failed in its usual manner: the progress was great only while it required just individual brilliance, or something that could be constructed by small teams.

So the USSR had pretty decent discrete-logic computers, including truly innovative stuff like Setun' that was based on ternary logic. And then the USSR predictably started losing ground, once the world moved to integrated circuits.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics_in_the_Soviet_Unio...

> Stalin himself never engaged in this rabid criticism of cybernetics, with the head of the Soviet Department of Sciences, Iurii Zhdanov, recalling that "he never opposed cybernetics" and made every effort "to advance computer technology" in order to give the USSR the technological advantage.

You just proved the point.

It was complicated [1]. Stalin didn't care for the idea. After he died, some took interest in it. Some of those people stepped on the toes of the military. It came back in fits and spurts.

[1] https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262534666/how-not-to-network-a-...

I was interested in the early USSR computing some time ago (well, almost 20 years ago, I'm feeling old). Back then, I tried to find the original sources for the supposed Stalin's disdain for computers.

I could not find much in favor or against it. I would say that Stalin really did not care much, in the sense that he was not concerned about computers either way. He had way too much stuff on his plate anyway: executing medical doctors, trying to claw back power from WWII military leaders, that sort of stuff.

The USSR also started serious computation research in 1948, including construction of a fully programmable computer ("MESM - Small Electronic Calculating Device") that was finished in 1950. It actually fit the USSR ideology quite well, the economy was supposed to be centrally planned and computing devices obviously are helpful in creating plans.

Some early computing history of the USSR is fascinating, with real spies and drama. E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sarant

So my opinion: there was no real persecution of the early computer science in the USSR. And it's not the reason the USSR eventually fell behind.

The _networking_ was an entirely different story. The USSR government instinctively was against making communication across hierarchical structures easier.

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