🎅🏻 🧐 👩🏿‍🚀 Vladimir Kitov: “We made the TV monitor OB practically underground” 📏 ✝️ ♠️

Vladimir Anatolievich Kitov, senior researcher at the laboratory of artificial intelligence, neurotechnology and business analytics, associate professor of the computer science department of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, has been involved in IT for more than 50 years. After graduating from MPEI with a degree in Applied Mathematics, he worked as a programmer at the GVC of the USSR State Planning Commission, headed programming teams at the GVC of the USSR Ministry of Minorflot and Central Research Institute "Monolith" (PO Box P-6211) of the USSR Ministry of Defense, where he led the development of software for the COSPAS international space rescue system -SARSAT, by creating for the EU computers a multi-terminal monitor OB and many other real-time software systems.

From 1991 to 2011, Vladimir Anatolyevich worked as a top manager at DEC, SIEMENS, Technoserv, IBS, Fujitsu. Then he took up the history of Russian informatics at the I.I. Vavilov Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Vladimir Kitov is the author of more than 90 publications, including monographs, books, and a system programming textbook. In the first part of the interview to the DataArt Museum project, Vladimir Anatolyevich recalls the important stages of his career during the Soviet era - from studying at MPEI to creating and developing OBI.

Opposite Iron Felix

- I have been in information technology for more than half a century, and my area has always been programming. It began at the legendary Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute - the first faculty of electronic computers in the country. There was the first department of computer engineering in the USSR. According to the recollections of veterans, back in 1952-1953, Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev came from Kiev to Moscow once a week to give lectures on electronic computers to a very secret group of students, many of whom in mid-1954 began working in the USSR’s first computing center - Exhibition Center No. 1 of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. Then Lebedev already made an MESM machine and created a BESM.

Dzerzhinsky Square in 1966

In 1969, I, a third-year student, came to practice at the Main Computing Center of the USSR State Planning Commission, which was then on Dzerzhinsky Square (now Lubyanskaya) to the left of the Detsky Mir store. To his right is a rather famous building - the State Security Committee. In the square there is a monument to Dzerzhinsky. I was pleased to work and look at the iron Felix. Because at one time in high school I was in the same class as Felix Edmundovich’s grandson, Felix Dzerzhinsky.

In practice, I programmed on a second-generation computer - the British Elliott 503 - under the guidance of experienced programmers. Here he wrote a diploma and defended it in the winter of 1972.

Elliott 503. Computer. Excerpt from the 1966 documentary film “Life in Australia: Hobart”.

Created in 1959 by a government decision, the Gosplan of the USSR was the largest computing center in the country for civilian purposes. The largest military computing center - VC No. 1 of the USSR Ministry of Defense - appeared earlier, on May 1, 1954. That is, the country first thought about defense, the armed forces, and then about civil affairs.

Interactive mode

When I came to pre-graduation practice in 1971 at the same GVC, he was no longer on Dzerzhinsky Square, but on 45 Kirov Street, now it is Academician Sakharov Avenue. And it was the first building in the country, built specifically for the civilian computer center. Now there is the Analytical Center of the Presidential Administration, and then electronic computers were used for the tasks of national planning, control of state plans and the introduction of advanced technology.

Fidel Castro during a visit to the GVC Gosplan of the USSR

For important organizations, the state did not spare currency, and the English System 4 computers of ICL corporation (International Computers Limited) were purchased for the GVC of the USSR State Planning Commission, the USSR Foreign Trade and the USSR Gosnab, as well as for the Institute for Management Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the AZLK plant. A huge contract, cars cost millions pounds, and many leading British publications wrote about this.

GVC Gosplan USSR. Computer Room ICL System 4

The 3rd generation ICL System 4 computers were followers of IBM / 360 computers, which are known to be purely packaged. Batch mode - this is when tasks in sets of punch cards are handed over to the operator’s service, they are launched on a computer, then they get printouts on an ADC (alphanumeric printing device) and are distributed to users by department. He was very cumbersome and time-consuming, slowed down decision-making. Naturally, in many cases it would be more convenient to run and debug programs in the dialogue mode. Solving user tasks in real time was the next step compared to batch mode. But at that moment, it was not a priority task for the MCC, so they decided to entrust and start real-time software to me - a young specialist. As they say, for the future. It happened,that I was very lucky - I started a promising new business - mastering real-time system software and creating user programs that ensure the use of computers in dialogue mode with users of remote terminals (displays).

Employees of the information retrieval system of the GVC Gosplan of the USSR. Left Vladimir Kitov

EC computer

The Soviet Union then went along the path of copying IBM 360 computers. This is not an easy decision, it was preceded by a lot of debate at the highest level, but the idea of borrowing ibiem computers was supported by the Minister of Radio Industry Kalmykov and President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Keldysh. Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh was the smartest person. I wrote about him the book “President of the Keldysh Academy of Sciences. 100th Birth Anniversary, it is posted on the website of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Why did he make this decision? It seems to me, because I was a realist and understood the enormous complexity of creating the operating system of third-generation computers. IBM is known to have spent several billion dollars creating its system software for IBM / 360 computers, an amount greater than the cost of the Apollo spacecraft’s flight to the moon.

Vladimir Kitov while working in the GVC Gosplan. Photos from the personal archive

However, borrowing is far from always good. After all, Russian specialists are enthusiastic creators who always strive to create something of their own. We had powerful programmers, great mathematicians. The decision to copy IBM / 360 hit the Soviet computer schools hard, because the government cut funding for domestic developers. First of all, it hit the institute of Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev, the team of Bashir Iskandarovich Rameev with his Ural machines and others. In this case, the money went to create analogues of IBM / 360 - EC computers. There is an opinion, usually it is supported by a reference to the famous Dutch programmer Dijkstra that the very idea of copying was thrown to us from the West in order to destroy Soviet computer engineering. Our smart people opposed copying - Sergey Lebedev, Victor Glushkov,Bashir Rameev and others.Anatoly Ivanovich Kitov [one of the pioneers of Soviet cybernetics and computer science, father of Vladimir Anatolyevich. - Note Ed.] said: "If you copy something, then you always go behind and, as a result, lag behind." It is known that the USSR nevertheless began to copy the already aging number of American computers, while the Americans themselves went further.

Unique MCC

So, I began to engage in interactive tasks. He mastered the DRIVER system telemonitor, debugged a program that implements interactive mode between the ICL System 4-70 computer and terminal users. Then he made a system of dialogue debugging of programs, which he called PSTN (terminal program debugging system). I did this for three years - from 72 to 75th. Gained invaluable programming experience - unique specialists were gathered at the State Planning Committee of the USSR State Planning Commission. The chief engineer, that is, the person responsible for the equipment, was Viktor Vasilyevich Aleksandrov - the chief engineer of SKB-245, who at one time created the first Soviet serial computer Strela. Many employees by the decision of the government transferred to the MCC from the Exhibition Center No. 1 of the Ministry of Defense. In particular, Nikolai Andreyevich Krinitsky, one of the leaders in programming in the country.Vladimir Ilyich Sobelman came from the Institute of Applied Mathematics, who worked as the head of the computer software department. His deputy was run by the magnificent Dmitry Lozinsky, who is now known for having created the Doctor Web antivirus complex, talented system engineers Anatoly Kostryukov and Tatyana Starcheus, experienced specialists Flora Frantsevna Shiller, Nona Nikolaevna Fedulova, Victor Alekseevich Paveliev and others. My colleagues and I, in particular, Yuri Lashkarev and Sergey Ignatiev, had the opportunity to communicate with them every day, and we learned from them.experienced specialists Flora Frantsevna Shiller, Nona Nikolaevna Fedulova, Viktor Alekseevich Paveliev and others. My colleagues and I, in particular, Yuri Lashkarev and Sergey Ignatiev, had the opportunity to communicate with them every day, and we learned from them.experienced specialists Flora Frantsevna Shiller, Nona Nikolaevna Fedulova, Viktor Alekseevich Paveliev and others. My colleagues and I, in particular, Yuri Lashkarev and Sergey Ignatiev, had the opportunity to communicate with them every day, and we learned from them.

GVC Gosplan of the USSR, 1976

Every day I came to Kirova street, 45, this is the metro station "Red Gate". According to Soviet rules, a policeman stood at the checkpoint. You show the pass and the first thing you go to the operator department. There are groups of cells by department, on one of them, very small, your last name is written. You pick up the prints - over night they counted your task on the computer. Expand this huge “sheet”, start looking for errors, debug. Then lunch and programming again. You finish at 6, and it happened at 7 and 8. Because it is interesting.

At the same time, we lived not only in programming. We had our own rock group “Tin Soldiers”, on whose shoulders, as Andrei Makarevich said, his “Time Machine” rose. It is believed that this is the first group in the country that began to perform rock and roll in Russian. It started back at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, and continued at the GVC, when bass player Yuri Lashkarev and I arrived there, simultaneously with the pewter drummer Viktor Gusev.

Song of the Tin Soldiers band, 1972 recording. In the photo: Yuri Lashkarev (bass) and Victor Gusev (drums).

There were Komsomol events, vegetable depots, and DND. All as expected. Somehow they gathered for the premiere of a movie at the Cinema House, but I had to urgently count my task on the computer. Lashkarev and other friends gathered below, familiar girls approached. They ask: “Where is Volodya?” Yura: "Volodya is in a car." One of the girls says: “So he will give us a lift!”

MCC Minmorflot

Three years after the beginning of my career, that is, in 1975, I was called to the Main Computing Center of the Ministry of the Navy of the USSR for the position of head of the computer software department. Then I was 26. The Ministry is civil, and this GVC was exactly where GVZplan used to be. To the left of the Children's World, in the same building. Now there is the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation. There was a very interesting job, responsible.

Ministry of the Navy of the USSR, mid-1980s. Source

Four departments were engaged in applied programming, and we had to ensure the smooth operation of computers. Two British ICL System 4 computers were also installed in the GVC of the USSR Ministry of Minorflot, as well as in the State Planning Commission. First of all, I tried to ensure that the department fulfilled its basic duties, but at the same time did not forget about dialogue systems - continued its path in the field of software real time. We made an interesting dialogue system for informing the leading employees of the ministry about the current location of the fleet, i.e., in what area of the world ocean this or that ship is located. In the USSR there were 16 shipping companies, which were based in all major port cities of the country. Black Sea Shipping Company - Odessa, Novorossiysk - Novorossiysk, Georgian - Batumi, Estonian - Tallinn, Far Eastern - Vladivostok, Caspian - Baku,Northern - Murmansk, etc. These were, as they would say now, large holdings, and the ministry directed them all. The shipping companies had their own computers, and we had a central computer in Dzerzhinsky Square. From all shipping companies, detailed information was received about each subordinate vessel, which, after processing, sorting, generalizing and analyzing, was transferred to the leaders of the Minmorflot.

The building of the Ministry of Navy of the USSR, 1985-1988 From the book “Architects of Moscow. XX century. " On the ground floor there was a computer room with computers “ICL System 4”, on the left the building of the Central Baths, famous throughout Moscow.

A lot of interesting things were done at the MCC of the USSR Ministry of Marine and Navy for the five years that I worked there - until 1980. In particular, I was the head of the software subsystem of the COSPAS complex - “space rescue”. Four countries worked on the COSPAS / SARSAT project: COSPAS created the Soviet Union, and SARSAT - the United States, Canada and France. The systems worked together, were compatible by coding and standards.

Emblem of the international satellite search and rescue system COSPAS-SARSAT until 1992

The essence of the generalized system is that if a ship or plane suffers a disaster, a beacon shoots off at it and starts transmitting its coordinates. Satellites detect them and transmit them to the computer of the ministry. Having received the coordinates, we immediately determined the vessels closest to the required square in order to immediately begin the rescue operation. The system was effective. I had to launch satellites, spend money, but then saved lives, ships and their cargoes all paid off.

Vladimir Kitov, photo from the Hall of Fame, 1970s.

The most fruitful period

In 1977, I defended myself at the Academic Council of MPEI and became a candidate of technical sciences. By Soviet standards, it became more profitable and more comfortable for me to work in any research institute - the MCC was not considered a scientific organization. I received several invitations, including from the Central Research Institute "Monolith". This is the mailbox P-6211 of the Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR. Probably the most fruitful period in life began in 1980. By that time, I had gained serious experience not only as a programmer, but also as the head of a team of programmers.

I had an obsession - I wanted to create my own TV monitor. Its system, which would manage the remote terminals, provided real-time operation. At that time, on the computers of the 3rd generation of EU computers, the American CICS television monitor was used - “Kiks” as it was called. There was his borrowed analogue - KAMA television monitor. Then a group of our Russian programmers developed a very good Primus system. Having studied these systems and worked with them, I realized why they are inconvenient for users, and in some ways simply outdated. Therefore, I really wanted to create my own Soviet modern television monitor.

The building of the Central Research Institute of Economics, Informatics and Management Systems, in the past Central Research Institute "Monolith". Moscow, st., Malaya Bronnaya st., 2/7

What is a television monitor? This is system software in addition to the operating system. A huge software package - millions of machine instructions (instructions in assembly language). It was clear that one or two or three programmers, even very good ones, could not create such a software system. We needed a very serious programming team - at least a department. And so, when I went to work in the defense industry (and the Central Research Institute "Monolith" - mailbox P-6211 - was the lead IT institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense Industry), I began to recruit qualified programmers from all over Moscow. Someone moved from my former department of computer software to the MCC of the USSR Ministry of Minorflot. For the first three to four months, I repeatedly received scoldings from the Monolith leadership: “Why is the number of employees in the department increasing so slowly?”I had to explain to the bosses that we need to take very good programmers, and this is a “piece of goods”. As a result, it was possible to create a group of talented specialists, to captivate them with the idea of creating their world-class television monitor.

Work at the vegetable base. Vladimir Kitov (right) and his deputy Igor Zhitenev (left)

In the summer of 1981, the first version of the OB TV monitor passed test tests, after which we began to test it as an industrial design, choosing several defense enterprises of the country for this. In addition to OBI, the STD software department developed more than a dozen software packages that provide real-time interaction between users of remote terminals and computers.

After 4-5 years, more than 60 employees worked in the created department of “Software for Teleprocessing Data Systems” (STD software). There was a computer park - one EC 1040 computer produced by the GDR and two SM computers. In fact, our department was comparable to an independent research institute. We called our TV monitor “OB”. The soft sign was introduced into the name not by chance - to show that we did not steal it from anyone - neither from IBM nor from ICL. What they themselves wrote each of the millions of machine instructions.

The TV monitor OB in the USSR Ministry of Defense provided information to the minister, his deputies, and heads of departments. In fact, the department was no longer subordinate to the institute, but to the main technical department (GTU), since it began to work with all enterprises in the industry. This is about 300 factories for the production of weapons. I had to travel to Leningrad a lot, solving the issues of introducing OBI at the Kirov Plant and LOMO. The Red Arrow has become a native train in which many guides already knew me. He constantly visited the Kiev Arsenal, the Vologda Optical and Mechanical Plant, the Kovrov Mechanical Plant, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, the Krasnogorsk Plant, the engineering plants in the cities of Frunze and Izhevsk, the Kharkov Tractor Plant (it’s clear that there are tractors, there are tanks) and others .

A fragment of the film "Red Arrow", 1986, dir. Igor Sheshukov

The software products of our department were introduced at enterprises not only of the Ministry of Defense Industry, but also of the entire “nine” defense ministries. The head of the State Technical University of the USSR Ministry of Defense was then Yuri Dmitrievich Maslyukov, who had previously worked as chief engineer of the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant. Then he quickly became deputy minister, then - chairman of the State Planning Commission of the USSR, chairman of the Military Industrial Commission (MIC of the USSR), member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Very nice and sensible person. After regular discussions on various issues of introducing software and hardware systems in defense enterprises, we established friendly relations that continued, despite the fact that he ascended to the very top of state power.

After the creation of OBI, we carefully documented this system in accordance with all international standards: user manual, operator manual, programmer's manual, system programmer's manual and so on. Then they passed OB to the All-Union Fund of Program Algorithms, which the Center Research Program Center Research Institute (director - V. P. Tikhomirov) was in the USSR in the city of Kalinin, now Tver.

OBI implementation

Our OB went around the country: "Centerprogrammsystem", already without our knowledge, began to disseminate it massively. In particular, it was introduced at Mosenergo, and the entire Moscow energy system began to be controlled by the OB system. They called from Atommash and said: “We want to introduce your OB”. We went to Volgodonsk to introduce it on this giant to create nuclear power plants. Still, the country was industrially powerful, although people lived poorly.

Reactor commissioning for the second power unit of the South Ukrainian NPP at the Atommash plant, 1981

A mass of organizations lined up to purchase our television monitor. It could be obtained at Centerprogramsystem, but, naturally, it was much easier to implement OB with us developers. The system is huge and it was generated. Arriving at the factory. On one there are 5 workshops, on the other - 20. On one - only displays, Soviet ones, and on the other - assorted. All this needs to be set, the system is configured for a specific configuration. There were prestigious industrial giants like the Atommash plant. I often went to the Arsenal plant and other Kiev organizations, because I looked after my future Kiev woman.

It all started with the fact that we were sent a request for the implementation of OBI, and I either put it in the queue, or sent this request to the Centerprogramsystem in Kalinin. There was its own team, traveling to various enterprises. The implementation contract stipulates that the customer must provide the computer in a specific configuration, with a specific version of the operating system. So that we can quickly generate, install, launch, train and leave.

Implementation was considered routine. I had a sector that will go, deliver, perform a standard set of operations. More difficult with pilot implementation. A new version has been developed, it must be implemented, but it does not work. We are looking for mistakes, tormented. In the department worked a brilliant programmer Vladimir Yuryevich Dyakonov, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences. There was a case when an experienced programmer Lyudmila Kruglova for a week could not find an error in her program unit. With a printout comes to me: “Vladimir Anatolyevich, I can’t find it. What to do? I don’t sleep at night. ” At this moment, Volodya Dyakonov appears. I cast a glance at the spread out listing: “Yes, here's a mistake!” Lyudmila's sobbing began: “I have not been able to find a mistake for a week, but he went to the head to invite him to smoke, and then he saw her !!!”

“And our guys for the same salary ...”

OB created two large sectors of the department of software STD. Neither the developers, nor I, as the author of the idea and the leader in creating the system, received any particularly large money as a result of its implementation at numerous enterprises of the country. These were the rules of the socialist economy - egalitarianism. Yes, we had higher salaries and regular good bonuses. But still, it is interesting in contrast to the Americans. We made the system, to put it mildly, no worse than theirs. They took into account their mistakes, because they came later and, naturally, it was easier for us. They have the CICS TV monitor considered the most successful product of IBM Corporation, on which it received about $ 60 billion in profit. In an article on this subject, I quote the words of Vladimir Vysotsky from a song about hockey players: “And our guys are for the same salary ...”

Everyone in the department was eager to program something, to make a new one. And with salaries it was not bad. Management rewarded us, we received very decent money. Lada first model then cost 5500 rubles. For eight to ten months, we could save up for this car. But the car at that time in the USSR was not easy to buy. Only by order. I remember once for the institute they allocated 50 Zhiguli cars and 3 Volga cars for production workers. And so, by the general decision of the directorate, party committee and trade union committee, the Volga car was allocated to me, which, at that time, was considered a great achievement.

Scientific institutes in the Soviet Union were divided into categories: first, second, third. The first category is the most important - salaries there are the largest. The director of the first category institute had a formal salary of 550 rubles, and we received bonuses on average somewhere around 850. First, we gave bonuses because we made good software products in accordance with the plans set by the management, as well as that over the plan was programmed for other departments that could not cope with their tasks. And the most interesting systems, first of all, the OB TV monitor, were created over the plan as a personal initiative. Such an amazing country was with its clumsy planned economy and formal scientific guidance. They themselves were fired up by the idea and, in fact, clandestinely made a television monitor at the level of world standards. None of the leadership set such a task for us,she did not appear in any plans.

Production meeting at the Central Research Institute "Monolith" An

obvious advantage of the OBI was the ability to create complex inter-machine (multi-computer) complexes based on it. In particular, on the basis of the OBI, we organized an inter-machine information exchange between the EU computers installed in the GVC of the defense ministries and the GVC of the USSR State Planning Commission.

Vladimir Dyakonov, Igor Kalinchev, Vladimir Kitov. "Software for teleprocessing data systems." Ed. 1992

When in the second half of the 1980s the country began to switch to personnel management, we began to develop OB in this direction, that is, to use PCs as remote terminals. Once again, one of the important advantages of OBI helped here - the ease of connecting new types of terminal devices. OB supported more than 200 of their various types and modifications (teletypes, EC 7906 devices, displays and PCs of various types, remote EC computers, etc.). At that time, the creation of various types of equipment of the EU computer was the most ambitious joint project of the countries of the socialist community (CMEA countries). Something was done by Poland, something by Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Cuba. We have provided developed interaction protocols so that our television monitor can "talk" with the whole variety of terminal devices of the EU computer.

OB system development

According to Centerprogramsystems, at the beginning of the 1990s, about 40 percent of all EU computers in the country used computer OBs. Unlike the vast majority of EU computer software systems, our television monitor did not leave the scene after the era of personal computers. In 1996, the OB experienced its second birth when the Russian company Epsylon Technologies (Epsylon Technologies) laid the foundation for the new BAIKONUR software package (project manager Andrei Nikolaevich Chesnokov) designed for working on the next generation computers - RISC servers.

When creating the BAIKONUR, Epsilon Technologies took advantage of the experience of highly qualified programmers from the Department of Software Development of the Central Scientific Research Institute "Monolith" and the USSR Academy of Sciences. They say to me: "Your OB, only under the new name BAIKONUR, is operated in many organizations." In Russia, there was already capitalism - the 1990s, and no one is paying any dividends to us. But I was still very happy, because with the departure of the EC computers into oblivion, all of their system software also disappeared into oblivion, and our system continued to live, albeit under a different name. Currently, a group of enthusiasts at the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation, taking the ideas of the OB and BAIKONUR systems as a basis, is creating a new universal platform for the next-generation Internet products AN-2. Isn't that wonderful?

Vladimir Dyakonov, Vladimir Kitov, Igor Kalinchev. The textbook "System Programming". Ed. 1990 g.

For us - employees of the software department of the STD CRI Monolit — the 1980s were happy, because this was, above all, a time of fruitful creative work, the results of which were in demand by many enterprises and organizations of our country. Along with concrete practical work in the department, an active scientific life was going on - over 30 scientific articles were written. With my closest associates, I wrote three monographs devoted to the problems of creating real-time systems, the textbook "System Programming", adopted by the USSR Ministry of Higher Education as a textbook for universities. Three people defended their dissertations at once in the department. Everything was ready for me to defend my doctoral dissertation - even the text was written in draft. But, here at the height of perestroika, already under the new rules of capitalism,In April 1991, I was invited to the position of Head of Projects at the Moscow office of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The salary increased many times, but the dissertation did not take place. But that's another story.

Vladimir Kitov: “We made the TV monitor OB practically underground”