For leaders no one marks the way, for them there is no precedent in history to follow... – Eduard Asadov
In 1939, Isaak Semyonovich Brook, a 37-year old Doctor of Technical Sciences, presented a paper at a session of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, in which he described a mechanical integrator capable of solving differential equations up to the sixth order. The integrator was built under Brook's supervision at the Electric Systems Laboratory of the Academy of Sciences Power Engineering Institute. Brook's report aroused great interest because there were no other such machines in the Soviet Union at that time. Only the US and Great Britain had one model each.
Brook achieved a remarkable feat – the integrator contained more than one thousand gear wheels. The integrator's racks, with its numerous bars and holes for gear wheel axles, took up an entire room of 60 square meters. Using it to solve a problem meant having to set gear wheels in specific positions – a task requiring anywhere from several days to several weeks. By modern standards, Brook's mechanical integrator was in fact an analog computer.
During the same year, Brook was elected a Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, most likely due to his earlier report at the Presidium. Brook's main research focus at that time was electric power engineering. Because of his interest in that field, Brook, like Lebedev, understood the need for creating computational means capable of supporting research that required complex calculations.
Brook's and Lebedev's life stories were surprisingly similar. Both were born in the same year, educated at the same institute, and became scientists in the same scientific organization. Both started out in the field of power engineering and from it migrated to the computing technology. Both became directors of leading scientific schools in the area of digital computers. And both were pioneers in this field.
In August 1948, Brook and Bashir Rameev became the first scientists in the Soviet Union to design an electronic computer with micro program control. At that time, the only other machine of this kind was the American ENIAC, completed in 1946. Brook and Rameev also received the first Soviet Union patent for a digital computer with a common bus in December 1948. Unfortunately, these projects and inventions were not implemented in a timely or practical manner because Rameev was drafted into the Army.
Brook was also the first Soviet scientist to propose and implement the idea of using small computers in scientific laboratories. Under Brook's supervision in 1950–51, the first Russian small electronic digital stored program computer, M-1, was built. This machine contained 730 electronic vacuum tubes (instead of the 6000 in the MESM computer). After test operations in 1952, it became the only fully operational computer in the Russian Soviet Republic.
In the M-1, for the first time, Brook and his team utilized copper-oxide semiconductor rectifiers instead of electronic vacuum tubes with diodes, a teletype roll of paper for printing long numbers instead of the narrow teletype tape with only one number printed on each line, and a two-address computer instruction system.
Brook's desire to be ahead of everyone else and his constant need for the latest innovations often prevented him from completing his projects. Only one-third of the computers developed under his management went into industrial mass production. Brook's research on these computers originated more from his desire to show off his abilities in an emerging branch of science and technology than from his actual research interests. According to one of Brook's former colleagues, Alexander Borisovich Zalkind, "The work on the M-1 computer at the Power Engineering Institute was conducted in a semi-legal manner. Today they would say that it was just a hobby of the director." During this period, Brook also continued his research in power engineering. He pushed for computer implementation in electric power stations and was keenly interested in economic management issues.
Brook's passion for computer development was carried throughout the work of his most promising students – Nikolai Yakovlevich Matyuhin and Mikhail Alexandrovich Kartsev. At the scientific schools led by Brook and his students, many significant contributions in computer manufacturing were made. There was even an unofficial creative rivalry between the two leading computing schools – Lebedev's and Brook's – that continually motivated their respective staff to innovate. It is impossible to compare the results of these two teams and determine a "winner." Only one thing is clear: the victory of the scientific-technical progress.
Brook was born in Minsk, Belarus on November 8, 1902 into the impoverished Jewish family of a tobacco factory worker. He finished secondary school in 1920 and in 1925 graduated, as did Lebedev, from the Baumann Institute in Moscow. While still a student, he took a great interest in science, and completed a diploma project on new methods of asynchronous electric motor regulation. After completing the Baumann Institute, Brook was sent to the Lenin State Electrical Engineering Institute, where he gained a great deal of practical experience, participating in the development of a new range of asynchronous electric motors and making trips to the Donbas region for related work at several electric power stations.
"He inherited the abilities and interest in technology from his father," remembered Brook's sister, Mira Brook, herself a Doctor of Science in Art Education. While attending a secondary school in Minsk, he was fond of mathematics, physics, and technology. Sometimes, his school laboratory instructors gave him old mechanical devices to play with. He often visited the Minsk Energiya power plant and spoke to the technicians who worked there. Recognizing his extraordinary interest in technology, the foremen took the time to explain to him the working principles of the machinery and even gave him some old spare parts.
His sister recalled, "My brother read a lot and liked books by Jules Verne, Jack London, and James Fennimore Cooper. He was fascinated by astronomy and gave me Camille Flammarion's Stella to read. He enjoyed drawing and collected art reproductions. From my repertory - I studied at music school – he loved listening to compositions by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Grieg."
In 1930 Brook moved to Kharkov, Ukraine, to work at a factory designing and building several innovative electric machines, including an explosion-proof asynchronous electric motor. In 1935, he moved back to Moscow and began work at the Power Engineering Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences [in Russian it is called today: Krzhizhanovsky Energeticheskii Nauchno-Isledovat'elskii Institute, or ENIN]. His dossier there contained a letter of recommendation to the Institute's Director, academician Gleb Maksimilianovich Krzhizhanovsky, from academician Klavdii Ippolitovich Shenfer, the Soviet Union's most renowned specialist in electric machinery. Knowing Brook from the Lenin Electrical Engineering Institute, Shenfer referred to him as a "bright and talented scientific researcher and engineer." In his application for a job at the Power Engineering Institute, Brook wrote that he would like to work on problems of compensation of reactive power in long-distance transmission lines. At the Lenin Institute laboratory he initiated the research to compute the modes of high power engineering systems. In order to simulate the complex electric networks in the laboratory conditions, he designed a calculating stand using alternating current. In fact, it was a crude computing device.
Brook was awarded the Candidate of Technical Science degree in May 1936, without submitting a dissertation. In October of that same year he presented and successfully defended a doctoral thesis on the subject of "Longitudinal Compensation of Electric Transmission Lines."
During the pre-war years, Brook became focused on developing a mechanical integrator, which led him to become a corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, as I mentioned earlier. During the Second World War, Brook worked on the fire control systems for anti-aircraft defense. He invented an aircraft gun synchronizer that allowed shots to be fired through the rotating propellers of an aircraft. In 1947, he was elected to be a member of the Artillery Academy of Science of the Soviet Union. Soon after the war he managed the research on the statistical stability of power systems, developing equipment for the frequency regulation for the biggest electric power stations in the Soviet Union. At the same time, he continued the work on analog computing devices and oversaw construction of the Electronic Differential Analyzer [in Russian: Elektronii Differenstialnii Analizator, or EDA] led by senior designer Nikolai N. Lenov; this machine was intended for integration of 20th order differential equations.[1]
In the late 1940s, Brook became interested in the digital electronic computers, largely due to the availability of foreign publications on the topic, and became an active participant in a scientific seminar on the problems of automating calculation. The seminar took place in 1947, under the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, and was organized by the Academy's scientific secretary, Nikolai Bruevich. At the seminar, participants considered a proposal for the establishment of a special institute for computing technology. In July 1948, with strong support from the Academy's president at the time, Sergei I. Vavilov, the Institute for Precision Mechanics was created. Bruevich became the Executive Director of the Institute. It seemed logical that Brook, and his innovative laboratory of computer technology, would have joined the new institute's staff. But by then, he was already in charge of the digital computer project with Rameev. They had even come up with "A Project Proposal for the Establishment of an Electronic Digital Computer Laboratory at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology."
It is still not clear why this proposal was not accepted. There were several possible reasons. First, the institute had neither the buildings nor the equipment at that time. Second, Bruevich, the Institute's director, was not a supporter of electronic digital computers; having been a mechanic, he could better envision the development of mechanical computing devices. Third, Brook grossly underestimated the complexity of creating a digital computer. Considering the project already developed by him and Rameev as a significant step toward this objective, Brook probably hoped to build the computer with his laboratory staff exclusively. Unfortunately, he had gravely miscalculated.
In 1949, Rameev was called to military service and Brook lost his only collaborator. His plans for this digital electronic computer stayed on the drawing board forever. But Brook did not abandon his ambitions and was no doubt excited by news of Lebedev's work on a computer at the Institute for Precision Mechanics. After succeeding Bruevich as director of the Institute, Lavrentiev created Laboratory No. 1 and invited Lebedev to manage it. Simultaneously, computer construction was going on at the SKB-245, where Rameev suddenly reappeared after only a few months of military service.
In January 1950, Brook asked the personnel department at the Moscow Energy Institute to find some capable young specialists graduating from its Radio-Electronics Department that could work for him. Highly qualified specialists with clean personnel records were in great demand during that period because most of them were sent to work in top secret organizations, which were filling classified government orders. Brook did not have, nor did he want any such specialists, because they could tie his hands and hinder fulfillment of his research agenda. Instead, Brook needed talented but blacklisted specialists, who were not eligible to work on classified projects because of the "spots" in their personnel files.[2]
Brook ended up with some talented specialists. In early March 1950, the Moscow Energy Institute sent Nikolai Matyuhin – the "son of an enemy of the people." He had received a diploma with excellence for brilliant academic work and participation in scientific research while still a student. However, Matyuhin could not pass a staff commission examination required to enter graduate school because of the blemishes in his personnel file.
Matyuhin's appearance was extremely fortunate for the laboratory. In April, only two months later, Brook submitted a resolution for the Presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences about the development of a digital electronic computer, later called the M-1.
Initially, Matyuhin, a young specialist in radio-technology, did not grasp the concept of an electronic computer. Nor did he understand his first assignment to design a decoder – an important unit in a computer – especially one without any vacuum tubes. Brook personally selected the relevant literature for Matyuhin to read and explained in great detail the working principles of a computer, the binary notation system, and numerical calculation methods. It was Brook who suggested for Matyuhin to use copper-oxide rectifiers, which had been acquired as war reparations from Germany, along with Soviet-made electronic vacuum tubes, to construct the computer's logical elements.
Today, since both Brook and his favorite pupil, Matyuhin, have passed away, it is uncertain who was ultimately responsible for the final design structure and architecture of the M-1 computer. One can only conclude, from the recollections of the remaining participants in the project, that Matyuhin was in fact M-1's chief engineer, whereas Brook acted more as the scientific director of the project.
[1] Editor's note: Readers will note that the USSR was still actively producing differential analyzers at this time, whereas the Americans were already rapidly moving towards developing electronic digital computers.
[2] Editor's note: "Spots" referred to suspicions about a person whose parents were repressed by Stalin's regime.
Having rapidly grasped the workings of a computer, Matyuhin began developing a detailed design for the arithmetical-logical unit and a magnetic drum unit for external control of memory. His first assistants arrived shortly.
Tamara Minovna Alexandridi was sent to Brook's laboratory for her diploma project in September 1950. She was also "hand-delivered" there by the Moscow Energy Institute's personnel department, knowing that Brook preferred to hire young specialists not thorough questionnaires, but after evaluating their capabilities. The young Alexandridi had no spots in her personnel file other than her unusual surname, which raised suspicion among some people.[3] But the Energy Institute's staff officers decided to avoid any risks by retaining her, even though they knew everything about her history since the Great Patriotic War. I will discuss Alexandridi and her career in more detail later in this chapter.
Brook immediately included Alexandridi in the computer design effort, offering her to work on either electronic or magnetic storage devices. Alexandridi chose the electronic option. Then, Brook proposed that she investigate the possibility of creating memory storage devices on cathode ray tubes that had been used in oscilloscopes. While a graduate student, she was supported by the laboratory engineer Vyacheslav Vasilievich Karibsky. Naturally, Brook did not expect the diploma project of a female student (he was mistrustful of women) to become a part of the scientific report on the M-1 computer.
In autumn 1950, Mikhail Alexandrovich Kartsev, a student of the Energy Institute's radio faculty, came to the lab to work part-time. Brook put him to design the M-1's control unit, which was the most complex part of the computer. At the same time, Kartsev prepared his diploma project by solving problems of Hamming code usage. This code, which improved the reliability of information transmission, was implemented in the development of the M-1's central control unit.
The young specialists were assisted by the technicians Lev Mikhailevich Zhurkin, who designed the external storage on magnetic drums, Yuri Vasilievich Rogachov, who worked on electric mounting and fitting, and Rene Shidlovsky, assigned to electrical mounting and fitting.
In 1951, they were joined by Alexander Zalkind, who had graduated from the Energy Institute in February 1950 and Igor Alexandrovich Kokolevsky, a construction engineer who designed the M-1's frame. Zalkind had participated in the adjustment of the arithmetic logical unit and the design of the input-output unit.
For this small group of young inexperienced specialists, building a computer was a difficult challenge; fortunately for them, they did not immediately realize it. These types of projects were only just beginning to unfold in the Soviet Union and other parts of the world. Moreover, because of Brook's personality, the group worked in complete isolation from other enterprises.
The laboratory's facilities were not appropriate for such large-scale work as building a computer with hundreds of electronic vacuum tubes. The project experienced frequent delays due to a constant shortage of parts and supplies, but Brook's energy and resourcefulness kept them going. He proposed using appropriated German electronic parts for the computer – copper-oxide rectifiers and reliable pentodes (the Soviet analogues were the 6Zh4 electronic vacuum tubes). Cheap and available oscilloscope cathode ray tubes were used as storage devices, and wide rolls of German army teletype paper were used for data input-output. In the end it all came together and the M-1 became the first Soviet small-size computer, using semiconductor elements and memory storage on ordinary oscilloscope cathode ray tubes.
The laboratory's young collective was full of enthusiasm. They worked from morning till late in the evening, inspired by the idea of building the first digital computer that would open the new age of scientific technical progress.
Matyuhin was living with his mother at the outskirts of Moscow, in a tiny 5 square meter room, which could barely accommodate a table and two beds. Matyuhin was so absorbed in his work, that he usually finished around midnight, by which time he neither had the energy nor strength to go home. He would often end up spending the night in the laboratory. This cycle went on for months on end. Kartsev's personal situation was similarly uncomfortable. To make matters worse, while studying at the Energy Institute, he came down with tuberculosis but quickly recovered.
Certainly, this group would not have been as productive if not for their involvement in team sports. Every Sunday was devoted to exercise and the team often went hiking at Istra water storage pond. They also constructed a volleyball court near the laboratory building and enthusiastically played during their infrequent breaks.[4]
The M-1 computer went into operation less than a year and a half after its inception. Out of the nine members of the team, only Brook had an advanced scientific degree. Considering the conditions they worked in, the M-1 was quite a remarkable accomplishment for the young scientists. Brook, Alexandridi, Zalkind, Kartsev, Matyuhin, and the other members of the team kept the final project report, "The Automatic M-1 Computer," approved by Director of the Power Engineering Institute Academician Krzhizhanovsky on December 15, 1951. Kartsev later commented on this period:
In 1950, the Electric Systems Laboratory of the Power Engineering Institute, managed by Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences Isaak Brook, assembled the original team of young scientists who would advance Soviet computer technology. Nikolai Matyuhin, currently a Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, was the first one of us to receive his diploma. Back in the 1950, he was a young specialist, assisted by several graduate students from the Moscow Energy Engineering Institute. I, a fifth-year undergraduate engineer, was admitted on a part-time basis. Yuri Rogachov came to us after his release from the Army. Now he has the State Prize of the Soviet Union, a Candidate of Technical Sciences, and is a Senior Engineer at the Institute. Rene Shidlovsky was a young specialist, a recent graduate from a technical college that was sent to work in out lab. He is now Deputy Senior Constructor, manager of one of the leading departments of the Institute, and Laureate of the State Prize of the Soviet Union. Altogether, we were a group of about ten people. Before coming to the laboratory, not only were we not computer specialists, but we didn't even know about the existence of computers or their possibility. Nevertheless, we began making one of the first Soviet computers—the M-1. We may have been overconfident, but never careless and always professional in out work.
In the beginning of 1950, a strange part was discovered amongst the items delivered from a war reparations warehouse. I cannot say exactly who found it; maybe Brook, maybe Matyuhin or Rameev, who had worked for us earlier. For a long time none of us could guess its origin or purpose, until later we figured out that it was a miniature copper-oxide rectifier. Once the value of this part was fully understood, the M-1 became the world's first computer whose logic circuits were based on semiconductors.
In the summer of 1951, roughly at the same time, both the MESM and the M-1 computers began operating.[5] The first tasks to be solved on the M-1 were set by the academician Sobolev, who at the time was academician Igor Kurchatov's deputy for science exploration. The M-1 had an operating speed of only 15-20 (not thousands or millions) instructions per second with 23-digits numbers, and a storage capacity of 256 words. Many famous scientists and official state visitors came to the laboratory to see our technical marvel.
Such interest in Brook's new device was quite natural. There were no other functioning computers in Moscow. At this time the BESM was still being assembled at the Institute for Precision Mechanics, and SKB-245's Strela was in the same condition.
Yuri Rogachov remembered:
In May of 1950 I was discharged from the army, where I had been a radio operator, and began looking for a job. I had no specialized education and – as was the rule – I was expected to become a student before any job prospects would be open to me. I didn't like that plan. One day, as I was walking along the Lenin Prospect [in Moscow] – at that time it was still called the Great Kaluga Street – when I noticed a small sign on the wall of building No. 18. It read "Electro Systems Laboratory." I decided to inquire within. I was ushered into the office of the Laboratory Director, where a number of people were congregating. During our conversation, a short, heavy-set man walked into the room. He stopped near me, blurted out, "Are you looking for a job?" and immediately started asking about my experience in the army. He said that I would have to work on devices and working principles for a new direction in technology. He spoke as if I was already a member of the laboratory staff. That was my first encounter with Brook.
I began working at the lab in June of 1950. On my very first day on the job, Brook told me about the automatic digital computer project, and the new group that was being formed under Matyuhin's leadership. He pointed to a tall, slender young man in his office, and that was how I met Matyuhin. Nikolai Yakovlevich briefly told me about the lab and showed me around. The Electro Systems Laboratory was divided into two halves: one part was located within the main building belonging to ENIN – No. 19 Lenin Prospect. The other part was on the first floor and in the basement of the right wing of the building No. 18. Most of the time, engineers and energy specialists had the ENIN building at their disposal. A mechanical integrator was located there, which they used to solve various problems. Building No. 18 had a calculating stand with alternating current, intended for modeling complex electrical circuits.
Matyuhin taught me about the digital electronic computer, about how with the assistance of an electronic circuit one could execute arithmetic operations. He explained that the most suitable basis for those calculations was the binary system, which consists of only two digits – 0 and 1. He showed me how these digits could be represented in electronic trigger circuits. He also explained in great detail how to work with the arithmetic unit. In the end, I modeled an electronic trigger scheme based on Matyuhin's design.
Despite the fact that Matyuhin had just graduated from the Energy Institute, he handled the role of chief designer of the M-1 brilliantly. Moreover, together with Brook he invented the concept of a "small" computer, which they managed to build despite the scarcity of the materials available to the laboratory. The entire project was financed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences. To prepare the space for assembly and installation of the computer, they constructed a 1.5 by 1.5 meter base in a room of only 15 square meters. At the center of the base, they installed a square vertical ventilation column, with holes for cooling. There were three frames for mounting electronic circuit panels positioned on the sides of the column: a frame for the arithmetic unit, a frame for the main program unit, and a frame for a storage device. Under the base, a ventilator that supplied the frames with a cool airflow was installed. As the completed panels were received from the assemblers they were installed according to their positions in the frames. The off-line adjustment of the unit as a whole was a step-by-step process that didn't rely on having the complete set of panels. The mounting and separate circuits were checked at the same time.
Using this kind of assembly method considerably shortened the timetable for starting the complex fine-tuning of the computer. After the mounting of the panels was completed in December 1950, the off-line adjustments of the arithmetic unit only took a month and a half, and were completed in January 1951. At the same time the preparation and the off-line adjustment of the main program control unit continued. During the adjustment phase of the equipment on the frames, Matyuhin and Kartsev worked 16–18 hours per day. By spring of 1951, the magnetic drum with a cylinder coated with ferromagnetic material had been produced as well. The adjustments of the magnetic memory – alignment of the magnetic heads and electronic circuits for reading and recording – began after that. This was done by Zhurkin under Matyuhin's supervision. When Zalkind came to the laboratory, he also became involved in the fine-tuning of the arithmetic unit and later designed the input-output unit.
The first half of 1951 was devoted to the adjustment of units in the off-line mode, the fitting of their electrical and functional interfaces and then, the complex adjustment of the computer as a whole. By the summer holidays, the computer had reached the point where it could perform all arithmetic operations in manual (non-automatic) mode. The overall success of the project established a family-like atmosphere among the team members, which was nurtured by Brook's fatherly attitude toward his staff. We worked very hard; motivated in part by Brook's overwhelming ambition and in part because we were young and just beginning our careers. The project never seemed tedious either, mostly because we were delighted to be at the forefront of this emerging technology. In fact, it was actually quite enjoyable. The newness of the work, our enthusiasm and desire to obtain new results as soon as possible – each step forward yielded exciting results – made us lose track of time. We gladly worked overtime without extra compensation, starting in the early morning and finishing late in the evening.
At the end of August we began the final calibrations: running the arithmetic and logic operations in automatic mode. And with the operation of the input-output device, programming began. The first programs were designed for simple tasks. One of them was a calculation table for the function y = x2. This task had one feature: the values of the "y" function for positive and negative values of "x" were identical. Thus, we could check the computer's calculations by comparing the results. It was a lucky break because at the time we had no idea about special test programs for checking the accuracy of a computer. One could say that the parabolic equation y = x2 was the first test program for the M-1. The second one was a program for the equation y = 1/x. With the solution of these equations, the M-1's complex adjustment was complete.
At the beginning of 1952, the M-1 went into trial operation. Various tasks were solved on it, with the aim of checking the technical solutions and refining the programming technology. It became clear, for example, that we needed a control panel and a "Stop" operation, which the design engineers had not foreseen.
During that period, everybody took an active role in operating the computer and identifying the strong and the weak features in its circuitry.
Zalkind remembered an interesting episode concerning the M-1's operation and usage by the military:
Machine time on the M-1 became extremely important for 'The Beard' group, a clandestine governmental department.[6] The Beard's right-hand man responsible for mathematics – because the term "software" did not yet exist – was the well-known Sergei Lvovich Sobolev. He often visited the M-1's room and was very supportive of our work. His group needed to calculate the reverse matrix of large dimensions, which was done on the M-1 in the beginning of 1952.
At this time we began receiving the first domestic 6Zh4 electronic vacuum tubes, but our attempts to change out the German variants for domestic ones were a complete fiasco because of the wide deviation of the cut-off voltage in domestic pentodes. All work on the M-1, even the testing, completely stopped. It was very frustrating for Sobolev, but for our team it was a complete disaster.
I was sent to the Svetlana Vacuum Tube Manufacturing Plant in Leningrad [today St. Petersburg] to obtain several hundred 6Zh4 vacuum tubes that had passed the quality control inspection. To fill this order, we had built a simple stand with a wall outlet plug and a single tube socket, a power supply for the pentode and a current tester. We had also prepared a basic business letter: "As part of your technical assistance to us, we kindly ask you to allow our representative, Mr. Zalkind, to select from your 6Zh4 tubes. We guarantee payment."
Just before leaving for Leningrad, Sobolev visited us. He told me: "Should any problems come up, you must make a telephone call... and at the start of the conversation don't forget the password..." Sobolev then mentioned the name of a well-known flower.
After such an unusual briefing, I remember feeling fearful and insecure as I walked up to the office of Svetlana's Senior Engineer, Mr. Gavrilov. I nervously waited near the door, while Gavrilov, without getting up from his armchair, suddenly barked: "Looking for tubes?" "Yes," I answered. He retorted: "Get out of here!"
Feeling miserable, I returned to the hotel, but then remembered Sobolev's parting words. I made the call. After someone answered, I named the flower. The voice on the other end of the receiver gave me the address of an apartment building on Nevsky Prospekt [the main boulevard in St. Petersburg] opposite a knitwear shop. I went there; it looked like a typical apartment. They let me in, listened attentively and said: "We act only on the level of the Third Secretary of the Regional Communist Party Committee. You need to wait two days and then call us back in the same manner."
Two days later they answered my call: "Everything is in order with Gavrilov. You may visit him again."
At the Svetlana plant, Gavrilov smiled, shook my hand and issued an order to provide me with everything I needed. I brought 300 6Zh4 vacuum tubes to Moscow.
Those were the type of strategies used by the "Gordorstroi" [the common Soviet abbreviation at the time for the MGB, the Security Ministry responsible for supplying the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons project]. With the M-1 working around-the-clock, Sobolev was pleased.
Returning to Rogachov's reminiscences:
Encouraged by the M-1's success, in April of 1952 Brook asked a group of engineers and technicians under Kartsev's management to create a new and improved computer with more advanced features that ever before. Again, the young team pulled off this seemingly impossible task, and by the end of 1952, just six months later, a new, more powerful computer was being installed and prepared for adjustment.
Kartsev talked about how he started out in science and the M-2 computer project at the 15th Anniversary meeting in 1967, before a group that he established himself at the Institute of Computer Complexes of the Ministry of Radio Production of the Soviet Union:
In the spring of 1952, immediately after I had received my diploma, Brook assigned me to a group of seven people to design and build the M-2 computer. Today, it's difficult for me to understand how we managed to do it. We developed the technical documentation first, then watched as parts were manufactured at a number of sites – an experimental factory of the Institute of Combustible Mineral Resources of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, an experimental construction branch of the MEI, the Sokol medical equipment plant, and about ten other places. Then we gathered all of the parts and began assembling the computer. We started in the spring of 1952 and by October 10th the first two frames – the control and arithmetic units – were operating, just in time for the opening of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. By November 7, 1952, we had finished the power supply frame and the magnetic drum. And on December 5th – the Constitution Day – the electronic memory was installed and tested. By January 1953, the computer began operating using a magnetic drum, and in summer 1953 it was fully operational.
Generally speaking, the M-2 machine remained the only one of its kind. The Chinese tried to copy it, but we have no definite confirmation that it actually worked.[7] It was a serious computer, used for large-scale and very important calculations were. Strictly speaking, over the course of several years, there were only two operating computers in the Soviet Union: our M-2, and the BESM of the Institute of Precision Mechanics.
Sobolev conducted large-scale calculations for Kurchatov. By a special government order, we were commissioned to make calculations on the stability of the dams for the Kuibyshev and Volzhskaya hydroelectric power stations. These calculations were managed by the Institute of Precision Mechanics. We also conducted calculations on our computer for M.A. Mikheyev from the Alikhanov Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (at that time called the Academy of Sciences Heat Engineering Laboratory) and many, many others.
All calculations done on the M-2 computer were approved and coordinated exclusively by Brook. However, the first actual shakedown calculation on the M-2 violated this "iron" rule, but Brook didn't find out about it until 15 years later. Here is what happened. At the end of 1953, when the adjustment of the M-2 was completed, Brook went on vacation to Kislovodsk, a famous resort town in the Soviet Union. At the same time, a group of scientists at the Combustion Physics Laboratory in the Power Engineering Institute, directed by Tatiana Bazhenova, were completing tables of thermodynamic and gas-dynamic air parameters necessary to build fire-proof protective shells for rocket hulls. The group had begun calculations in the summer 1953 and promised to finish them by December.
Bazhenova recalled:
Despite the fact that the calculations accounted for only two components of the air – oxygen and nitrogen – the task was extremely time consuming. It required solving dissociation equations for oxygen and nitrogen, then adding ionization equations for their atoms to form nitric oxide, then adding equations of collision processes, and finally, applying the law of conservation of energy and wave interference laws of gas dynamics. As a result, a system of thirteen differential equations had to be solved by a method of sequential approximation.
At first, the problem was given to two laboratory technicians, but no matter how hard they tried to complete the work on time, the calculations proved too cumbersome for them. So it was turned over to the First Moscow Factory of Mechanical Calculations, where an entire staff of young women with hand computers attempted to solve the problem. The work went faster, but the completion deadline loomed even closer. At that time, BESM was the only electronic computer that worked on serious, urgent orders and it was booked ahead for a long time. And then some unexpected help materialized.
We knew that in the neighboring laboratory directed by Brook, there was work was going on with some kind of a new secret machine. On my birthday, friends from that laboratory with whom I used to go on ski trips, came over and presented me with some ski grease, which back then was scarce. The cans of grease were stacked one on top of another and wrapped with paper tape covered with straight lines of numbers. Despite the fact that I knew almost nothing about computers, I noticed that the paper tape resembled computation printouts. "Is this your tape?" I asked the guys. "Yes, it's ours," they replied. After this it was easy to guess what kind of secret machine was being created in the laboratory next door. Through Prziemsky, our laboratory Communist Party organizer, we turned to our friends, Misha Kartsev, Yuri Lavrienyuk and Tamara Alexandridi. They understood our difficulties, plus the computer had not yet come on line and had no orders. Consequently, the "Brookians" decided to test the M-2 using our problem. At the same time, our missile specialists were camped out around the clock near the building No. 18 on Lenin Prospect. As the portions of the tables were completed, they took turns taking them back to our lab to perform additional calculations for the coating of the hulls of our first intercontinental ballistic missiles. In retrospect, the rush was justified: possession of such missiles gave our country weapons parity with the United States.[8]
The M-2 was never mass-produced, despite its excellent construction and time proven superb performance. During the fifteen years it was operational at the Power Engineering Institute in Moscow; it was responsible for solving a wide range of problems in many different branches of science and technology.
During the M-2's construction, Kartsev talent really shined through. Unlike the small M-1 computer, the M-2 was appropriately classified as a large machine. During its first period of operation it had the same speed of 2000 instructions per second as the Strela and the BESM. The M-2 represented Kartsev's first step towards founding his own scientific school, where the main focus would become the creation of specialized supercomputers.
In Brook's laboratory, almost simultaneously with the M-2, design work began on a smaller electronic computing machine – the M-3; Brook appointed Matyuhin to manage this project.
The decision to begin design work on two computers at the same time by such a small design team can be attributed to the fact that Brook's two leading scientists, Matyuhin and Kartsev, had been striving for independent work and begun to display leadership skills early on. Such characteristics were quickly noticed by the shrewd scientific director Brook.
The M-3 could have also remained a one-of-a-kind machine (its development was not officially sanctioned by the government), had it not been for the academician Viktor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian. Upon his arrival in Moscow in 1954, he asked his friend Andronick Gevondovich Iosifian, Director of the All-Union Soviet Scientific Research Institute of Electro-mechanics [today the Vserossiskii nauchno-isledovatel'skii institut elektromekhaniki, or VNIIEM], to help him obtain a computer for the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Iosifian turned to Brook, and the two of them agreed to manufacture three M-3s at the Institute of Electro-mechanics, which had its own manufacturing facility. One computer was to be built for the Institute of Electro Mechanics, one for the Yerevan Institute of Mathematics of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, and another for Korolev's space program. They formed a joint group of specialists: Matyuhin (from Brook's laboratory), Boris Moiseevich Kagan, George Petrovich Lopato (from Iosifian's Institute), and others. In 1956, the first of the M-3's was fine-tuned and presented to the State Commission, together with technical documentation required for industrial mass- production.
Boris Kagan, the informal leader of the joint group, spoke about the M-3 computer at a ceremonial meeting celebrating Isaak Brook's 90th birthday:
...Because the M-3 was actually a self-initiated project, independent of any state plans, the State Commission headed by Bruevich and assisted by Shura-Bura showed its true character by not wanting to acknowledge this computer, claiming that it was "born illegitimately." Although they did eventually accept it, two years went by without it's going into mass production. During this time, the Yerevan Institute of Mathematical Machines was founded and began producing its own computers using our documentation for the M-3.[9] At the same time, the first industrial computer factory in Minsk, Belarus, was built, but had nothing to produce. The factory managers learned that Iosifian had a model of a computer but nobody had given him permission to make it. Only then were the M-3's documents transferred from the Institute of Electro Mechanics to the factory in Minsk and the M-3 computer became the basis for computer manufacturing in Yerevan and Minsk.
I would also like to note that the first computers in Hungary and China were built using our documentation. As for the Institute of Electro-mechanics, this work became the springboard for the development of a foundation for large-scale research and production of control computers and systems.
So in the end, the "Brook Brigade" succeeded in joining the ranks of the designers of industrial mass-produced computers.
[3] Translator's Note: Alexandridi is a common name among thousands of Greeks living in the Black Sea region of the Soviet Union. However, for inhabitants of Central Russia the name sounded strange, and thus aroused suspicion at the domestic security service in Moscow.
[4] Translator's Note:Sunday was the only official day off in the Soviet seven-day calendar week from 1936–1965. Before 1935, the official Soviet week was equal to six days that had no names such as Monday, Tuesday etc. Every sixth day was a day off. After Stalin's Constitution of 1936, a seven-day week was declared, with ordinary day names. Until 1965, Sunday was the only day off and Saturday was an ordinary working day.
[5] Author's Note:Kartsev meant that the M-1 had started to do arithmetic operations in semi-automatic mode. The total outfitting of the M-1 was completed at the end of the year. As the M-1 designers have noted, the real operation of the M-1 started in January, 1952. In Brook's book The High Performance M-2 Computer (1957), he claimed that M-1 began to operate in spring of 1952.
[6] Translator's note: In Russian boroda, or beard, was the affectionate nickname given by his employees to Igor Kurchatov, scientific head of the Soviet nuclear weapons program. Kurchatov fashioned wearing a long beard.
[7] Author's Note: Tsai Chuan Yuan wrote for Druzhba magazine (no.11, 1958) "2000 Instructions Per Second," claiming that the Chinese M-2 began operating in October 1958.; Translator's Note: Druzhba [Friendship] was a popular, mass-circulation illustrated magazine, dedicated to Soviet-Chinese relations.
[8] Author's note: In 1968, 15 years later, Bazhenova wrote about this incident in the article "Space in Tubes" in Science and Life magazine.
[9] Author's Note: These Armenian machines included the Aragats, and Razdan-1 and Razdan-2 computers.
At a 1956 session of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Brook presented a report on automation in which he set forth the major directions of computer usage in the industrial sector. Two years later, he wrote a proposal, "The Development of Theory, Principles of Construction, and Application of Special Computing and Control Machines," and submitted it to the Soviet government.
Essentially, these two documents were the first drafts of a program to automate the Soviet Union's economy with computers. For the first time in domestic practice, the question of computer application in areas other than their traditional use, such as technology, physics and mathematics, was being considered. There was also a need to resolve the serious problem of controlling technical installations and performing economic computations, such as the calculation of balances between various industrial sectors, optimized distribution of transported goods, price determination, etc.[10]
Brook's 1958 report was the first step toward the organization of a number of new scientific-research institutions and construction bureaus at the end of 1950s. In 1956, a former electric systems laboratory at the Power Engineering Institute was reorganized as the Control Machines and Systems Laboratory [in Russian: Laboratoriya Upravlayuschikh Mashin i Sistem, or LUMS]. Later in 1958, the Institute of Electronic Control Machines (in Russian: Institut Elektronnikh Upravlyaushikh Mashin, or INEUM) was established and Brook became its first Director. At the same time, the Presidium of the Soviet Academy of Sciences confirmed Brook's assigment to the position of scientific manager for the state project "Development of the Theory, Principles of Construction and Application of Control Computers."
At the Institute of Electronic Control Machines, under Brook's management, the following computers were built:
The M-4 (1957–1960) for the solution of special system tasks at the Radio Technology Institute.
The M-5 (1959–1964) for economics tasks, planning and management of the state economy.
The M-7/200 and M-7/800 (1966–1969) for control of power generation units (the Konakovo Heat Electrical Generating Station, Slavyanskaya Heat Electrical Generating Station) and technological processes.
After retiring in 1964, Brook stayed on at the Institute as a scientific consultant and manager of its scientific-technical council, maintaining an active interest in its work. In the last five years of his life, he received 16 invention certificates. He is credited with more than 100 scientific works, including more than 50 inventions. Brook's contribution to science and technology was highly valued by the Soviet government: he was awarded four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor and a series of several medals.
[10] Translator's Note:These sorts of economic problems were to a great extent the result of the Soviet Union's centrally planned economy, controlled by government units. For example, the price calculations of durable goods were not set by their manufacturers, but instead by a central state body, the State Prices Committee.
A portrait of Brook drawn from the official materials alone cannot provide an accurate picture of this complex and controversial person. Vladimir Danilovich Belkin, a doctor of economics and a professor at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, had worked alongside Brook for many years. Towards the end of his career, Brook became interested in economic problems connected with emerging economic reforms. Belkin recalled:
Brook was one of the few people who responded to the need for radical economic reform. He wanted to build socialism if not with a human, then with at least a proper economic face. But all of this was horribly sabotaged from 'above.' There was hardly anything left of the old monolith, yet it was expected to continue supporting the entire system. The leaders saw assassination attempts on the old system in every proposal from our economists. Brook clearly predicted that our national economy was headed towards a collapse, claiming that it was due to insufficient communication between our dual systems of government – the Soviet Ministries, GOSPLAN, etc. – and the Communist party. 'Our overall government system, which the party created, could react rapidly to the party, but the party lacked the ability to react to the government,' Brook declared. Only a person with Brook's sagacity could say such things in public.
The big battle occurred in GOSPLAN regarding pricing politics; its director, Pyetr Fedayevich Lomako – the last bureaucrat of the Stalinist era – told Brook, 'You have attacked the authority of GOSPLAN and this mutiny will cost you dearly.' Brook was forced to retire.[11]
Veterans of Brook's laboratory, Alexandridi, Zalkind, Rogachev, and others, helped me describe Brook's character. Alexandridi recalled:
To me, Isaak Semyonovich seemed to be both distinguished and formidable back then. Judging by today's standards, he was a relatively young scientist, only in his late forties. But at the time, I saw him as an old man with advanced scientific degrees and accolades.
He wanted to do everything faster. He literally flew through the laboratory, running from one worker to another, asking about the progress of various projects, giving advice, listening carefully to requests, and making notes about incomplete work.
Intellectually gifted, highly educated, and quite demanding of himself, Brook drew great admiration from others who wished to imitate him. He treated his colleagues like a stern but caring father. For example, when he discovered that Matyuhin had no coat, he brought him his own leather jacket. He tried to help others in similar ways.
Brook inspired us with his enthusiasm and obsession with work, teaching us that we could overcome any obstacles. We were young and seldom realized what kind of person was working next to us. Now, after considerable experience in my field, I have come to understand that I have never met a person of Brook's caliber, even though I have worked with many other academicians.
His extraordinary talent, energy, ability to attract people to his work, encyclopedic knowledge -- he seemed to know everything -- outstanding mathematical education, and a never-ending stream of ideas, demonstrated what an exceptional person Brook really was.
Brook's Laboratory technicians N. N. Lenov and N. V. Pautin recalled:
He was never superficial or hypocritical, which is the reason why he appeared to the outside world – at the scientific councils, meetings, and conferences – as an ill-tempered, quarrelsome opponent, a hair-splitting critic, in brief – an enfant terrible. Only someone like him could say, for example: 'This technology is from the Stone Age!' when describing the 'Strela,' the first mass-produced Soviet computer.
Alexandridi further commented:
Brook was a very secretive person and made everyone adhere to the strict rule of keeping all of the information about the laboratory stay inside its walls. He avoided participating in government projects, which tended to attract other groups of people. The work on the M-1, M-2, and M-3 computers was carried out as internal projects, ordered by the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. We worked under difficult conditions. There was always a feeling that we were making the computers illegally, and since they were not a part of any State plan and hence, there were no guarantees that would be able to obtain modern equipment or parts for them. Sometimes, we were forced to use tools and components from a German property reparations warehouse.
Brook was always brimming with new ideas and so preoccupied with innovation that sometimes, in the middle of the development, he abandoned not only the project, but the people involved as well.
Pautin agreed:
Those character traits could only hinder the advancement of his career. Barely a third of the M-3 computers that were developed in his laboratory went into a modest mass-production, but later experienced a rebirth in the industry. It was not until 1958 that Brook was able to organize the INEUM that he had conceived of long before.
Lenov:
'It is impossible to make a scientist,' he would say, insisting that the conventional scientific postgraduate path was ineffective. 'Get involved in the work and everything will pan out!' he would say. He did not hurry even his best students – Matyuhin and Kartsev. Moreover, he contributed to the delay of their thesis defenses, believing that in the beginning they should obtain extensive engineering experience. Maybe that was why he could not keep them on staff. Both of them left the Institute and later became great scientists and founders of their own scientific schools.
I met Brook in March of 1956 during a conference on the "Development of Soviet Machinery and Instrument Building" in Moscow, a meeting that drew specialists in computer technology from all over the Soviet Union. The plenary session in the great hall at Moscow State University was overcrowded. The conference was opened by its organizer, academician Lebedev. Professor D. Y. Panov made the first report, "The History and Development of Electronic Computers," in which he remarked:
At the present time, everybody knows about the universal electronic computer BESM, built in 1952 under the academician Lebedev's supervision. The performance of this computer surpasses all European models and most American computers.
During the International Conference in Darmstadt in autumn 1955, academician Lebedev gave an overview of this machine, which was highly rated by the foreign scientists and engineers who visited the conference.
At this Conference you will hear the reports of many Soviet scientists and engineers, including academician Lebedev's report "High Speed Universal Computers," about the Soviet digital electronic computer M-2, designed under the management of the Corresponding Member of the AS USSR Brook, and about the Strela, developed by Bazilevsky and others. You will also hear reports by Ushakov, Gutenmacher, Korolkov, and others, about our work on simulation devices.
I have to say that I paid close attention to the reports, and closely scrutinized the faces of the conference participants during the breaks in the hope to become better acquainted with the people I haven't met before. I presented my paper on "Devices Based on the Combination of Crystal and Magnetic Elements," at the section on universal digital computers. Tamara Alexandridi also appeared at this section. Her paper, "The Electrostatic Memory Device of the M-2," and she personally – young, graceful, and vivacious – attracted my attention. I approached her with some questions, and later managed to visit the Electro-Systems Laboratory where she worked.
Back then, Isaak Brook was 54 years old and at the height of his career. After the conference I saw him a few more times. Brook passed away on October 6, 1974, only three months and three days after Lebedev died.
I had also become better acquainted with Matyuhin and Kartsev. Nevertheless, my knowledge of them at that time, and later, did not extend beyond the information about the machines that were built under their supervision, or the books and articles they had written. When I decided to write this book, they were already gone.
George Lopato (I will talk about him in Chapter 4) and Tamara Alexandridi helped me tremendously in preparing this book. Almost forty years after the 1956 conference, Alexandridi shared with me a great deal of insight and information about the "Brook Brigade," herself, and her husband Matyuhin, whom she married in the 1950s.
As a rule, Brook invited only men to work in his laboratory. Alexandridi was the sole woman to work with the group responsible for the development of M-1. Brook was intrigued by Alexandridi's atypical surname, which she got from her father, a "russified" Greek from Krasnodar.
Alexandridi was born on September 26, 1924. When she was two years old, the family moved to Moscow, where she was raised by her mother. She studied in the Moscow Radio Club and received a special degree as a radio operator. At the beginning of the Second World War she volunteered for the Army, witnessed the siege of Sevastopol, and lived through the great battle at the Volga, all the time working as a radio operator. She returned to Moscow in June 1945 with Second Order Award of the Great Patriotic War, and five medals. Later that year she enrolled at the Moscow Energy Institute and in 1950 was sent to Brook's laboratory. At the time we met again, 40 years later, she had become a professor at the department of automated systems at the Moscow Automobile Roads Institute, where she still teaches.
[11] Author's note: In the late 1950s INEUM was pulled out of the Academy of Sciences and transferred to aid in the creation of the State Economic Committee under GOSPLAN.
Having being rigorously trained by Isaak Brook, Matyuhin went on to become a great scientist and the founder of his own scientific school. He was born in Leningrad in 1927. His father, Yakov Vasilievich was born in 1880 into a peasant family, and he had worked as a factory electrician in Petrograd until the 1917 revolution.[12] His wife, Margarita Fedorovna, was a housekeeper.
Yakov Matyuhin participated in the revolutionary movement, was a member of the regional committee of the Socialist Democratic Revolutionary Party (SDRP) between 1909 and 1910, in the Vyborg district of Petrograd. He was well acquainted with Kalinin, Dzhugashvili, Ordzhonikidze and other famous members of the SDRP.[13] They all used Matyuhin's apartment as a secret meeting place. After the revolution, Matyuhin abandoned political activism and worked again as an electrician. In 1932, Kalinin secured a job transfer to Moscow for him, and the family was given an apartment in a government house on Granovsky Street. At the time, the Matyuhins gave little thought to what might come of this, because they were happy to be living in a nice apartment in the capital.
In 1935 Nikolai Matyuhin started school. He was a fast learner and his parents were happy with his academic success. His mother Margarita was a highly educated person, well read, and a wonderful storyteller; she supported the comprehensive development and education of her son.
This happy childhood was destroyed by Stalin's repression. In 1937 Yakov Matyuhin was arrested and the family never found out what happened to him (in 1957, he was posthumously exonerated). The family was evicted from Moscow. After selling their personal belongings, his mother managed to rent a small room in a wooden house at the outskirts of Moscow, in the village of Solntsevo. At the beginning of the Second World War in August 1941, the Matyuhin family was evacuated to the city of Penza, where they lived with relatives.
After graduating from secondary school in 1944, Nikolai Matyuhin entered the Moscow Energy Institute's radio technology department. He received only excellent marks and during his third year became involved in the invention of a new radio transmission system with improved electric power efficiency. He received two invention certificates for his work on this system. In February 1950, he graduated with honors and in accordance with the recommendations of the State Examination Commission, sent his application for post-graduate work to the Moscow Energy Institute's transmitter's department, a naive move on his part.
The Energy Institute personnel commission rejected his candidacy because his father had been repressed by Stalin. Thus he came to Brook's laboratory, where he took on the role of the project manager for the M-1 and later, the M-3 computer.
I wanted to find some of Matyuhin's personal reminiscences about this period. Searching my archive, I found an old issue of Power, the Moscow Energy Institute's newspaper, from October 23, 1976. The entire issue was dedicated to the department of computer technology celebrating its 25th anniversary, and there I found Matyuhin's article, "First Steps." When it was first published, Matyuhin was already a professor with a PhD in Technical Sciences. He wrote:
During my final semester at the Radio Technology Department of the Moscow Energy Institute, I became seriously interested in the field of meter-wavelength radio transmitters, and never expected that after finishing the Institute it would lead to a sharp change in the direction of my career. Within a month of defending my diploma project, I got to meet the Energy Institute's Assistant Rector, Chursin. He introduced me to a rather short, but very lively and energetic man, who immediately started asking detailed questions about my interests and my work. Finally, he invited me to join some 'cutting edge' work at one of the Academy of Science institutes. The man was the academician Isaak Brook, my future chief and mentor.
At that time, the Academy of Sciences seemed like Mount Everest to me, inaccessible to ordinary mortals. Just being there seemed incredible. I should explain that placement of post-graduate specialists from the Radio Technology Department was 'harsher' than that of normal higher education institutions. Most of our post-graduates were not sent to research institutes, but to factories, primarily in faraway Soviet cities.
I accepted Brook's proposal without hesitation, although I could not imagine exactly what 'cutting edge' work meant. From my point of view, any work at the Academy of Sciences would be fascinating! And that is exactly how it turned out – I became a part of a team that created of one of the first Soviet digital computers.
Computer development in Moscow was handled by three very different groups in terms of their organizational structure: academician Lebedev's group at the Institute for Precision Mechanics, Brook's group at the Power Engineering Institute, and Bazilevsky's group at SKB-245.
Our group was the smallest of all, which was the most likely reason why Brook directed our efforts towards small (for that time) computers. He had assembled about ten post-graduates from the Energy Institute, the Moscow Aviation Institute, and Nizhniy-Novgorod University. Naturally, none of the recruits could possibly imagine the complexity of the work, and had no fears about building the computer, while the seasoned specialists, knowing the level of radio-electronic technology back then would have had serious doubts about the feasibility of our task. Luckily, we were not familiar with the reliability theory, and had no idea that vacuum tubes and other electronic parts malfunctioned quite often. Hence, we started the work unencumbered by doubts.
My first job was assembling combination three-entry adders for 6X6 diode vacuum tubes. After an initial search for the correct combinations of zeros and ones, I remembered learning something similar in O.A. Goryianov's course, "Automation and Telemechanics," at the Energy Institute. When I originally took it with my classmates, also radio operators, we considered it secondary to studying radar or impulse technology. In those days, technical literature was in a very short supply, so I always kept scrupulous notes from all of the lectures on technical subjects. I remember searching through them and using some Boolean algebra equations in the progress report for Brook, which highly impressed him.
It was extremely interesting to work with Brook, especially since all of us were very young. He personally managed our group's activities, and that was truly inspiring. However, conversations in his office were rather rare. Usually in the morning, he swept into our room and started talking right there at the workbench. It seems to me that the success of our first computer and its rapid development was partly due to Brook's decision to use large-scale semiconductor elements. At that time, these were available only in the form of miniature copper-oxide rectifiers, which were produced for the needs of measurement technology. Brook agreed to develop a specially modified rectifier that was same size as a typical resistor, and we came up with a set of circuit designs. We prepared and assembled the units in the laboratory workshop, and in less than a year the computer had already begun "to breathe" (with its several hundred vacuum tubes and several thousand copper-oxide rectifiers).
During M-1's construction, we were compelled to examine a wide variety of issues – from voltage regulators for powerful direct-current motor generators (that supplied the computer's secondary power) to the instructions system design and programming.
Our choice for the instruction system was not easy. Back then, the generally accepted and widely used method was a three-address instruction system based on von Neumann's work, which required categorical register equipment with a rather large word length and memory. Our limited options drove us to look for more economical solutions.
As it generally happens in hopeless situations, an accident helped us. Brook invited the young mathematician Yuri Schrader to work with us, and during a joint hands-on training session in programming, Schrader noticed that in many approximation formulas the calculated result of one operation was used as an operand for the next operation. From there, it was a short leap to the first two-address instruction system. Our proposals were approved by Brook and after the M-1, they were developed further in the M-3 computer. The next round of events led the M-3 to Minsk, where the building of the Ordzhonikidze factory, the first computer manufacturing plant in Belarus, was just completed. The original small batch of machines was made there, practically by hand, and later the plant began to develop and produce the well known Minsk computer series.
And that is how the genealogical roots of the Minsk series were found in the modest premises of the former electrical systems laboratory at the Power Engineering Institute. Finally, I would like to note that I intentionally limited myself here to the discussion about my teachers and senior managers. Much more could be said about my colleagues during those years, many of whom are well-known specialists in computer technology now, but that really requires a larger framework that goes beyond the mention of one or two names in a small article such as this.
In 1957, Nikolai Matyuhin transferred to the Scientific Research Institute of Electronic Computing Technology at the Radio Industry Ministry.[14] Being the chief engineer at the Institute, he participated in building a computer for the Soviet Union's air defense system, and was the principle designer of mass-produced computers and special control computer complexes. In 1962 Matyuhin successfully defended his Candidate's thesis, and in 1972 received a Doctorate of Technical Sciences degree. In 1979, in recognition for his role in the development of computer technology and as one of the founders of Soviet Union's computer industry, he was elected as a Corresponding Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Later in the year, he was awarded the State Prize of the Soviet Union for his work on control systems. He successfully combined his scientific research with teaching by becoming a professor at the Moscow Institute of Radio Electronics and Automation.
Some of Matyuhin's most important scientific achievements in computer theory and systems were the development of computer architecture principles and installation design for complex, widely separated, computer-aided real time control systems and their data transmission.
Matyuhin was the chief designer of a number of computers and complexes that played an important role in national defense. Under his guidance, families of sophisticated second and third generation computer complexes were designed. They were mass-produced and successfully put into operation. One such complex, for instance, was manufactured and used for more than ten years, thanks to its superior operational, technical, and architectural characteristics, which guaranteed effective system performance in various mobile and stationary air defense services.
For the first time in the Soviet Union, during the period from1968 through 1971, multi-complex computer systems were created under Matyuhin's supervision. They were based on ES-type computers, and showed their effectiveness for the applications in the developing systems. Between 1972 and 1975, further development of these principles enabled Matyuhin to build a center of data exchange for information networks. It was also the first large-scale Soviet effort in the rapidly changing field of science and technology during those years. Matyuhin published over one hundred scientific papers (including seven inventions) and in 1980 was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. His wife, Alexandridi, recalled, "In his private life, among colleagues, friends and family, Nikolai Matyuhin showed himself to be an extremely kind, modest and attentive person. He was very loyal to his friends, family and children."
She continued:
As far his character is concerned, he was a very enthusiastic and emotional man, who captivated people with his ideas. This could be said not just about his work, but also about his leisure activities – sports, entertaining friends, or travel.
Nikolai's favorite leisure pursuits were mostly amateur sports. In the summer during holidays, it was kayak boat trips with family and friends through the rivers of central Russia. Sometimes, it was car trips or bicycling. In the winter, he liked alpine skiing. He started skiing rather late, at the age of 40, but really took to it and quickly reached a high amateur standing.
Matyuhin died on March 4, 1984. Like many of his colleagues, Matyuhin had been deeply involved in the development of computers for military purposes, particularly at the Radio Industry Ministry. During the Cold War, most of the projects carried out under the Radio Industry Ministry's auspices were "closed," top-secret endeavors that intended to protect the Soviet Union from air attacks and other possible military conflicts. I will discuss some of these projects in the next chapter.
[12] Editor's note: Tsar Nicholas II changed the name of St. Petersburg to Petrograd in 1914 in order to inspire patriotism during World War I. After the revolution in 1924 the communists changed the city's name again to Leningrad. In 1991 the Russian government change the name again changed back to St. Petersburg.
[13] Editor's Note:Dzhugashvili was Stalin's family name. The name Stalin (steel) itself was a party alias, like Lenin, whose actual last name was Ulyanov. Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was one of the Lenin's fellow revolutionaries who took an active part in Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 and later became a member of the Politburo. He became part of Stalin's inner circle after Lenin's death and between 1930 and 1940 sanctioned massive repressions in the Soviet Union. Kalinin was one of the most faithful Communist Party servants yet his own wife was punished on Stalin's order. Kalinin served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet beginning in 1938. Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (Sergo) was a fellow Georgian and long-time friend of Stalin's. From 1932 he headed the Soviet heavy engineering industry. He was also a member of the Politburo, an ardent communist, and a popular figure. At the peak of Stalin's repression's in 1938 Ordzhonikidze committed suicide with his own revolver.
[14] Translator's Note: Despite its name, the Radio Industry Ministry was mainly responsible for design and production of electronic equipment for the Soviet Army Air Force, accounting for more than 80% of its products.