There was no requirement for computers in the USSR outside of Science or Defence.
Is this your historical analysis or the analysis of other researchers? (Honestly curious)
I’d think that having an “always on digital communication network” would have been amazing for fine tuning things like transportation logistics and agricuture production/supply to an area as large as the USSR in general and Russia specifically.
Was there such a complete failure of imagination by the USSR leadership or did the leadership do the silly thing of “well, if the West is doing it, it must be silly so we should do the opposite of what they’re doing”?
I know I’ve read (and hard to not find lib sources so I always view them with slight suspicion) that leadership was initially opposed to cybernetics, for example, and considered it as reactionary pseudoscience. Eventually they warmed up to it. But it wasn’t enough to make a difference to how the planned economy worked. And I’ve read that they also viewed OGAS with suspicion too.
Its easy to find lib sources like How Not to Network a Nation, but idk enough communist sources for this (would love to know more). Maybe a proper book hasn’t been written yet about it? Someone dig into the archives and write this stuff up!
And once computers are realized to be useful, then you also have sanctions that the west placed on the USSR that made importing computers more restrictive at certain times.
This is information I learned from speaking with russian comrades. I don’t know if there’s research on the matter, I just trust the people I have had conversations with about it and am mostly regurgitating what they said to me.
What I seem to recall being said was that supporters of market reforms convinced leadership that OGAS would cost far more than their proposals to reform with no guarantees of success.
Is this your historical analysis or the analysis of other researchers? (Honestly curious)
I’d think that having an “always on digital communication network” would have been amazing for fine tuning things like transportation logistics and agricuture production/supply to an area as large as the USSR in general and Russia specifically.
Was there such a complete failure of imagination by the USSR leadership or did the leadership do the silly thing of “well, if the West is doing it, it must be silly so we should do the opposite of what they’re doing”?
I know I’ve read (and hard to not find lib sources so I always view them with slight suspicion) that leadership was initially opposed to cybernetics, for example, and considered it as reactionary pseudoscience. Eventually they warmed up to it. But it wasn’t enough to make a difference to how the planned economy worked. And I’ve read that they also viewed OGAS with suspicion too.
Its easy to find lib sources like How Not to Network a Nation, but idk enough communist sources for this (would love to know more). Maybe a proper book hasn’t been written yet about it? Someone dig into the archives and write this stuff up!
And once computers are realized to be useful, then you also have sanctions that the west placed on the USSR that made importing computers more restrictive at certain times.
This is information I learned from speaking with russian comrades. I don’t know if there’s research on the matter, I just trust the people I have had conversations with about it and am mostly regurgitating what they said to me.
What I seem to recall being said was that supporters of market reforms convinced leadership that OGAS would cost far more than their proposals to reform with no guarantees of success.