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There never was any real high tech industry. Everything good was done in gulags which my Russian schoolbook called "Nauki Gorods" ie science towns. Everything e

There never was any real high tech industry. Everything good was done in gulags which my Russian schoolbook called "Nauki Gorods" ie science towns. Everything else was substandard garbage. However under harsh military rule labor camps work well to produce high tech. German V2-rockets and Curta calculators prove that. But there is time limit for that. You will run out of people.

badpun 4y ago
What about sending Gagarin to space in the 1950s? Was that tech developed in the Gulags as well?
- timonoko 4y ago
  Very much so. But there was hierarchy. Top scientist had all the freedoms. You can clearly see in the Netflix-movie that cosmonauts were living in a creepy military camp, while american astronauts drove home to their family after hard day of space flying.
  - omega3 4y ago
    What Netflix movie?
    - timonoko 4y ago
      Gagarin: First in Space (2013) Plot: Khrushchev selected Gagarin because good teeth and nice smile.
  - iavael 4y ago
    Well... first cosmonaut candidates (and many after that) were military pilots. So no wonder that they lived in military camp. Also about appointing first cosmonaut by looks is not something strange. After all strict selections there's almost no difference among final candidates in health condition, skills or cognitive abilities. They are all as healthy as human can be and quite smart and trained. So final pick by these criterias would be pretty random anyway (even now for modern candidates it still is). And given that sending first human in space was a big deal about political prestige it's no wonder that it was made by the looks of candidates.
- kilotaras 4y ago
  Korolev, who was one of the leading rocket engineers during the time didn't have teeth as he lost them in Kolyma labour camp.
scotty79 4y ago
> However under harsh military rule labor camps work well to produce high tech. German V2-rockets and Curta calculators prove that. Wasn't also Manhattan Project an example of this?
- timonoko 4y ago
  Yes indeed. But "Science Towns" are really short term solution.
  - scotty79 4y ago
    For secret projects sure ... but something like Silicon Valley makes a lot of sense.
yakireev 4y ago
TIL that Yandex campus where I used to work for so many years was a gulag. Okay.
- nevermindiguess 4y ago
  To our American friends, if the campus doesn’t have McDonald’s and a rainbow flag, it’s a Gulag. That’s the level.
  - yakireev 4y ago
    Ironically enough, floors of the seven-story building were painted in the colours of rainbow, and there was a Starbucks downstairs.
russian-troll 4y ago
What you stated is false. Labor camps ("sharashki") and science towns are two different things from different "soviet epochs". However it's true that soviets failed "consumer IT".
ymolodtsov 4y ago
Russia is one of a few European countries which had a self-sufficient tech industry that Google, Facebook, Uber and others weren't able to take over.

badpun 4y ago

What about sending Gagarin to space in the 1950s? Was that tech developed in the Gulags as well?

timonoko 4y ago
Very much so. But there was hierarchy. Top scientist had all the freedoms. You can clearly see in the Netflix-movie that cosmonauts were living in a creepy military camp, while american astronauts drove home to their family after hard day of space flying.
- omega3 4y ago
  What Netflix movie?
  - timonoko 4y ago
    Gagarin: First in Space (2013) Plot: Khrushchev selected Gagarin because good teeth and nice smile.
- iavael 4y ago
  Well... first cosmonaut candidates (and many after that) were military pilots. So no wonder that they lived in military camp. Also about appointing first cosmonaut by looks is not something strange. After all strict selections there's almost no difference among final candidates in health condition, skills or cognitive abilities. They are all as healthy as human can be and quite smart and trained. So final pick by these criterias would be pretty random anyway (even now for modern candidates it still is). And given that sending first human in space was a big deal about political prestige it's no wonder that it was made by the looks of candidates.
kilotaras 4y ago
Korolev, who was one of the leading rocket engineers during the time didn't have teeth as he lost them in Kolyma labour camp.

scotty79 4y ago

> However under harsh military rule labor camps work well to produce high tech. German V2-rockets and Curta calculators prove that. Wasn't also Manhattan Project an example of this?

timonoko 4y ago
Yes indeed. But "Science Towns" are really short term solution.
- scotty79 4y ago
  For secret projects sure ... but something like Silicon Valley makes a lot of sense.

yakireev 4y ago

TIL that Yandex campus where I used to work for so many years was a gulag. Okay.

nevermindiguess 4y ago
To our American friends, if the campus doesn’t have McDonald’s and a rainbow flag, it’s a Gulag. That’s the level.
- yakireev 4y ago
  Ironically enough, floors of the seven-story building were painted in the colours of rainbow, and there was a Starbucks downstairs.

russian-troll 4y ago

What you stated is false. Labor camps ("sharashki") and science towns are two different things from different "soviet epochs". However it's true that soviets failed "consumer IT".

ymolodtsov 4y ago

Russia is one of a few European countries which had a self-sufficient tech industry that Google, Facebook, Uber and others weren't able to take over.