👼 🐨 🖐🏻 Andrei Zaretsky, Alexander Trukhanov: “The fee was enough to drink coffee” 🥜 🛀🏽 🤞🏽

In 1991, the Enlightenment publishing house published a children's book, The Encyclopedia of Professor Fortran. Almost instantly, she became a bestseller and sold millions of copies. It was a very easy and understandable story about personal computers, which practically no one had in our country. The DataArt museum project talked with the authors of the book, Andrei Zaretsky and Alexander Trukhanov, about how two physicists decided to become writers and came up with professors Fortran and Kadabra. In the first part of the monologue - the birth of an idea, a hated scientific study, freedom of thought in Chernogolovka and tea drinking with the Polisario Liberation Front.

Physicists

Andrei Zaretsky: First, Sasha and I wrote a book, “I was in the computer city,” where her hero, boy Alyosha, after various events received the “Encyclopedia of Professor Fortran”. But most of the Russian children of that time, who later became both programmers and scientists, remembered this red “Encyclopedia” more. There was a U-turn - absolutely brilliant at the time - when the book in the middle opened, and turned into a personal computer. So many people admitted that this was their first real computer. We owe it to Sasha by the invention of it, all the rest I came up with, haha.

The very spread of the "Encyclopedia of Professor Fortran"

Alexander Trukhanov:With Andrei, we worked together in the laboratory of ice physics in Chernogolovka, at the Institute of Solid State Physics. I was engaged in the automation of physical experiments there. Automated everything except boiling the kettle. Prior to that, he received a diploma in physical engineering and graduated from MEPhI, faculty of theoretical experimental physics. Then computers appeared, and we began to use them in work. At some point, the idea arose to write a book about them.

The Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded on February 15, 1963.

A.Z .: I studied at the Physics Institute in Dolgoprudny, faculty of general and applied physics. Entered in 1970, graduated in 76th. I came to the Institute of Solid State Physics in Chernogolovka for the first time in 1971 as a freshman - in the summer I asked for practice. He was a scientist, defended a candidate.

I first encountered computers during my training. At Fiztekh we were allotted some time for the machine room. They came with their punch cards, wrote some programs. Then, when I began to work, the Mera computer appeared in the laboratory, such a healthy cabinet. Then Sasha and I met.

AT: I wrote an automation program, then the modules for controlling external devices first appeared. That is, the computer is not in itself, but with some input and output interfaces, so that sensors can be connected. And this was considered an incredible progress. We drove a book into this computer. In a sense, they used the potential of the institute for personal gain. AZ

: I believe that we gave the country no less than an institute!

A.T .:At that time, we thought that this book was simply necessary. There was a feeling that everyone wants a computer, and practically no one has it.

AZ: It is important that we did not teach programming. First of all, we told that there is another life, and programming is just a working tool for creating this life.

Earring, swearing computer and Nobel laureate

Alexander Trukhanov: Here are a few facts so that you have an idea about that time and about what we were then. Perestroika began; Andrei trained in England. He returned to the laboratory, which was personally supervised by academician Osipyan, with an earring in his ear. For others it was a shock. It seems like free morals, free, but not quite. And then Andrei came up with the version that this is acupuncture ...

Andrei Zaretsky:No, I didn’t invent it. When I conducted seminars at the physics and technology department, senior colleagues approached me and asked: “Andrey, what is this?” “Well, that's cool.” “Can we all say that this is from a medical point of view?” I say: "Yes, I do not care at all what you say." And then they spread the information that comrade Zaretsky had medical problems, and this is a very important way of treatment. Everyone pretended that it was valid for health. It was the 89th year. Our first book was published in the 90th, but we have already written everything.

The production cycle was then longer than now. From England I brought a lot of different children's books, the expanded "Encyclopedia of Professor Fortran" is made including on their basis. Whatever you say, then in England there were much more different interesting decisions.

A.T .:They had computers, unlike us. Our computers were used only for scientific purposes. And even then it was necessary to order a change on the computer to knock on the keys. Entertainment and toys on computers as such were not then.

AZ: How was it not? The bombs were falling.

Option Space Invaders in pseudographics for SM-4

A.T .:The bombs were falling, yes. The game "Save the earth from some kind of seven-seater of danger" with a fairly primitive text monochrome graphics. When the “Mackintosh” appeared in Polish with sound, the first thing they did at the institute was to teach them to swear. Especially in another laboratory, which received the whole thing, they invited someone: "Come in, have some tea." Then everyone suddenly came out, except for the guest, the computer said something obscene, and the person did not understand what was happening. But the computer spoke with a Polish accent, so swindlers quickly figured out.

There, along the corridor, the current Nobel Prize winner Andrei Geim walked. A pensive man with shabby elbows on his jacket. Thinking about something and smoking all the time. I asked my colleagues what people were doing there. They answered me with diamonds: “The industrial application is not very interesting. We are engaged in science. ”

Scientificpop

Andrey Zaretsky:All, without exception, non-fiction books of that time were written on the same principle. Some professor, or dad, together with a boy or girl, go somewhere, see some bush, and then a scientific conversation begins - about the kidneys, about leaves, etc. A portion of science ends and the "adventures" continue on. We madly did not like this standard scientific move, and an idea came which we did not see anywhere else. History unfolds on its own, some events replace others. But that same encyclopedia is a separate book. Do you want to read. There are links. You can read a book without looking at them, but you can look. We have given the freedom to make decisions. But in science there is no freedom. You have to read smart daddies or professorial stories, and then continue on. Of course, we are proud of this discovery.

But first, we began to write as it was customary. That is, that same fairy tale and an explanation right there. Fortran arose later when an understanding of a separate encyclopedia appeared. We started with a fairy tale about Alyosha. The words “display”, “mouse” and so on appeared in it. Either dad or someone else explained it. Professor Fortran had no idea.

We very quickly realized that it was boring, disgusting. At the same time, they read books of this type, and all of them left an unpleasant impression. Then the idea of an encyclopedia was born. Fortran appeared as an explainer and his team. And it’s fortunate that nobody saw the first versions of the book, except for us and our editor.

Probably the most famous decent meme with Professor Fortran,

Alexander Trukhanov:I saw the head of the laboratory. He somehow came to us, and we started printing - the pages began to creep out of the printer. After some time, I had to change jobs. The boss realized that I have a lot of free time and he himself suggested a place where they pay more and where it will be more interesting to me.

Disco Chernogolovka

Andrei Zaretsky: I think our book was born, including freedom of thought in Chernogolovka. A specific town, some kind of non-burden was present there at all. Sasha and I in the seventies in a youth club held discos. They even wanted to kick us out of the Komsomol several times for some statements.

Disco consisted of two parts. The first is an educational, collective listening to a group, an album, then you can discuss. Next up is dancing. I was more an organizer, other guys were involved in music. Our task was to create an atmosphere, start the process.
Since it was an alien Western culture, everything had to be stigmatized. I remember our first program - they represented the unknown Italian rock opera Felona and Sorona to anyone. Naturally, in the beginning we talked about "the difficult life of Italian workers." They branded the enemy, then they listened. To know the enemy in person.

Alexander Trukhanov: There was an amazing level at our discos. Kagebeshniki periodically appeared. We watched what kind of music we would use. They listened. Could ask where you got this record. Where did you buy it? Maybe you are a smuggler? Usually in such cases it was said that an uncle, aunt or a friend for a scientific exchange traveled to Europe and brought it. Somehow it was possible to explain, at least, they did not immediately press against the wall.

A.Z .:The equipment was partially bought with some kind of state money, they did something themselves. Light music, for example. All the first turntables in general were mine and the first records.

A.T .: I remember there was a disco where Andrey arranged a casino with cockroach races. According to the book "Running". The White Guard lifestyle was criticized and stigmatized, but the excitement rose eerie.

Cockroach races in the film "Running" 1970

A.Z .:Our youth club had many different rooms. Traditionally, everything was held in one room, and we created a situation where something happens in each room. And at the same time. There are cockroaches, there is an auction, something else. And people were bursting. They wanted to go there, and there, and there, everything was seething, there was a feeling of a fantastic holiday ... It is clear that we did not do this together or even the five of us. They created a skeleton of this story with friends, and people picked it up.

Almost the top is one of the first breakdance festivals. We organized accommodation in a boarding house, and people from all over the Soviet Union arrived. There were special groups that ensured order. Someone was involved in transport. We were able to do this ourselves, without financial and organizational assistance from the state. All the same, normal people. Give us freedom - we will do everything.

A.T .: But then the question arose, are we bad or good. Almost all the time he arose. Only with one figured out, the second roll out, the third. So it’s good that there were no complaints about the book.

Troubled youth

Alexander Trukhanov: Once we were invited to a festival of youth and students. This is the 85th year. The event was held in a private club, and illegal immigrants arrived there. The Liberation Front of South Sahara (Polisario) is just militants from the revolution by today's standards. There was an armored personnel carrier with special forces in case we were taken hostage. I talked with the KGB agent. I say: "It is not clear how they are going to build socialism with a knife in their sleeves." “We ourselves have not yet decided on their account. You are careful, ”he replies. According to him, many arrived on foreign passports through third countries and under other surnames. There were Kurds. Such cool guys - from a machine gun just now. So we talked with them.

Andrey Zaretsky:This is a festival, youth, albeit problematic. At that time there were not many people who were engaged in youth culture. Many did not understand how it should be. People were recruited from everywhere who had anything to do with it. They said: “We guys are you before this atatushka, and now the Motherland needs you.”

A.T .:No one understood what a disc jockey is, what it should be. Us in the club, where they shot "What?" Where? When? ”, They gathered for a day or two and read acting classes, something else, and gave a lecture on the psychology of the crowd. They prepared for any non-standard situation, but there were no standard situations then. Thank God, everything worked out, but there were fights on Red Square between delegations, and stabbing between the Polisario Liberation Front and Moroccans. They fought, called each other rapists and murderers. I was shown a film as a very confidant. The guys from Polisario robbed someone of the filming and film technique, and they turned us a film of our own production. The plot is this: several jeeps are driving up in a small town in Africa - rubbing, rubbing from bazookas to their homes. There is fire, smoke. Then they stop the film and say: “Well, we’re the worst of you,we won’t show how the people liquidate the bourgeois. ”

They had manuals, such books, where our whole world was explained in 5-10 sentences. These are bad - they need to be cut. These are good - they need help. I asked: “Guys, how does your country live if you have nothing but some tomato plantation there?” “Well, you know, we’ll capture the tank - we’ll sell it,” they say. “But you cannot control a tank.” - "Never mind. We have a customer. People fly in from him, take the tank and take it somewhere. ” Once the reconnaissance and warning aircraft sold. He sat down accidentally, he was right there to grab. Some Westerners came with their pilots, gave money and took the plane ...

A.T .:When the festival collapsed and these guys left, we drank some of their loose tea. Everyone was afraid that the tea is not simple, wrong. They claimed: "This is ordinary tea, just grown here." Then they disassembled and carried out their exposition from self-woven carpets, wooden mock-ups of knives and machine guns, drowned for socialism, got tired, sat down and fell asleep. They sleep, and their fingers twitch - they shoot in a dream.

AZ: This is the contingent with which we then worked.

Coffee instead of cars

A.Z: If not for perestroika, Sasha and I would be the coolest children's writers in the Soviet Union and in the entire social camp. Why? Because we have already agreed on a real continuation. The following books are about robots, about mathematics, about physics. All in the same vein. There was already a conversation about reprinting in the languages of the republics of the USSR and in Czech ...

Draft notes from the book “I Was in the Computer City”, the text of which we still remember by heart

AT: We hoped to make some money. But the fees came only a year after the book was published - under the terms of the contract. If we were paid immediately, we could buy a car. But there was a monetary reform and the fee was enough only to drink coffee.

Continuation of the interview - here !