Judy R., Clough R. Soviet Computer Software and Applications in the 1980s

Research report to the National Council for Soviet and East European research. — Indianapolis: Hudson Institute, 1989. — 188 p.Does Ivan compute? If not, why? If so, how and how well? And if not well, what price does he pay for it ? Reduced to their essentials, these are the main questions addressed in this paper. We purposely do not pose the question, "Can Ivan compute?" because the evidence clearly indicates that he can . One need not reach for the image of the Soviet space shuttle Buran executing flawless orbital flight and landing totally under automatic control to make the point. There are plenty of other examples to support the contention that Soviet programmers are a talented subspecies . Ivan can compute, but the fact is that he does less of it than Johnny...or Pierre or Fritz. Indeed, it seems that he does proportionately less of it than anybody else in the developed world. Still, computers do exist in the USSR, probably more than 200,000 of them . In a companion paper, we have surveyed the state of Soviet computer hardware. Another companion paper addresses the state of Soviet telecommunications. Here we survey some
aspects of the Soviet computer software world and examine how computers are applied i n several of the fields that enjoy a high level of official support.Introduction and SummarySoviet Software Developments in the 1980s
Application and Absorption of Computers in the Soviet Union
Computer Networking in the USSR
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)