From the experimentation to the unification: how the transition to unified computer system ingluensed the professional culture of the soviet computer industry

Abstract

This text focuses on some aspects of the evolution of the “Ural” family of computers in the city of Penza, as well as the reaction of the Soviet computer expert community on the transition to the unified ES and controversy related to this transition. In the first place, resistance of several renowned computer science experts against “copying” of the IBM architecture and perception of such a decision as an attack on creativity. In the second place, changes as a result of the transition to the ES using the story of the “Ural” family of computers as a case study.