The Computers of the Soviet Union

The history of computing in the West is well documented, but behind the Iron Curtain there were also computers. Their existence, however, was shaped by illicit cloning and espionage, as the Eastern Bloc fought to keep up with its capitalist rivals. In essence, this meant that, with few exceptions, the most significant Soviet computers were always clones of Western designs. Here is a look at some of them.

In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from the Communist Party after a coup attempt by his vice president, the prime minister, the defense minister, the KGB chief, and other high-ranking officials. It was a turning point for the country. Four months later, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, along with many of its working mechanisms. Obviously, it was not the end of communism, but Red Russia was its most formidable defender.

Despite ideological differences, the West played a crucial role in Soviet computing development. The embargo imposed by CoCom (roughly the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) prevented Eastern Bloc countries from legally obtaining computers, making the illegal cloning of systems—or espionage—critical.

Although it is hard to imagine a KGB agent sprinting across the border with a computer under their arm, the idea is not entirely far-fetched. IBM, Intel, AMD, DEC, and Motorola were some of the companies that saw their processors cloned behind the wall. Whole computers were subjected to the same process, while software was also a prime target for Soviet authorities.

In fact, one of the best moves the West made was not to block these thefts but to use them to its advantage. In addition to the classic arrests of potential hidden KGB agents, the United States let the Russian agency steal whatever it wanted... after making some modifications. These "Trojan horses" reinvented at the hardware and software level wreaked havoc behind the wall.

The Soviet Computing Scene

Ultimately, this policy of copying rather than developing had its consequences. The Soviet Union was never able to match the pace of the United States. By the late 1980s, the difference in personal computer stocks was in favor of the Americans by a ratio of 250 to 1. Besides being few, these systems were extremely expensive to produce in the Soviet Union. At the same time, cloning brought some compatibility problems that forced engineers to improvise, if you will.

East Germany was particularly important in creating equivalent processors, especially the creations of Zilog. The irony is that this brutal lack of resources gave rise to a new generation of programmers and developers who, once the Iron Curtain fell, managed to export their ideas to the West, where they were well received. The training ground for them was those illegal and imperfect clones that had to be shared to increase efficiency. Today, we present some of those computers.

MESM

For many, the MESM (Malaya Elektronno-Schetnaya Mashina) was the one that started it all. The MESM was the first programmable computer created in continental Europe, at the Kiev Institute of Electrotechnology. It began operations in 1950, could handle about three thousand operations per minute, and needed about six thousand vacuum tubes to function. The MESM would give way to more powerful systems used in the development of atomic weapons.

ES EVM

The United States put a man on the Moon, and one of the systems used was the IBM System/360. The Soviet Union had a complex but interesting development project, however, political decisions and the need for a common standard led to the idea that it was better to copy what the West had. Thus, the ES EVM series became the first Soviet clone of the System/360. At the time, IBM showed interest in developing the ES EVM, but politics intervened again: the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and contact immediately ceased.

ES PEVM

The game of stealing and copying computer designs was at its peak. The clones of the famous IBM System/360 were only the tip of the iceberg. Eventually, the ES PEVM system appeared, a nearly perfect clone of the IBM PC. In addition to running DOS, the ES PEVM could even load the first versions of Windows.

Agat

The Agat series of computers was nothing less than the Soviet clone of the Apple II, to the extent that the name Steve Wozniak could be found in its memory. Officially presented at the Moscow Fair in 1983, the first model, the Agat-4, became one of the most popular systems throughout the Eastern Bloc, and was widely used in education. Even so, although its cost was much lower compared to other computers, it was still prohibitive for the average salary.

Elektronika 60

At first glance, there is not much to say about the Elektronika 60 system. A clone of the DEC PDP-11 with 8 KB of RAM and 81 instructions, the Elektronika 60 went down in history in 1985 thanks to a certain Russian programmer who, without imagining it, created one of the most spectacular games in history. That programmer was Alexey Pajitnov, and of course, the game was Tetris.

Vector-06C

The Vector-06C system was probably one of the first to suffer the impact of the popularity of IBM PC-based clones. It had 64 KB of RAM and used the KR580VM80A chip, a clone of the Intel 8080. It was even going to have a 'Turbo version' based on the Z80, which would raise its speed to 12 Mhz, but it never saw the light of day for economic reasons.

Pentagon

The ZX Spectrum was also a highly prized target for cloning, and many versions existed behind the wall. The Pentagon computer, which originally appeared in 1989, has a lot of 'DIY' since it was assembled by enthusiasts, and even today some modern variants can be found with things like SD card readers and Ethernet ports. Its circuit was relatively easy to copy, and for many, it was the first computer they had access to.

Iskra-1030

Finally, we come to what could be considered the "modern clone phase", with the Iskra-1030 computer, launched in 1989. This computer used the KP1810BM86 chip, a clone of the Intel 8086 with a clock speed of 4.77 Mhz. 640 Kilobytes of RAM, CGA video, and a 20 MB hard drive shaped this computer that arrived six years after the launch of its Western counterpart.

And the story continues... but not so much for the Soviet Union, since two years later it would be little more than a memory. Today there is a certain 'melancholy' for the old state, and 'memories' sell like hot cakes.

However, by closely studying these models, we quickly understand that the relationship between computing and the communist state was not entirely good, mainly due to the repeated instances where politics took precedence over development.

This has been just a different look at something we take for granted these days. We hope you enjoyed it. Good luck!