
A Soviet vision of the future: the legacy and influence of Tekhikia–Molodezhi - sohkamyung
http://www.itsnicethat.com/features/tekinkia-molodezhi-russian-sci-fi-barbican-into-the-unknown-160517
======
romwell
ТЕХНИКА - МОЛОДЕЖИ

Tekhnika - molodezhi

The first word in the title is Technica (as in Ars Technica), the name of the
publication translates as "Tech to the Youth" ("___ to ___" is a Soviet trope,
e.g. "land to the peasants").

This is a great article, and they got the name of the journal correctly in the
first sentence. Someone else probably did the title, and mistyped the name.

~~~
Erwin
Poland had a similar monthly magazine (
[https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C5%82ody_Technik](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C5%82ody_Technik)
)

I wondered whether it was inspired by the USSR one but it dated back to 1932.
Being able to read about RSA -- and calculate it by hand is something that
inspired me to be enthusiastic about computers.

I escaped Poland in '87 to Denmark -- and Donald Duck bi-monthly. No math
olympiads there!

~~~
richard_shelton
I remember another Polish journal: Horyzonty Techniki dla Dzieci
([https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalejdoskop_Techniki](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalejdoskop_Techniki)
). I was reading Russian translated version of it under the name Горизонты
техники для детей. I don't know if this journal was popular in Poland, but we,
kids from USSR, liked it very much!

And I still remember the chapters of В Стране Микроников, или Секреты
компьютера by Мирослав Томаля. This book was published in the journal. Sorry,
I found no Polish or English sources about the book and the author. The book
was about the kids who by some magic got inside the computer. Basically the
story is the same as in The Town in the Snuff-box by Vladimir Odoyevsky. But
with a lots of details about how computer hardware works. Today I could
suggest this book to kids and some curious front-end web developers! :)

~~~
mirimir
Do you recall whether Собо́рность were mentioned in that book?

~~~
richard_shelton
Well, there were characters like Czar Zet Eightieth and Princess Motorola 6845
in the book.

You hardly may found something about Соборность in Soviet tech journals, more
likely -- synergy, emergence and stuff like this :)

~~~
mirimir
Thanks. I was wondering whether Hannu Rajaniemi had read about them in such
places. It was just a social concept, I guess. So maybe Hannu made the jump to
virtual life.

~~~
richard_shelton
I never heard about Hannu Rajaniemi, but I like sci-fi genre and first 2 books
of his trilogy already translated to Russian, so I'll definitely read them.
Thank you!

I was a bit surprised that you've connected the term sobornost with my
originial message. In fact Odoevsky' tale is not only about mechanics or
optics, it has philosophical meaning too and one can relate things like
sobornost to it. But I think not many even Russian critics think so deep about
this old tale.

Early ideas of Odoevsky and slavophiles made a base for a philosophy of
Russian cosmism [1]. Just a few famous names related to this philosophy:
Nikolai Fyodorov [2], Konstantin Tsiolkovsky [3] (one of the fathers of
rocketry and astronautics), Alexander Bogdanov [4] (father of systems theory),
Vladimir Vernadsky [7] (noosphere).

I also suggest to read The Cybernetic Manifesto [6] by Valentin Turchin [5]
(the author of programming language Refal) for more modern view on sobornost-
like things.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cosmism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cosmism)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Fyodorovich_Fyodorov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Fyodorovich_Fyodorov)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky)

[5]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Turchin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Turchin)

[6]
[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MANIFESTO.html](http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MANIFESTO.html)

[7]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vernadsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vernadsky)

~~~
mirimir
Hey, thanks!

> I was a bit surprised that you've connected the term sobornost with my
> originial message.

Well, you said:

> ... kids who by some magic got inside the computer ...

And that's what the Sobornost are in the Flower Prince trilogy. Uploaded
followers of Fyodorov. Their enemy is the Zoku, who are descendents of
uploaded MMORPG freaks. Less collectivist, and more collaborationist.

Edit: Another take on Fyodorovism is _The Last Trumpet Project_ by Kevin
MacArdry.

[https://anarplex.net/hosted/files/last_trumpet/LTP.pdf](https://anarplex.net/hosted/files/last_trumpet/LTP.pdf)

------
mynegation
I grew up reading this magazine, together with Yunnyi Tekhnik (Young
Technologist), Nauka I Zhizn (Science and Life) and, of course, Kvant
(Quantum). With all its failings USSR took science and technology very
seriously and opened the funnel really wide. That is probably why USSR had
nuclear weapons and space technology comparable to United States with half the
population and third the money (for the pedants - I made the second ratio up,
but you get the idea)

~~~
PerfectDlite
> That is probably why USSR had nuclear weapons

Blueprints stolen from USA.

> and space technology

_borrowed_ (wink, wink) from Germans.

~~~
boomboomsubban
The USSR's nuclear espionage helped their bomb project, but it was not
essential. They more used it to check their own work, and likely stopped some
detours on the road. And if their space technology was "borrowed" from the
Germans, so was the US's.

~~~
PerfectDlite
> The USSR's nuclear espionage helped their bomb project, but it was not
> essential.

Definitely! They've steal US nuclear documents just for laughs, comrade!

~~~
avmich
Tu-144 flew before Concord. Try to explain to some people that it's hard to
get a pure copy running before the original :) - I'm not surprised anymore,
they'd still insist Tu-144 is merely a copy.

When Project Apollo uses Yu. Kondratyuk's (A. Shargey) staging calculations of
course that's not a copying of a critical part.

~~~
PerfectDlite
> Tu-144 flew before Concord.

"The aircraft was introduced into passenger service on 1 November 1977, almost
two years after Concorde, because of budget restrictions."

Yes, they've managed to "overcame bourgeous West" with Tu-144, but because
design and production was rushed - they got Paris air show crash, postponed
operational services and generally bad design, forcing earlier retirement for
Tu-144.

------
Nekorosu
The title is wrong. "Tekhikia" should be "Technika".

~~~
diziet
Interestingly, Google Translate transliterates `Техника` as `Tekhnika`, while
you suggest `Technika`. I would write `tehnika`.

~~~
Nekorosu
My mistake. I agree with Google Translate. Its version sounds closer to the
original pronunciation.

~~~
romwell
Eh, reference:
[http://lurkmore.to/%D0%A2%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B...](http://lurkmore.to/%D0%A2%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%82)

------
muro
"Technika" please. What a butchering of the name.

~~~
oscii
"Tekhnika" is the correct transliteration.

~~~
areyousure
There are many ways to transliterate. While "kh" is probably the most common,
I think the proliferation of systems suggests there's no one "correct"
transliteration.

The options are "texnika" (eg GOST 7.79 System B), "technika" (eg ISO/R 9:1968
variant 1), "tekhnika" (many different systems, as you mention), and "tehnika"
(eg ISO/R 9:1968 main variant, but perhaps the most straightforward in any
case).

------
bane
I'm actually a bit surprised there aren't scans of this up on archive.org.

~~~
FrozenVoid
see [http://zhurnalko.net/journal-2](http://zhurnalko.net/journal-2)

~~~
omgtehlion
thanks, this is how apple watch looked like in 1966
[http://zhurnalko.net/images/0/4/0488ee8ac160e293aca1/page000...](http://zhurnalko.net/images/0/4/0488ee8ac160e293aca1/page0001.jpg)

