In February 1955 the Soviet Union's Council of Ministers passed a resolution to create the first Computing Center of the Academy of Sciences; academician Dorodnitsyn was appointed as the new director. Located at the V.A. Steklov Mathematics Institute, the center was given two computers: a BESM, and a Strela. Although both Strela and BESM worked around the clock, they could not keep up with the endless stream of problems assigned to them. Because of the urgency of the requested calculations, the Chairman of Ministries of the Soviet Union, N.A. Bulganin, had to prepare the computers' weekly usage schedule himself. According to Dorodnitsyn, the number of people on the calculation teams frequently exceeded the sixty-nine permanent staff members at the computing center. But, people came to the computing center not only to solve problems, but also to study programming. Because of this, an Ural-1 and an Ural-2 – machines from another computer line – were installed at the center and used mainly for training and instruction.
The Academy Presidium created a commission to compare the operational performance of the BESM and Strela. The commission unanimously concluded that BESM had better prospects for development. Only after this resolution was passed did the Institute for Precision Mechanics receive the vacuum storage tubes that would enhance BESM's capacity. By this time it was already the end of 1954, beginning of 1955. As soon as the memory unit had a full set of vacuum storage tubes, the BESM began to operate at full power. Even two years later, the BESM remained on par with the best American computers and was the fastest in Europe. On average, BESM was performing 8,000 three-address operations per second; its maximum speed was 10,000 operations per second.
Later versions of the BESM turned out to be among the best operating computers in Europe.
In 1958, BESM went into serial production. By contrast, no more Strela models were ever produced after the original seven. The Strela that had been at the Academy of Sciences Computing Center was given to the Mosfilm Studio Complex in Moscow to use on movie sets.