
Khrushchev visits IBM - colinbartlett
http://www.fastcompany.com/3037598/khrushchev-visits-ibm-a-strange-tale-of-silicon-valley-history
======
zavulon
> Khrushchev commented on the excellent IBM plant, but said that computers
> were very highly developed in the Soviet Union too; such things as A-bombs
> or the H-bomb could have never been developed in the Soviet Union if it
> hadn't had highly complicated and sophisticated computers.

LOL that's such B.S. Cybernetics was considered a capitalist anti-science in
the Soviet Union up until the 60's, and it was waaay behind western world. In
the 1970's and early 80's, my parents' worked in scientific institutes with
the most advanced computer technologies in the country. They used tech that
was long ago obsolete in the west (punch cards). IMHO, that was one of many
reasons for the collapse of USSR's economy.

Also, another anecdode I've heard about Khruschev's visit to USA (not sure how
true this is) is that he arranged to bring Pepsi back to USSR for a trial, and
people travelled thousands of kilometers to taste it, from Syberia to Moscow,
and brought it back all the way in little plastic cups.

Unfortunately, all the "thawing" efforts got turned 180 degrees as soon as
Kruschev's rule ended and Brezhnev came to power.

~~~
smacktoward
Bluff masked by bluster was part of Khrushchev's signature style. This is the
same guy who said that the USSR was turning out ballistic missiles "like
sausages"
([http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2011_05/Thielmann](http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2011_05/Thielmann))
at a time when they were desperately struggling to build even just a few.

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jonjacky
The novel Red Plenty by Francis Spufford is about computer scientists and
mathematicians in the Soviet Union in this era. Krushchev is also a character
in the book, which depicts his visit to the US (but doesn't include this
episode).

~~~
fiatmoney
+1 for Red Plenty. It's a fantastic book.

For nonfiction, the book "From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet
Cybernetics" is also excellent.

------
wallflower
A great personal comment from the article that reminds how the early pioneers
of technology (magnetic storage, the first hard drive) got it done.

"Walking on water We have a picture of my father, Jack Harker, walking on
water in front of the sculpture. He was manager of "The Labs" and was working
with manufacturing to introduce their first Winchester disk drive. The
technology was not moving successfully from the lab to the manufacturing
floor. There were tremendous technical problems in mass producing the drives.
Manufacturing gave a very aggressive schedule for solving the problems. My
father replied that if they could meet the schedule, he would walk on water.

Manufacturing meet the schedule and the disk drives were delivered. My father
had a plywood platform built just under the surface of the reflecting pool.
True to his word, there he was walking on water with the sculpture in the
background.

A picture I did not understand fully until after his death.

Jack Harker, one of the fathers of the disk drive industry, a manager's
manager, a great dad.

Peace dad, Robert Harker"

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listic
Reading this as a Russian: Such a disgrace that our leader went down in
history like that... But then, I can't think of any other leader for the last
100 years who wasn't a disgrace. :(

~~~
csours
Which part do you mean?

~~~
listic
Pardon me? Do you mean why in particular I think each Russian leader for the
past 100 years was a disgrace? I am ambivalent about Lenin, actually.

~~~
csours
I guess I didn't understand your whole comment. Do you think they were bad
from start to finish or they stayed in power too long and got corrupted; do
you think anyone could have done a better job inside the system that was
inherited?

------
zazzcomputer88
Thanks Supreme Leader (former) of USSR aka 'the evil empire.' We are friends
and the question:

How did the USSR develop H-bombs so fast?

1.)of course there were NO SPIES and or alleged 'collaborators inside the USA
system.'

2.)there's a long history of autoiobography memoirs of leaders of alleged
'EVIL EMPIRE.' Yeltsin is mentioned by name in book by DEFECTOR Albek,
Biohazard - secret biowar weapons.

3.)Yeltsin calls it a 'research facility' and it is true that it was inside a
'milk factory' \- going by memory, so check the book.

4.)Did the USSR need computers like Intel chip with the obvioius flaws of
sinh, transcendental numbers buillt into the instruction set architecture?

5.)Answer: everything fails in the USSR empire EXCEPT FOR excellent education
as leaders in math and physics and moscow ballet who not works for Cirque du
Soleil.

6.) The SECRET of GOOGLE TALENT? recruit from russia and promise plenty of
vodka drinks / free snacks.

7.)simply review Khrushchev's flattery speech against the background of the
Russian tank. The result of Russia vs. Finland was the FINLAND inventors
making MOLOTOV COCKTAILS. These homemade grenades would set the engine air
filter on fire resulting in engine exposions.

Finland has NO grenades. Allegedly double crossed by Britain and the allies.
Tanks were pinned down by children pouring water to make slick ice skating
ponds for the USSR TANKS.

So, the Russian Tanks had advanced designs and deep thinking. The
manufacturing was horrible.

12.)Supreme leader former of USSR Khrushchev is sadly misinformed. "comrade HN
of the first order." Please do not laugh.

Much of the books on H bomb development show the trial and error and strong
need for basic physics, rather than the IBM Microsoft Windows software game
emulations, IMHO.

As the USSR defector who ran the bioweapons labs put it the scientists and
organizational structures were filled with KGB agents.

The KGB agents were 'incompetent scientists' who seem to be only interested in
snooping, rather than doing real work. The TOP KGB had 2 or 4 phones on their
desks and often no PC computer, as they had NO ENGINEERING BACKGROUND.

So, support of scientists and engineers BULIDING THE H BOMB with ADVANCED IBM
computers is unlikely in such a culture of paranoia.

PS. many of the KGB... they are gone so insert other 3 letter acronym is going
back to typewriters and paper. It must be a capitalist plot this Microsoft
Windows aka 'Evil Empire.'

insert your favorite quote from Austin Powers movie here. PPS. the story of
BIOHAZARD by USSR defector is much more interesting. no need for very complex
nuclear codes and the ADVANCED IBM computers.

