5 ms·

> Why didn’t they have more computers? > The USSR was hardly a backward country — they’d launched Sputnik > It (the computer) performed 250,000 calculations f

> Why didn’t they have more computers? > The USSR was hardly a backward country — they’d launched Sputnik > It (the computer) performed 250,000 calculations for artillery tables in about 2 and half hours. > Nearly all the computer usage was in the military and academia. One common argument ideologically charged people make to counter capitalism advancements is that cell phones were invented in the USSR. That might be the case but I suspect such technology was never intended to be distributed to the common person but for war and propaganda. I'm not a big fan of this kind of incentive.

anticodon 4y ago
USSR was almost destroyed by German invasion in 1941-1945. Because most of the population and almost all the industry resided (and continue to reside) in the western part of Russia/USSR, Germany destroyed immense amount of industry, infrastructure, houses, schools, hospitals. Even after capturing territories, Germany destroyed industrial plants because their plan was to completely eliminate people of Russian nationality and to use the captured lands for agriculture - to feed the Third Reich. Also, they killed almost 30 million of young productive citizen of USSR. It was a huge knock which almost no other country ever endured. And it set back the development of USSR. Also, those comments about war and propaganda are also inaccurate. USA started much more wars than USSR/Russia, and as the result of those wars USA killed at least 20 million of people, destroyed infrastructure and industry, plundered resources, e.g. oil of Iraq and Libya. And haven't built anything. If you'd really study the history, although I'm pretty sure you won't find any accurate information about USSR in the western history books, you'll learn, for example, how USSR built kindergardens, hospitals, schools and industry in Afghanistan and other countries. Investing the money and labor of Russian people in 3rd world countries. Had ever USA did the same?.. Other than printing another billion of USD and "giving" it to some other country, with 90% disappearing in somebody's pocket in transit. And don't get me even started on propaganda. Do you believe western society doesn't have propaganda? How comes then that you all have the same opinion about everything? Especially on external politics.
- irusensei 4y ago
  I'm not downsizing the capacity of their industrial and engineering prowess. I'm questioned the incentives. During the 50s the US and USSR promoted national exhibitions about each countries products and technology. The USSR exhibition happened in America and likewise the US exhibition happened in Moscow. Guess which side was more stunned by the achievements of the other country? The USSR version was all about satellites and factory projects while the US version was a showcase of modern housing utensils. This triggered the famous "Kitchen Debate" between Nixon and Krushev. In fact Nikita who had tasted Pepsi for the first time during the exhibition liked it so much he ordered tons of syrup. They paid in vodka and then in military ships. This is an interesting story about how Pepsi became one of the largest military forces of the planet for a very brief time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrwMrPIHOIw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrwMrPIHOIw So my entire point is yes Soviet tech might have been impressive but the incentives were never to deliver this technology into the hands of common people. All those nice computers were used to stuff like calculate artillery precision. As for the propaganda part, the USSR suffered from a severe form of NIN illness. If the west can do it then we need to do it too! See Tupolev 144.
  - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
    C'mon, let's be honest. Computing technology in the US for the first couple decades was all about calculating artillery and navigating ships and fighter jets, too. The initial push to computing tech came from the need for cryptographic and artillery purposes. The true first microprocessor was the Central Air Data Computer in the F-14 fighter jet. The defense industry in many ways led the way on almost all fronts -- super computing, networking (DARPA etc), cryptography, etc. etc. Initial public and defence investment. Later, private market application. The USSR mostly lacked the latter, though.
    - thodin 4y ago
      Not really. Business applications were key to computers success in USA. First really widely used microprocessor had zero connections to the military. USSR copied OS/360 not because of military's requests, but because it lacked computers for civil applications and lacked software for it. OS/360 was never a military project in USA.
p_l 4y ago
There's a very simple explanation - namely USA had untouched industry with already big investment into computer-related areas by the end of the war, while europe was heavily destroyed, and USSR not only got heavily hit in industry, agriculture and manpower, but also even by 1991 didn't really stop being on a crash build-up program due to Russian Empire being, well, a shithole[1]. The trade war component of Cold War meant that while cooperation (or plain exploitation) in the west made certain stuff more available, that didn't happen to East of the divide, even disregarding issues in how industry was run (which aren't necessarily due to "socialism", but get associated with it). [1] In Poland, the eastern side of the country is still noticeably less developed, with lower development marking the parts that were in Russian Partition - and that was one of the (on average) best developed regions in Tsardom.
varispeed 4y ago
People romanticising the idea of communism and USSR probably never lived under such a system or base their opinion on propaganda. That being said, if teachers found you had a talent for engineering and you weren't from a blacklisted family, your life would be completely owned by the state. You would be brainwashed and manipulated to become the engineer the state wants and then as a reward sent off to a prison city living and working with other engineers for the rest of your life. One mistake, wrong comment about the regime and you would end up in the forest with a bullet in your head. That's why they had some impressive advancements here and there, but in the grand scheme of things USSR was just one big pile of steaming excrement.
- myth_drannon 4y ago
  I think your comment is purely based on propaganda. The comment is false on so many levels. Maybe be it describes the 30's and Stalinism but nothing like that was from 50's and onward.
  - varispeed 4y ago
    It was happening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city#Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city#Russia
    - int_19h 4y ago
      Closed cities were a thing, but they weren't prisons. And "you would end up in the forest with a bullet in your head" certainly wasn't a thing from the 60s on.
      - thodin 4y ago
        Prison for your political view was a common thing until about 1986. And a lot of people died there.
        int_19h 4y ago

anticodon 4y ago

USSR was almost destroyed by German invasion in 1941-1945. Because most of the population and almost all the industry resided (and continue to reside) in the western part of Russia/USSR, Germany destroyed immense amount of industry, infrastructure, houses, schools, hospitals. Even after capturing territories, Germany destroyed industrial plants because their plan was to completely eliminate people of Russian nationality and to use the captured lands for agriculture - to feed the Third Reich. Also, they killed almost 30 million of young productive citizen of USSR. It was a huge knock which almost no other country ever endured. And it set back the development of USSR. Also, those comments about war and propaganda are also inaccurate. USA started much more wars than USSR/Russia, and as the result of those wars USA killed at least 20 million of people, destroyed infrastructure and industry, plundered resources, e.g. oil of Iraq and Libya. And haven't built anything. If you'd really study the history, although I'm pretty sure you won't find any accurate information about USSR in the western history books, you'll learn, for example, how USSR built kindergardens, hospitals, schools and industry in Afghanistan and other countries. Investing the money and labor of Russian people in 3rd world countries. Had ever USA did the same?.. Other than printing another billion of USD and "giving" it to some other country, with 90% disappearing in somebody's pocket in transit. And don't get me even started on propaganda. Do you believe western society doesn't have propaganda? How comes then that you all have the same opinion about everything? Especially on external politics.

irusensei 4y ago
I'm not downsizing the capacity of their industrial and engineering prowess. I'm questioned the incentives. During the 50s the US and USSR promoted national exhibitions about each countries products and technology. The USSR exhibition happened in America and likewise the US exhibition happened in Moscow. Guess which side was more stunned by the achievements of the other country? The USSR version was all about satellites and factory projects while the US version was a showcase of modern housing utensils. This triggered the famous "Kitchen Debate" between Nixon and Krushev. In fact Nikita who had tasted Pepsi for the first time during the exhibition liked it so much he ordered tons of syrup. They paid in vodka and then in military ships. This is an interesting story about how Pepsi became one of the largest military forces of the planet for a very brief time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrwMrPIHOIw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrwMrPIHOIw So my entire point is yes Soviet tech might have been impressive but the incentives were never to deliver this technology into the hands of common people. All those nice computers were used to stuff like calculate artillery precision. As for the propaganda part, the USSR suffered from a severe form of NIN illness. If the west can do it then we need to do it too! See Tupolev 144.
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  C'mon, let's be honest. Computing technology in the US for the first couple decades was all about calculating artillery and navigating ships and fighter jets, too. The initial push to computing tech came from the need for cryptographic and artillery purposes. The true first microprocessor was the Central Air Data Computer in the F-14 fighter jet. The defense industry in many ways led the way on almost all fronts -- super computing, networking (DARPA etc), cryptography, etc. etc. Initial public and defence investment. Later, private market application. The USSR mostly lacked the latter, though.
  - thodin 4y ago
    Not really. Business applications were key to computers success in USA. First really widely used microprocessor had zero connections to the military. USSR copied OS/360 not because of military's requests, but because it lacked computers for civil applications and lacked software for it. OS/360 was never a military project in USA.

p_l 4y ago

There's a very simple explanation - namely USA had untouched industry with already big investment into computer-related areas by the end of the war, while europe was heavily destroyed, and USSR not only got heavily hit in industry, agriculture and manpower, but also even by 1991 didn't really stop being on a crash build-up program due to Russian Empire being, well, a shithole[1]. The trade war component of Cold War meant that while cooperation (or plain exploitation) in the west made certain stuff more available, that didn't happen to East of the divide, even disregarding issues in how industry was run (which aren't necessarily due to "socialism", but get associated with it). [1] In Poland, the eastern side of the country is still noticeably less developed, with lower development marking the parts that were in Russian Partition - and that was one of the (on average) best developed regions in Tsardom.

varispeed 4y ago

People romanticising the idea of communism and USSR probably never lived under such a system or base their opinion on propaganda. That being said, if teachers found you had a talent for engineering and you weren't from a blacklisted family, your life would be completely owned by the state. You would be brainwashed and manipulated to become the engineer the state wants and then as a reward sent off to a prison city living and working with other engineers for the rest of your life. One mistake, wrong comment about the regime and you would end up in the forest with a bullet in your head. That's why they had some impressive advancements here and there, but in the grand scheme of things USSR was just one big pile of steaming excrement.

myth_drannon 4y ago
I think your comment is purely based on propaganda. The comment is false on so many levels. Maybe be it describes the 30's and Stalinism but nothing like that was from 50's and onward.
- varispeed 4y ago
  It was happening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city#Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city#Russia
  - int_19h 4y ago
    Closed cities were a thing, but they weren't prisons. And "you would end up in the forest with a bullet in your head" certainly wasn't a thing from the 60s on.
    - thodin 4y ago
      Prison for your political view was a common thing until about 1986. And a lot of people died there.
      - int_19h 4y ago