The Soviet government's rigid management was not the only cause for the long delays in BESM's mass production. The new M-20 computer – conceived by Lebedev soon after his initial defeat in the competition with Bazilevsky – was also to blame. The "20" referred to an anticipated performance of 20,000 operations per second. Lebedev himself recommended the M-20, not the BESM, for mass production. All the prerequisites for the M-20's success were in place: workers had finished the development of the new high-performance elements, the most up-to-date ferrite memory was installed, and the scientific team gained more members and experience. In addition and perhaps most importantly, Sergei Alexeevich had also secured a governmental resolution ordering Bazilevsky's SKB-245 project to cooperate with Lebedev and the Institute for Precision Mechanics. The Institute was directed to develop the machine philosophy, structure, design, and fundamental elements. Technical documentation and the experimental model would be constructed by SKB-245. Lebedev was appointed chief designer and constructor of the project and Mikhail Kirillovich Sulim (of SKB-245) his deputy.

Three men led the M-20 project: Lebedev, Mikhail Romanovich Shura-Bura, and Golovistikov. Lebedev developed the machine philosophy and structure, Shura-Bura formulated a system of commands and studied mathematical problems, and Golovistikov organized their results into specific layouts based on dynamic elements (mini vacuum tubes) that he had developed himself; he also designed systems for the arithmetic and control units. The structure of the machine, system of commands, and layout of the main units were completed quickly. Many new logic operations were employed and address modification introduced, which considerably simplified the programming. For increasing the speed and performance of the arithmetic unit, they developed a rigid command system that amplified signal speed. As a result, the execution time for simple adding operations decreased significantly, allowing for an increase in speed and performance. Moreover, it became possible to make shifts immediately on 1, 2, and 4 bit-positions, which accelerated the order alignment and normalization of the results from addition and subtraction operations. These and many other innovations had little effect on the number of vacuum tubes used. Actually, the number of diodes used increased, but over time the vacuum tubes were replaced by small but reliable germanium semiconductors.

At the same time, the team worked on the creation of ferrite memory, disk file memory, and peripheral devices. Near the end of 1955, construction of a prototype commenced at the institute. In 1956, adjustments on the machine were performed not only by the coworkers in Laboratory No. 1, but by scientists from other organizations as well. Many enterprises were interested in the rapid completion of the work because the Soviet Union was in desperate need of this class of computers.

Golovistikov remembered how Sergei Alexeevich exclaimed once, "It will be a good little machine!" At the beginning of 1957, the experimental model of the M-20 at SKB-245 was completed. Everyone had to regroup quickly and begin fine-tuning it. Lebedev assumed the most active role, just as he had done with the BESM's adjustment, while Sulim settled the organizational problems. But at first things did not go smoothly. Although all of the dynamic elements were repeatedly checked on the small models, their reliability once installed in the actual machine body was uncertain. Workers noted the problem during the adjustments phase, while the machine was still at the institute, but failed to diagnose them due to the brisk pace of the difficult development schedule of the experimental model. At SKB-245, some technical workers spread rumors about the inadequacy of the dynamic elements and the flaws in the elemental base. They proposed to do everything the old way, by employing a large number of tubes. Sergei Alexeevich and his team were understandably disappointed, because everything had been going so smoothly up until this time, and suddenly an obstacle appeared. As a result, Sulim got in trouble with the SKB-245 managers, who demanded that the work be completed in an unreasonably short amount of time.

Considering the M-20 situation, Sergei Alexeevich resolved to put the BESM into mass-production. There were several favorable conditions that substantially reduced the amount of work and allowed him to make that decision. First, the team had the ready-made components of M-20, which were suitable for use in the BESM. Second, they had already fabricated reliable mini-tubes that possessed the same features as larger tubes used earlier in the BESM, and high-voltage germanium diodes, which permitted replacement of the tube diodes used in the BESM without any modifications to the construction plans. Third, the ferrite memory of the M-20 was available and could be installed in the BESM instead of storage tubes.

The leading engineers Kiril Sergeevich Neslukhovsky, A.N. Zimariov, Vladimir Andreevich Melnikov, A.V. Avaev and others, spearheaded BESM's mass-production preparations. Since they had not been involved in the M-20 project or with any other specialized machine, they were able to complete all of the preparatory work for mass-producing BESM in less than nine months, using only the available technical documentation. BESM-2, which outwardly resembled the M-20, went into production at the beginning of 1958. Simultaneously, Golovistikov, Valery Nasarovich Lout and Andrei Andreevich Sokolov, refined the M-20 and improved its reliability.

Later that year the State Committee reviewed the M-20 and named it "the fastest computer in the world." After that, the M-20 and the BESM-2 both went into mass-production. The need for high-speed computers was so great that M-20 was initially delivered only to the institutions working on the most critical projects in the Soviet Union. Additional production of the BESM-2 slowly reduced the Soviet Union's high demand for computers designed for scientific calculations.

The scientific teams at both the Institute for Precision Mechanics and SKB-245 were nominated for Lenin Prizes for the M-20, but Lebedev suffered the same fate this time as he had with the MESM: the nomination was rejected. It still remains uncertain why this happened. I only know that one member of the State Awards committee, former director of the Institute for Precision Mechanics Bruevich, expressed his personal opinion about the technical level of the M-20, stating that at that time, the America's Naval Ordnance Research Calculator (NORC) was also performing 20,000 operations per second. This was not true. Bruevich failed to mention that NORC used in excess of 8000 vacuum tubes, whereas the M-20 only required 1600. Although he approved M-20's launch into mass production, his remarks also influenced the committee's decision to not award the Lenin Prize to Lebedev's team.

Despite his rivals, Lebedev was fortunate because he truly loved his work. While preparing this manuscript I visited one of the few still-living M-20 designers, Golovistikov, who spoke warmly about Lebedev, his ability to inspire his colleagues to be creative, and about his immense personal charm. Golovistikov remembered the period when BESM and M-20 were developed, specifically about how Sergei Alexeevich lived at that time, in a cramped sub-basement room, but the joy he extracted from his work allowed him to ignore all discomfort. At the end of our conversation I asked Petr Petrovich if he had any critical observations about his teacher. "There is one!" he replied, "After the BESM and M-20 were finished, I was appointed as the director of the laboratory for designing new computer components. My scientific work suffered because I had to deal with managerial issues, and I feel that I gave less to science than I could have." Like Sergei Alexeevich, Petr Petrovich was interested in neither high positions nor rewards, but in the work itself—to invent and create a more advanced computer. I will discuss the BESM series of machines in more detail in Chapter Four.