On Creation and Work of the Yerevan School of Programming

The emergence of this school is connected with the name of the author of this article, and its autobiographical nature is determined by this fact. To begin with I moved to Yerevan in autumn 1957 after completing the postgraduate program at the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty at Moscow State University, which was conducted under the supervision of professor Alexei Andreevich Lyapunov. It was the time when our country was actively developing electronic machines, computer centers and departments of Computational Mathematics were opening all over the country. Armenia kept up with the times. In 1956 Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines (YerRI MM) was established, whose task was to develop computers both for general and special purpose. Its first director was corresponding member of USSR Academy of Sciences Sergei Nikitovich Mergelian. Later, he entered the first Scientific Council on Cybernetics and his activities on YerRI MM organization found reflection in Yerevan society in the name of this institution as “Mergelian's institute”. In late 1957, a Computing Centre was organized as a part of the Armenian Academy of Sciences.