By order of the FSB, and much more. Almost like in the good old Soviet times. We decided to recall how large-scale IT tasks were solved in Soviet time. Read about it in a series of posts by Yuri Revich on Slon.ru.
It is believed that the first remote connection between two computers was established in 1965 between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and SDC Corporation (Santa Monica, California). But this, to put it mildly, is not entirely true: in the United States itself, long before the start of experiments with ARPANET, a rather “advanced” computer network of hundreds of nodes worked - as part of the famous North American aerospace defense system called NORAD.
NORAD was created mainly in the middle - second half of the 1960s. But the first functioning computer network was created in the USSR much earlier, when NORAD was still in the project stage, and also within the framework of the anti-missile system.
It all started with the fact that Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev, a well-known Soviet designer of computer technology (under his leadership the famous BESM series was created), wrote a note to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in which he noted the possibility of creating, as we would now say, a computer system for controlling the movement of a rocket in real time. This was at the beginning of 1951, when even the first Soviet computers had not yet been put into operation, and it is not surprising that Lebedev's initiative at the republican level did not meet with understanding.
Assuming the duties of director of the Moscow Institute of Fine Mechanics and Computer Engineering (ITMiVT), Lebedev attracted young specialist Vsevolod Burtsev to the design of a computer for processing radar data. In 1955, computers "Diana I" and "Diana II" appeared, the task of which included, among other things, automatic tracking of air targets. Lebedev's team also created the M-40 (40,000 operations per second) and M-50 (floating-point) powerful machines for those times. Both machines, completed in 1958-1959, were pre-designed for collective work in the network.
Detection of a rocket flying at supersonic speed, tracking its trajectory and, moreover, shooting it with an anti-missile - all this seemed at that time an absolutely unsolvable task. But the idea was extremely tempting, and back in 1956, to the west of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan, the construction of "System A" began - an experimental missile defense system based on a computer network. G. V. Kisunko was appointed General Designer (later - Chief Designer Soviet systems PRO and director of NPO Vympel).
Looking at Lebedev's tube computers, which were then made in a handicraft way, Kisunko was horrified by the quality of the “home-made products” and, just in case, concluded an agreement with SKB-245, the creators of the Strela computer and Lebedev's competitors. But nothing came of this, and as a result, "System A" was created on the basis of the developments of ITMiVT.
Vsevolod Burtsev reproduces in his memoirs block diagram the world's first computer network that worked at distances of hundreds of kilometers and fully deserved the name global, because there were no problems in scaling it (see). Note that the network included wireless segments (for communication with mobile missile systems) - an innovation that did not become widespread until the 1980s.
Fully put into operation in 1960, this missile defense system became the first system in the world capable of not only warning of an attack, but also launching an anti-missile, shooting down an attacking missile while still in space. According to B. N. Malinovsky, successful tests of this system allowed Khrushchev to remark at one of the press conferences: "Our rocket, one might say, hits a fly in space." This work became the basis for the creation of missile defense systems, and the entire system of checks and balances, which became the basis for global treaties (like START), which finally turned nuclear weapons into "weapons of deterrence."
But for our topic, it is more important that Soviet scientists and designers from the very beginning did not even think about the fact that a computer network is some kind of special functionality of computer systems that needs to be specially designed somehow. Burtsev characterizes the speed of the Sistema A network in the following way: "The total rate of information flow through radio relay lines exceeded 1 MHz." In terms of familiar units, this can be approximately estimated as 1 Mbps, which is very good for wireless networks, even by modern standards. And where is the ARPANET with its miserable 56 Kbps!
It turned out, however, that civilian computer networks came to us from the West already in the 1990s. It developed completely on the initiative "from below", and now it's funny to listen to the memories of veterans, as at the end of 1999 two ministers at once: (Ministry of Communications) and (Ministry of Press), - then offered Prime Minister Putin a program of de facto nationalization Russian Internet. Fortunately, Putin forbade even thinking about it, and for many years the state almost did not deal with the Internet at all, except for the failure in most aspects of the Electronic Russia program. And only at the end of the decade, attempts began to link the spontaneously established Internet representations of government agencies and the provision of public services via the Internet into a single system.
Let us dream: it could have been quite different. After all, ARPANET in the United States was also born as part of a defense order. And building a global network in the situation of the Soviet planned economy, orienting it, among other things, to civilian needs, was probably even easier. And there were such projects too ... but more on that in another article.
Scheme of the computer network of the Soviet experimental missile defense, deployed in 1959-1960. in Kazakhstan, not far from Lake Balkhash (illustration from an article by the author of the development V. S. Burtsev, with permission from the editors of the magazine " Information Technology and computing systems).
RTN - precision guidance radars, SM - special computers, SD - early warning station, RPR - anti-missile radar (transmission of signals to an anti-missile), ST - mobile anti-missile launcher, PPD - data reception and transmission processor, M-4, M- 40 and M-50 - electronic computers, B - a storage device on a magnetic drum, UUB - a drum control device, KRA - control and recording equipment, RL - radio relay lines.
The Internet is one of the greatest, albeit highly controversial, inventions of the era. When, where, why, why and who invented the Internet?
Satellite, "kaputnik", Internet
The Internet owes its appearance to the confrontation between the two greatest powers - the USSR and the USA. On October 4, 1957, the Union launched the first ever successful launch of an artificial Earth satellite. Almost immediately, on November 3 of the same year, Sputnik-2 was launched behind Sputnik-1 with the famous Laika on board.
The answer of the Americans was to launch the Avangard satellite on December 6, 1957. Having risen 1 m in height, the American satellite collapsed. For this fiasco, and also in honor of its creator, the German von Braun, Avangard earned the nickname "kaputnik".
Frightened by the fall of the “kaputnik”, as well as the promising Soviet nuclear bombing from space, the Americans thought about creating a communications system capable of operating in a nuclear war. In 1958, by decree of President D. Eisenhower, on the basis of the US Department of Defense, the Agency for Advanced Research Projects(APRA), which took up the development of such a system.
In 1963, APRA director J. Licklider developed the first concept of a computer network under the loud name "Galactic Network" ("Galactic Network"). However, the idea was realized only a few years later. So who invented the Internet, the name and surname of this person?
Further development
In 1967, APRA employee Roberts puts forward the idea to connect the organization's computers with a network, which is called APRANET. Further events developed as follows:
- On October 10, 1969, a successful, albeit short-term communication session took place between APRA computers located at a distance of 640 km from each other;
- in 1982, APRA creates a single network "language" - TCP / IP protocols, with the help of which computers around the world still communicate with each other, and APRANET becomes a tiny but real Internet;
- in 1984, APRANET has a powerful rival - NSFNet, a network created on the basis of the US National Science Foundation;
- from 1984 to 1990, there were, in fact, two Internets in the world: NSFNet and the much less powerful APRANET, which ceases to exist in 1990;
- after the disappearance of APRANET, NSFNet becomes the Internet, that is, all connections to the network, including those outside the United States, were coordinated by the foundation's supercomputers; in 1995, this function was transferred to providers, which, although not immediately, made the World Wide Web available to everyone.
In 1977, 100 people in the world used the Internet, in 1984 - 1000, in 1997 - 19.5 million, and in 2014 - 2.5 billion. And in what year was the Internet invented in Russia?
Internet in the USSR and Russia: milestones
The prototype of the Internet appeared in the USSR in 1952, that is, 15 years earlier than the American APRANET. The Soviet network carried out communication between military computers within the framework of the anti-missile defense system. In the 80s, on the basis of the Research Institute of Applied Automated Systems, Soviet scientists conducted experiments on international communications and organized computer conferences with foreign colleagues.
In 1990, the first Soviet and Russian network, RELCOM, was created. In the same year, the top (state) level domain.su was registered ( Soviet Union- Soviet Union). In 1994, the domain.ru (Russia - Russia) was registered, in 2010 - the domain in Cyrillic (.rf).
In 2003, 19.5 million Russians used Runet, in 2014 - 70 million (with a population of 146 million). In terms of the number of network users, Russia ranks 1st in Europe and 6th in the world. As of 2014, there are approximately 5 million sites in Runet where you can find out, among other things, who invented the Internet.
Like many great inventions, the Internet has several "fathers", and, probably, its history is far from over.
Anatoly Klesov did not understand why he was not arrested
Anatoly Klesov did not understand why he was not arrested. Sitting at the only computer with Internet access in the USSR, the young scientist communicated with the whole world for almost 7 years, defying the “Iron Curtain”. Apparently, the KGB did not even suspect such a fantastic loophole to the West.
The “gatekeeper” from the Soviet regime told “MK” about his virtual adventures. Obvious and incredible.
The whole paradox is that this virtual hole was not guarded by anyone. I mean, there were armed guards at the entrance to the closed Research Institute of Applied Automated Systems, but even the director of the institution himself did not really realize how serious a thing they were protecting. “My life consisted of paradoxes,” says Anatoly Klesov. - I made a career as a scientist quite early, at the age of 30 I was the youngest doctor of science at the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University. During my studies, my exchange supervisor referred me to Harvard University, where I spent a year. And so I discovered America: I was delighted with the free lifestyle that people lead there. Capitalism hit me in the head, and when I returned, I ingenuously told everyone around how great it was for people to live in it. In addition, I was already invited to work at Harvard University, and I began to prepare for emigration.
But that was not the case: Anatoly was banned from traveling abroad for 9 years. And his rave reviews about the charms of life overseas were mistaken for anti-Soviet propaganda. Who would do something like this openly? Of course, only a CIA agent!
- So I grew up in my homeland to the head of the laboratory of biochemistry of the Institute. Bach RAS and at the same time was considered a UN consultant on biotechnology. It was from there that the invitation came to the USSR to take part in the first world computer conference on biotechnology. I was recommended as a moderator in the letter,” says Klesov.
Anatoly was summoned to the carpet by Kosygin's deputy and, believing that he was talking with a CIA agent, nevertheless suggested:
- Find out if there are opportunities for such communication in the Union. And we will think about the conference, - and supplied this task with a written order.
In the 82nd year in the Union, not everyone knew what a computer looked like. Even more fantastic seemed the idea of holding international conferences without leaving the office ...
To the future and back
Anatoly tried for the benefit of science. It seemed to him that if such mobile conferences were possible, there would be simply terrifying progress. So Klesov went to the Research Institute of Applied Automated Systems, where he was informed: there is a communication channel, but it is still unknown to science whether it is suitable for the conference. Nobody checked.
“I presented a government order, and they issued me an indefinite pass to this institute,” the scientist says. - The director led me to a room where there was the only computer in the Union with a modem that communicated through telephone networks. By the way, no one knew the word "Internet" then - this phenomenon was called "computer communication". But the staff of the Institute did not come into contact with foreigners. Most likely they used virtual opportunities for hacker break-ins of foreign databases.
That IBM by today's standards was completely antediluvian, and in the 82nd year it was considered a miracle of technology. A green screen that displayed a black “alphabet”. A separate line for the login and password - Klesov drove in those indicated in the invitation. And - oh, a miracle! - the name of the conference began to appear on the screen one letter at a time: “I-n-t-e-r-n-a-t-i-o-n-a-l ...” - but suddenly the connection was interrupted. The operation had to be repeated.
- Remember the first way to access the Internet - by cards? Klesov explains. - Each page loaded for about five minutes, could "throw out" the user at any time. So: it was a speed of 50 thousand bytes. For the first time, I loaded at a speed of about 360 bytes - one sign per minute. About the pictures then it was impossible even to dream. And yet it was incredible! I suddenly came from the USSR to Stockholm, where the main European Internet server was based. It was something like a site with information posted on it and the ability to register, as well as leave messages on the forum.
Klesov immediately reported “where necessary” that the connection had been discovered and the USSR could pretend to be a technically equipped state by taking part in an amazing conference. I've been waiting for a response for about a year. The “tops” did not really understand the principle of computer communication, but at least for propaganda purposes they gave the go-ahead.
“I called together specialists in biotechnology from different republics of the Union, in total 10-12 people,” says Anatoly. - We gathered at the computer and discussed scientific issues with foreign colleagues for a whole week. The conference looked like a current forum: someone sets the topic, the rest write the results of their research or scientific opinion. Now it is difficult to surprise with this, but for a citizen of the USSR, such an exchange of information was revolutionary. Then it was impossible to call or send a letter abroad without censorship. The mail took a very long time. And here direct communication is not “under the hood”. And the speed of the slowest computer pleasantly amazed our imagination!
Almost all of Europe and America took part in the conference, and we also marked ourselves as a progressive country. The world community was really shocked by the fact that the USSR appeared at the forum. Interestingly, even though communist China had the technology, it flatly refused to engage in virtual scientific debates. Apparently, the authorities there just perfectly understood what kind of vegetable it was - virtual reality.
- Totalitarianism and computer communication are incompatible! - the scientists concluded then.
Anatoly Klesov. The threat of arrest hung over the first Internet user all the time.
First caught on the net
- I reported the results of the conference to the top. They expressed their gratitude to me, - says Klesov. — I wanted to publish an article about our work, but the editors of a scientific journal told me that such international contacts would shock Soviet citizens. And in general they are fraught with the devil knows what ... The funny thing is that everyone immediately forgot about me. Neither a piece of paper with a government order, nor a pass to the research institute, where that computer was located, was taken away. At the institute, apparently, they believed that I continued to carry out government assignments, and did not come to them out of idle curiosity.
Once in the Net, Anatoly could no longer get out of there - moreover, no one forbade him to go to the Internet. So the young scientist at the same time became the first addicted to virtual reality in our country. He went to NIIPAS literally as if he were going to work. And it went on for nearly 7 years.
“When I logged into the Swedish server, the screen displayed the number of users who are online around the world,” says Anatoly Klesov. - In total, then there were about 380 computers on the planet with access to the Web. Daily at work time about 20 users hung out there, and in the evenings - 5-6 avid virtual workers. Everyone could see each other's messages - sort of like in the only international chat. “Mail” I got myself later.
The most active users were from Germany, Sweden, France, the USA... And almost every country in Europe and every state in America came across at least one “native” to the Internet. Only Anatoly Klesov spoke from us. He was immediately recognized all over the world and nicknamed the “keeper of the gates” of the Soviet Union.
- Basically, programmers hung out in the networks - I learned all the international news from them, - says Anatoly. For example, once a submarine sank off the coast of Sweden. This incident was fiercely discussed all over the world, and our newspapers, of course, were silent. “Why don’t your media publish sensational news - after all, for the sake of such events, people buy up newspapers!” Foreigners were unaware that printed matter could be used for propaganda purposes. And people will still buy it, because they have not seen anything else.
Having learned that through the “Iron Curtain” it is possible to break through to the only Soviet citizen sitting online, all sorts of entrepreneurs began to contact Klesov.
- Some wanted to supply us with cars, others with furniture, others with clothes ... Someone from the GDR dreamed of setting up a joint production of sewing machines. It was difficult for me to explain that we only support the Soviet manufacturer. One cosmonaut even approached me - he demanded an exchange of experience, asked to invite Soviet colleagues to the computer. I just laughed at the computer at such naivety: people simply did not enter, what is a totalitarian regime!
Infantile nicknames like Misty Hedgehog or Your Baby were not in fashion then. Computer communication is serious business. Therefore, users indicated their first name, last name, country, and sometimes even their work position.
“I made friends all over the world,” says Klesov. - Conversations like "In Stoleshnikov good weather, and it's raining again on Brighton Beach” were commonplace. Then I learned what flirting in virtual reality is, watching the beginnings of dating sites. Some girls from Stockholm playfully invited me to visit: “Let's go together to our Swedish bath!”. I then thought: when people do not see each other, it is easier to invite them on a date ... I myself was already deeply married, with a child ... It never occurred to my passion to be jealous of virtual friends. It was like taking Martian women for rivals.
Smileys-brackets did not exist then. But the creativity of the users of the antediluvian Network still woke up: they began to make the first “rock paintings” in the virtual.
“We learned how to draw with the help of crosses and tac-toes,” says Anatoly Klesov. - On the New Year they sent whole pictures to each other: a bottle of champagne with a flying cork and splashes of signs, two glasses colliding with each other in the air ... Emoticons - these were also huge faces made of zeros instead of eyes, a cross-nose, an underline-mouth or an “equal” sign - lips.
In the mid-80s, just in this way, a masterpiece was drawn that printed out the entire computer world: Einstein with his tongue sticking out from tic-tac-toe. We can say that he has become a symbol of the new computer era.
“We simply refused to notice the Internet”
“In addition to idle chatter, I also established scientific contacts,” Anatoly says. - Firstly, through acquaintances I called my colleagues from Harvard University. They bought a computer and started working with me. Over the years, I completely unbelted and published several scientific papers in foreign magazines. Wrote several books on English language. To edit them in the Union, one had to stray off one's feet in search of a specialist. I went to native speakers with the help of computer communication and made changes in a matter of days.
At that time, the demonstration trial of a journalist who published something in a foreign publication was widely discussed.
“I have never been an anti-Soviet, so it never even crossed my mind to leak or receive dissident information from abroad,” explains Klesov. — But the very understanding that it is possible and so easy to implement seemed to me an incredible paradox. I also realized that no one could trace what I was actually doing here. Find out the KGB about my virtual adventures, they could hang all the heavy things on me. And I couldn't prove anything.
Anatoly Klesov realized that he should insure against such groundless accusations:
- I decided that the only way to prove the purity of my intentions was not to hide, but, on the contrary, to involve as many people as possible in my activities. Accomplices! I insisted that such communications are necessary for science, and tried to make reports about it, turned to television and scientific journals ... At first, they desperately fought back from me, fearing to fall into disgrace. Then, after all, one article about our scientific conference was missed in the Soviet press. I immediately went to the first department of my institute, which was called upon to monitor the ideological discipline of the employees, and handed over this publication to them in a binder: “If they roll a barrel at me, take into account that I did not hide anything from anyone.” But the department staff threw these papers in my face, begging me not to involve them in suspicious games...
Finally, in 1987, Anatoly Klesov was released abroad in real time and space. In the US, he met with his virtual friends.
- Of course, I was surprised that some old acquaintances in reality turned out to be completely different from what I imagined them to be. Having received royalties for my publications, I immediately spent them on a brand new IBM - it cost 2.5 thousand dollars, huge money at that time!
Upon his return, Anatoly not only installed a personal computer at home, but also begged a modem from NIIPAS employees, connected it via telephone to their server, and for a couple of years went out into the world space already from home.
“And by the beginning of the 90s, I still managed to popularize the Internet,” says Anatoly Klesov. I started hosting a science program on television. And then he filmed a story about NIIPAS and a computer with a unique connection, told about that debut scientific conference. Then he emigrated to the United States at the first opportunity. At that time, the users of the virtual network in the Union had already multiplied. And I even felt a certain pride when there was an attempted coup, and signals about this came from behind the “Iron Curtain” abroad precisely through emails. So, I still made my way into the minds of former compatriots.
The name of Anatoly Klesov is officially inscribed in the history of the Internet as the first user of a virtual network in the USSR. But few people thought that the “Iron Curtain” also shook when the “gates” were discovered in it, which their temporary guard opened for us ...
Now, when many people have the Internet at home, and, literally, in their pocket, when we can enter our page on VKontakte within a few seconds using the usual mobile phone, it is difficult to understand that even 30 years ago, the ability to connect to the Internet was associated with enormous difficulties and the need to have a huge supply of electronic devices. The Internet was difficult, unusual and fantastic. And much harder to understand modern man that the Internet could come from the USSR, the Internet could be the main Soviet project that unites the world.
So, the history of the Soviet Internet.
It is believed that the history of computer data transmission in the United States began in the 1950s, when the first experiments began to exchange data between different computers, and the first "remote" network (Cambridge-Santa Monica) dates back to 1965. In the USSR at that time, work was underway on computer systems MESM, BESM and others, Soviet radio amateurs exchanged encoded radiograms with colleagues around the world, that is, there was both data transmission and computers. There is also an opinion that the launch of the first satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957 gave impetus to the development of intellectual technologies in the United States.
Soviet scientists from the Institute of Computer Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences have been creating computer communication networks since 1952 as part of the work on creating an automated missile defense system (ABM). At first, specialists led by Sergei Lebedev created a series of computers (Diana-I, Diana-II, M-40, M-20, M-50, etc.) and organized the exchange of data between them to calculate the anti-missile trajectory. As one of the creators of the system, Vsevolod Burtsev, writes, “in the experimental missile defense complex” the M-40 central machine “exchanged information over five duplex and asynchronously operating radio relay communication channels with objects located at a distance of 100 to 200 kilometers from it; the overall rate of information flow through radio relay lines exceeded 1 MHz. In 1956, to the west of Lake Balkhash, Soviet scientists and the military created a large test site, where the missile defense system being developed, together with the computer network, was tested.
According to the memoirs of Academician Viktor Glushkov, one of the most brilliant mathematicians and computer scientists in the history of the twentieth century: “The task of building a nationwide automated economic management system (OGAS) was set to me by A.N. Kosygin in November 1962. By this time, our country already had the concept of a unified system of computer centers for processing economic information. We developed the first draft design of the Unified State Network, which included about 100 centers in large industrial cities and centers of economic regions, connected by broadband communication channels.
Beginning in 1964 (the time of the appearance of my project), scientists-economists began to openly act against me, many of whom then left for the USA and Israel. Kosygin became interested in the cost of the project. Tentatively, it was estimated at 20 billion rubles. We have provided for cost recovery. Over the course of three five-year plans, the implementation of the program would bring at least 100 billion rubles to the budget. But our unfortunate economists confused Kosygin ... They set us aside, they began to treat us with caution.
In the late 60s, information appeared in the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers that the Americans had made a preliminary design of the information network back in 1966, that is, two years later than us. But unlike us, they did not argue, but did. Then we got worried. I went to Kirilenko (Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, who oversaw industry. - E. Ch.) and handed over a note that it was necessary to return to the ideas of my project. A commission was created. It would be better if they didn't create it... In the meantime, an orgy began in the Western press. The Americans were the first to get worried... Of course, any strengthening of our economy is the worst thing for them. Therefore, they immediately opened fire on me from all calibers. The Washington Post published an article entitled “Punched Card Rules the Kremlin” aimed at the leadership of the USSR. "The Tsar of Soviet Cybernetics Academician V. M. Glushkov proposes to replace the Kremlin leaders with computers." The article in the English Guardian was aimed at the Soviet intelligentsia. Like, academician Glushkov proposes to create a network of computer centers, more advanced than in the West. In fact, this is an order from the KGB to hide the thoughts of Soviet citizens in data banks and keep track of every person. This article was broadcast by all the “votes” 15 times different languages on the Soviet Union and the countries of the socialist camp.
Then followed a series of reprints of these libels in other leading capitalist newspapers, a series of new articles. It was then that strange things began to happen. In 1970 I flew from Montreal to Moscow. An experienced pilot sensed something was wrong already over the Atlantic and returned back. It turned out that something was added to the fuel. Thank God, everything worked out, but it remains a mystery who did it and why. And a little later in Yugoslavia, a truck almost ran into our car - the driver miraculously managed to dodge it.
And all our opposition, in particular the economic one, took up arms against me. In early 1972, Izvestia published an article entitled "The Lessons of the Electronic Boom". In it, the author tried to prove that in the United States the demand for computers has fallen. In a number of memorandums to the Central Committee of the CPSU from economists who visited the United States, the use of computers to manage the economy was equated with the fashion for abstract painting. Like, capitalists buy cars only because it is fashionable, so as not to seem out of date. It all disorientated our leadership.”
So they put an end to the Soviet Internet, - says competitive intelligence expert Elena LARINA, who introduced me to the memoirs of the academician. - But in addition to what Glushkov talked about, competitive servers and personal computers were made in the USSR. There were also information transfer protocols, and even, surprising as it may seem today, friendly interfaces. They would allow ordinary Soviet managers, designers, scientists who do not know programming to work with computers. In the same way as now the Internet is used by everyone who is at least a little familiar with computers. By the way, all in the same Soviet Union, the scientist M. M. Subbotin was the first to create hypertext - a system of links that underlies the Internet.
But nevertheless, computer systems and networks were developed for civil applications. For example, in 1972, the railway system of "complex automation of ticket and cash operations" ACS "Express" and the system of reservation of air tickets "Sirena" were put into operation, which ensured the transmission and processing large arrays information.
In 1974, GOST was adopted for the encoding of Russian alphabet characters KOI-8, which is still used in various modifications.
On April 5, 1990, the Russian-language MS-DOS 4.0 was released.
Even when the Internet in the USSR was already in initial stage development, there were great difficulties in using the Russian language on the Internet due to the lack of a single encoding. Often Russian-speaking people had to communicate with each other in English. The problems were gradually resolved with the growing popularity of Windows and the clear dominance of one encoding since the mid-90s - Windows-1251. Thus, with a 5-year lag behind the appearance of the Internet itself, the Russian-language Internet began to develop.
The other day Russia celebrated Internet Day. In 1998, IT Infoart Stars sent letters to various organizations with a proposal to designate September 30 as Internet Day and to conduct a census of the “Runet population”. Then this figure totaled 1 million users. Today, after 18 years, this figure has more than 80 million users.
In other countries, International Internet Day is celebrated on April 4, on the day of the death of the medieval archbishop of Seville, Saint Isidore, who is the creator of the first encyclopedia - "Etymologiae", consisting of 20 volumes. It was he who was appointed catholic church the patron of the World Wide Web, which called the Internet a modern encyclopedia of human knowledge. Saint Isidore of Seville pioneered the system of cross-references in his encyclopedia, reminiscent of today's web hyperlinks.
The need for the Internet appeared at the time cold war when the United States needed a reliable information transmission system that would carry out its work in the event of the destruction of part of the computers by a nuclear strike. In the USSR, developments in the field of computer communications were also carried out in parallel, starting in 1952. They were carried out within the framework of the military-industrial complex and were supposed to strengthen the country's defense capability.
Military computer network of A. Kharkevich
The idea of creating a single computer network in the USSR appeared in 1962. Alexander Kharkevich, head of the department of technical physics at the Kiev Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, published an article in the Kommunist magazine in which he put forward the idea of creating a single computer network. He drew parallels between such a network and networks for the transportation of goods or electricity and proposed the creation of a Unified nationwide information transmission system that would operate on the basis of existing electrical communication channels.
A key place in it was given to computing and control centers, which were supposed to receive data in digital form - "sequences of certain numbers." Kharkevich noted that the structure of the network should take into account the possibility of overloading or failure of one or another of its sections. In this case, the data flow must be routed through a bypass. This is how the internet works today. Uninterrupted operation of the network should be ensured by centralized automatic control.
In the article, he noted the existence of analogues of such a system abroad - Sage (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), but they do not have a single command center and are divided into different companies and departments. "SAGE" - a semi-automatic system capable of simultaneously processing data from 23 regional centers in the United States and Canada, while serving a giant network of radars and other detectors, was created to control the entire air defense of the States. The input-output devices of the system maintained continuous communication between neighboring centers via telephone lines.
Cybernetics at the forefront
The program of the CPSU, adopted at the 22nd Congress in October 1961, gave cybernetics a leading role in the development of the country. Computer systems were supposed to be used in production processes, construction, planning, scientific research and other areas. Initially, a small group of scientists was engaged in the development of models and methods for computer planning and economic management. But soon, in 1960, the first cybernetic conference was organized. The scope of automation National economy engaged in about 40 institutions. By 1967, the Cybernetics Science Council was coordinating research from 500 institutes.The very first developments in the field of creating computer networks and automated management of the country's economy assumed the use of communication and computer capacities existing in the USSR. They were created in response to the American SAGE.
The USSR intended to use the capacities and throughput channels of air and missile defense systems to create centralized system collection and processing of statistical information for peaceful purposes.
National automated accounting system of V. Glushkov
In November 1962, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin invited Viktor Glushkov, director of the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, to his office. Glushkov suggested new plan, according to which a network was created that was not connected with the military unified network.The plan for the implementation of a computer network involved the creation of 100–200 largest data processing centers in big cities, to which 20,000 small towns will be connected via high-speed communication lines.
Glushkov developed this plan not only with mathematicians, but also with economists. Therefore, the main goal of the project was to facilitate the collection of data in departments and in production. At that time in the USSR, data were collected separately and through various channels, which do not intersect with each other. The project involved the creation of a centralized collection of information.
An obstacle to its implementation was the ability to connect to a single network of all enterprises. The process of computerization in all industries has led to the writing of software that is incompatible with the software of other enterprises. This meant the impossibility of introducing a unified system.
It all started with the world
Glushkov created the world's first personal computer - MIR 1, a machine for engineering calculations, which he presented in 1967 at an exhibition in London. Computers of that time occupied several rooms, while MIR 1 was placed on desk and it used all the basic principles of a modern PC. It used step microprogram control. Some researchers rightly call the WORLD the prototype of the modern computer.
At the MIR 1 exhibition, they bought IBM, which supplied almost 80% of computer equipment around the world. This was the first and last time an American company bought a Soviet electronic machine. The Americans bought the machine not only to study it, but also to prove to competitors who patented the stepwise microprogramming principle in 1963 that Soviet scientists were implementing this principle in mass-produced machines.
Glushkov was given an international certificate, according to which he was recognized as the creator of the world's first personal computer.
WORLD and Internet
It was supposed to create and launch a system consisting of hundreds of devices of the MIR type, which were connected into one network according to a principle similar to the principle of the modern Internet. At the final stage of the development of the MIR, Glushkov proposed using it for the operation of a nationwide automated economic management system. Thus, the Soviet Internet project was ready for implementation in the fall of 1963.
According to Glushkov's plan, the cost of the Soviet Internet would be 20 billion rubles, and the payback would be at least 100 billion rubles over three five-year periods.
Due to the change of power, the attitude towards this project has also changed. Automated control systems have found application only in defense enterprises. Work in this direction has been shelved.
Meanwhile in America - ARPANET
But in America things were different. Scientist Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider demonstrated the idea of creating an extensive computer network in the United States a few months after the presentation of the Glushkov information network project in February 1964. This was the first step towards the implementation of the ARPANET system.Two years later than in the USSR, in 1966, a preliminary design of an information network was launched in America, and by 1969 it was implemented.
On January 1, 1983, ARPANET became the first network in the world to switch to data packet routing. TCP/IP was used as a routable protocol, which is still the main data transfer protocol on the Internet to this day. This date is the date of the emergence of the modern Internet.
Decline of the USSR and Relcom
On August 1, 1990, the first network of an allied scale appeared - Relcom (the name is derived from RELiable COMmunications - reliable communication), which became the progenitor of the Runet. The network appeared on the basis of the Institute atomic energy them. I.V. Kurchatov and was formed by developing and implementing an e-mail system using Internet addressing for computers connected by telephone communication channels. At the first stage, it included users from scientific institutions in Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Novosibirsk and Kiev.On August 28, 1990, the first modem session of a Soviet computer (Kurchatov Institute of Aerospace Engineering) was held with a foreign terminal (Helsinki University) in order to organize a regular mail transmission channel over the Internet (with a time-based payment for a telephone connection). The network was based solely on UUCP e-mail technology, and with the possibility of correspondence in Russian.
Already in the spring of 1991, the value of the contents of the Soviet Internet for domestic users turned out to be higher than international ones.
The further history of the development of the Internet took place already in Russia, since on December 26, 1991, the USSR collapsed.