To live and perish is so hollow, but if you fill your life with deeds of greatness and sacrifice, eternal memory will follow. – Boris Pasternak, Death of a Sapper

Academician Viktor Mikhailovich Glushkov is known for his accomplishments in cybernetics, computing and mathematics. Despite the variety of scientific problems that interested Glushkov, they all boiled down to one – the global problem of computerization and information-sharing. All of his colleagues agreed that he was an extraordinarily talented man, and one of the most outstanding scientists of the modern age. Anyone could see that as soon as they read one of his reports, or listened to one of his lectures, or simply spoke with him.

Glushkov first published in the field of abstract algebra at the age of twenty-seven. Out of the eight hundred books and articles on cybernetics, more than five hundred were his alone, the rest were co-authored with his colleagues and associates. The majority of his publications addressed trends in cybernetics and nearly one hundred of them involved computer design and engineering theory.

Glushkov was born August 23, 1923 into the family of a mining engineer. By the time he graduated from high school, he already had a good grasp of higher mathematics and quantum mechanics. He dreamed of becoming a theoretical physicist, but ended up not pursuing it. After finishing a one-year mathematics course at Novocherkassk University, he developed a great passion for the most abstract and difficult field of mathematics – topological algebra. After spending three years working on a solution for Hilbert's generalized fifth problem, he became the world's first mathematician to solve it, which immediately placed him among the top-ranking mathematicians in the Soviet Union. After such meteoric success, he abruptly switched from the most abstract to the most practical empirical science – cybernetics, a field that occupied him for the rest of his life.

In an incredibly short span of five years, he managed to establish the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Institute of Cybernetics and attract an enthusiastic staff, consisting of young scientists and engineers. In the 1960s and 1970s the Institute became famous in the Soviet Union and abroad.

Glushkov defined cybernetics as a science of complex control systems concerning the general rules, principles and methods of information processing, where computers served as a technical means of practicing this science. This definition appeared in the first world-wide editions of The Encyclopedia of Cybernetics, prepared at Glushkov's initiative, published in Ukrainian and Russian. Its 1974 publication coincided with the expansion of the popularity of cybernetics throughout the world. Among the top one hundred Soviet scientists who took part in the preparation of the encyclopedia (Glushkov was the executive editor), more than fifty were from the Institute of Cybernetics. In 1978, the editors and authors of various chapters of the encyclopedia were awarded the Ukraine State Prize.

Just as the American scientist Norbert Weiner was the leading specialist during the early years of cybernetics' development, the Ukrainian Glushkov took the leading role in this field throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His manuscripts, The Theory of Digital Computers (Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1967), The Theory of Self-Advancing Systems (Kiev: KVIRTU, 1962), Basic Foundations of Cybernetics (Kiev: AN-USSR, 1964), and others were critical in fostering the new science during its early years. Glushkov's activities spread far beyond Ukraine: he lectured on cybernetics and computer equipment issues in the majority of large industrial cities in the former Soviet Union. His exceptional oratorical skills helped in his active campaign for cybernetics. The professional journals, Cybernetics and Control Systems and Machines, where he worked as the chief editor, were critical in creating, developing and maintaining media coverage of cybernetics.

Being fluent in English and German helped him do presentations at international scientific forums and publish abroad, which in turn brought him worldwide recognition. His international reputation was responsible for him becoming a chairman and a member of numerous program committees for international congresses and conferences on information processing. He gave lectures in almost every major country in the world. In addition, Glushkov was a computing consultant to the governments of the German Democratic Republic and Bulgaria. He was an honored member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of Bulgaria, Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic, and the Leopoldina German Academy of Naturalists. The publishers of updated editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the American Encyclopedia and The Big Soviet Encyclopedia invited Glushkov to help them prepare sections on "Cybernetics."

Glushkov anticipated the large-scale informatization of our society in the early 1960s, when computing technology in the Soviet Union and abroad was still in its infancy and few people could envision its future role in the economy. But Glushkov was able to clearly imagine the great prospects for the development and applications of computer technology and cybernetics and their benefits for humanity.

Glushkov proposed to the Soviet government the first step in implementing this complex large scale project: to create a Comprehensive Computer-Aided Economy Management System (in Russian: Obschya-Gosudarstvennaya Avtomatizirovanaya Sistema, or OGAS).

He hoped that the Soviet government would support this initiative, because the existing paper means and methods of Soviet economic management had been obsolete since the 1940s and could not effectively support the growth of the national economy, which was already complex and top-heavy.

Glushkov was aware that developing OGAS would necessitate accelerating broad development of computing technology and scientific methods of economic management, and creating a powerful network of about two hundred regional and ten thousand local computer centers throughout the nation. It would also require complete computerization of the work places for specialists in science, technology, and administration at industrial enterprises, branches of government and other institutions – this was Glushkov's ultimate goal.

Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin approved this idea and Glushkov, with his characteristic enthusiasm, began work on the OGAS project. Today, one may say that his plan was premature because computer technology was not very sophisticated and the society was not ready for it back then. According to his calculations, the implementation of OGAS would take fifteen to twenty years and require about 20 billion rubles, which was an enormous sum at the time. He was very upfront with Kosygin – the implementation of OGAS would be more complicated and difficult than the space and nuclear weapons programs put together. Besides, it would deeply alter political and social aspects of Soviet life. Glushkov calculated that if properly organized, OGAS would start paying for itself in five years, and after its realization, the national economy and well-being of the population would at least double. Glushkov also insisted on the necessity of organizing an authoritative state supervisory board to manage the OGAS program— similar to the committees overseeing the space and nuclear programs. According to his estimates OGAS would be finalized in the 1990s.

If OGAS had received sufficient support and had been completed, it would have been especially useful after the breakup of the Soviet Union. OGAS could have alleviated the countless problems in the current transition from central planning to a market economy. Its solid hardware basis, program software, data banks, and experienced personnel would have been very valuable to the national economies of the Commonwealth of Independent States as they weathered the 1990's disastrous financial crises.

Undoubtedly, Glushkov was aware that OGAS might not receive active support from the Communist Party and the ruling elite, because true scientific control of the economy would strip away their power and change the nation's destiny. Moreover, OGAS would not receive support from the Soviet bureaucratic system, which was based on administrative tyranny, especially when it came to making the most important national decisions. It was also a challenge to the West –they understood that OGAS would shield the Soviet Union from economic collapse or worse, the Soviet Union might create a modern and efficient system of planned economic management. This idea caused the Soviet press and Western mass media to attack Glushkov in the 1970s, attempting to discredit him in the eyes of the Soviet government and block the realization of his plan, which aimed to radically transform our society.

But Glushkov was determined to succeed at any cost. From his early school years on, he had always managed to achieve his seemingly unattainable goals. This time was no different. He fulfilled his dreams through enormous dedication to his work and principals, surprising his colleagues and opponents, and setting scientific records. It was no surprise that Glushkov became a legend.

The research at the Cybernetics Institute followed Glushkov's lead. It included computer science and equipment development, theory and technical means for computer-aided design and automated systems, artificial intelligence, and methods of optimization. The Cybernetics Institute's first significant products were new types of hardware. Supervised by Glushkov, the Ukrainian scientific school of digital computing provided the majority of original ideas and principles that became the basis of computer design in the 1960s and 1970s. During those years Soviet-made computer equipment was on par with the rest of the world.

In the history of computer science, Glushkov's name is foremost connected with the theory of computer design. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Glushkov personally supervised a very important part of the work on the theory of highly intelligent control computers. These computers were necessary for two reasons: first, for the automation of technological processes; and second, for automation of engineering calculations. These machines were prototypes of today's personal computers (PCs), used by specialists processing information right at their desktops.

Later, the Institute of Cybernetics turned to the design of modules and architecture for all-purpose highly-intelligent computers. In this area, the Institute of Cybernetics was the leading organization in the Soviet Union from the 1950s to the 1970s, performing research at world-class standards. By the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, the last stage of this research involved outlining the principles of super-speed multiprocessor macro-pipeline computers with non-von Neumann architecture. Along with this, Institute workers also developed software for multi-processor systems. A mere ten years later, such systems were at the forefront of world-wide computer design. Glushkov's idea of macro-pipelining at the end of the 1970s was a breakthrough into the future of computer technology.

As noted above, the majority of theoretical work carried out at the Cybernetics Institute was realized as hardware. In the 1960s and 1970s, Soviet industry mass-produced more than fifteen types of computers designed at the Institute. Incorporating theory into the hardware was one of Glushkov's main principles – traditions he learned from Lebedev. Many years later, Austrian scientist Heinz Zemanek, eulogizing about Glushkov's contributions to the field of computer design, noted: "Glushkov's scientific work, along with his scientific and practical research results, will influence the development of computer science in the whole world for many years to come."^[1]

Glushkov was also renowned for increasing the intellectual capacity of robots and image recognition theory; he regarded artificial intelligence as the most promising direction in cybernetics. Early in his career he pondered the possibility of designing logical mathematical models of human intelligence that would be capable of thinking outside the body and what effect they would have on the immortal spiritual genius of human beings. Besides concentrating on artificial intelligence problems, Glushkov also worked out the fundamentals of discrete self-organized systems theory.

Viktor Mikhailovich played a tremendous role in creating a Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) system, with a wide range of applications. In this area, as well as in the field of computer technology, scientists at the Institute faced the task of obtaining not only fundamental but also practical results. They needed to design real control systems for technological processes plus control systems for complex scientific and industrial experiments, enterprise management systems, and industrial systems. Via these efforts, Glushkov completed monographs on the design principles of CAD and OGAS, such as Introduction to CAD (1972), The Fundamentals of Paperless Information Technology (1982), Macroeconomics Models and Principles of OGAS Design (1975) and several other scientific articles published in various periodicals.

Glushkov was involved in many activities that extended beyond the limits of the academia. He worked for several organizations of the Soviet Ministries as a scientific adviser and a chairman of various committees, and, of course, he was frequently regarded as a "trouble maker" among the Soviet government bureaucracy.

Glushkov's monumental efforts constantly ran into a wall of indifference, misunderstanding, and at times, animosity in the top echelons of the command-administrative system. Glushkov's wife, Valentina Mikhailovna, noticed her husband's disappointment after many of his trips to Moscow. In the Soviet Union, cybernetics was met with resentment from the very beginning, even within the scientific community. It is well known that cybernetics, together with the theory of complex systems, claimed to have a scientific validation of the control processes not only in life forms and machines, but in society as well. Unfortunately, not on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, but on the basis of exact sciences such as mathematics, automatic control, and statistics. Thus, it contradicted long-cherished Soviet management "methods."

The Communist Party Central Committee Secretary, Andrei Kirilenko, openly ridiculed OGAS in front of Glushkov: "Why do we need it? I come to a plant, make a speech in front of the workers, and the plant increases its efficiency by five percent! It's much better than your two percent!" Glushkov's former colleague Anatoly Ivanovich Kitov recalled another Communist Party official discussing computer technology's applications in defense work: "Optimization methods and computer-aided control systems are unnecessary because the Party has its own methods. For this purpose, it asks the advice of the Soviet people." The Soviet leaders who supported Glushkov – Kosygin, and Defense Minister Dmitrii Fyodorevich Ustinov, were the only individuals who did not mock or criticize him.

Glushkov did not give up. Beginning in 1962 and for the next twenty years, he persistently promoted the idea of national computerization and pressed the Soviet Council of Ministers in Moscow to approve a basis for OGAS. Only one barrier remained – the Politburo,² and it had to give the final consent for the organization of a state committee for the supervision of the OGAS project. They refused Glushkov.

When this issue was discussed at the Politburo session, Glushkov made the following prophecy: "The problems in our economy are such, that by the end of the 1970s we will have to go back to the OGAS project. Otherwise, our economy will collapse!" When he returned to Kiev, he was summoned by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Petr Efimovich Shelest, who warned him to stop promoting OGAS among the top officials and get down to "basics," meaning the creation of computer-aided systems for factories. But even before this order, Glushkov had already assembled his staff from the Institute of Cybernetics to design two systems. First, the Lvov System was a CAD/CAM system, designed and installed at the Lvov Television Factory; and second, the Kuntsev System, was installed at a radio plant in Kuntsevo near Moscow. According to Glushkov, these two systems would set the national standard.

At that time Ustinov supported Glushkov, and offered to introduce the OGAS project, at least partially, to the defense industries. The highly organized defense sector supported the fast creation of a series of effective computer-aided systems for enterprise control, but Glushkov's opponents insisted that computer-aided control systems were unreliable and unprofitable. The subsequent policy that emerged prevented the rapid computerization of Soviet society. As in the case with cybernetics, the opponents of CAD/CAM managed to briefly gain the upper hand.

Glushkov could not participate in this foul game forever. In the early 1980s aggressive astrocytoma became his new, merciless enemy, making his political opponents irrelevant. Nevertheless, Glushkov's memory remains in the hearts of those who worked with him, and I hope that the readers of this book will understand why. If one becomes acquainted with Viktor Mikhailovich's work, it is clear that modern information networks are a legacy of his ideas. That system was created without any "high ruling body," and mostly for reasons of economic expedience. The appearance of personal computers in the offices of engineers, designers and managers is a testimonial to Glushkov. And now a huge information network – the Internet – is stretching across the Commonwealth of Newly Independent States and around the world, fulfilling Viktor Mikhailovich's dreams and predictions of forty years ago.

During a chance meeting with Vladimir Petrovich Krasnikov, a prominent journalist from Kiev, I told him of my intent to write a memoir about the invention and development of computer technology in the Soviet Union. He informed me that he possessed cassette tapes of Glushkov's firsthand stories about his childhood, youth, and first years in science. It turned out that Krasnikov met Glushkov many times in the early 1970s and had intended to write his biography, but suddenly fell ill. When he recovered, he realized that he had lost his impressions of Glushkov. His notes were left unused, so he gave them to me.

Viktor Mikhailovich's wife, Valentina, shared with me the family relics and her husband's memoirs, dictated to their daughter Olga during the last nine days of his life, which I have maintained in my personal archive in Kiev. In a way, it is an insight into his creative genius. I share some of the most telling and powerful stories and memories below. They are supplemented by the recollections from his closest students and colleagues at the Institute of Cybernetics, by fragments from friends' letters, by his wife's reminiscences, and by my own personal comments.

^[1] Zemanek, Heinz, "Euloge: Viktor Mikhailovich Glushkov, 1923–1982," Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 4, No 2, 1982, pp. 100–101.