From: bm665@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jay Robert Hauben)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.magyar,comp.misc
Subject: ussr and computers
Date: 14 Oct 1992 04:48:25 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: bm665@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jay Robert Hauben)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


The following article appeared in the Amateur Computerist, Vol 
4.1 (Fall 1991). That was before the newsletter was on line and 
before the alt.amateur-comp newsgroup was up. I am reposting it 
now with the hope people who agree or disagree will post their 
responses. It would be especially interesting to hear from people 
in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
 
      The USSR and the Computer
 
 Since the 1970's, micro-chips and
computers have put on the world's
social agenda the promise of a better
life. From the simple level like
microwave ovens that turn themselves
on and off to computer aided medicine
and computer controlled robotic manu-
facturing, the computer age promises
fewer needed hours of human labor
both on and off the job. This promise
is known world wide and desired uni-
versally especially by working peo-
ple.
   In the 1980's, especially after
their space ships Phobos I and II
failed, scientist and engineers in
the Soviet Union realized technologi-
cal innovation and development was
hampered by the lack of uncensored
communication and by the slow process
of getting innovations tried and
adopted. Thus, to the pressure of
people wanting the computer promised
better life, was added the demands of
scientists and engineers for more
channels of communication and for the
multiplicity of ideas and directions.
These had so far been stifled by the
one party ideology and practice. The
result was a greater openness called
Glasnost. 
   The great test of the Glasnost
pressured for by the existence of
computers, was the attempted
intra-governmental coup in the Soviet
Union in late August 1991. Realizing
that openness was being attacked and
thus so was the chance to gain from
the computer revolution, the working
people and students of Moscow and
Leningrad rallied to protect their
gains. Newspapers that the coup lead-
ers attempted to censor, defiantly
distributed calls for resistance and
the defense of the uncensored ex-
change of information. Leaflets were

printed with personal computers and
passed out in subway stations and on
the streets. These papers were eager-
ly taken up and distributed by people
on their way to work. Politicians
like Boris Yeltsin in Russia, sensing
the strength of the people, champi-
oned resistance to the coup and it
was toppled.
   The computer revolution held out
enough of a promise that the people
of the Soviet Union rose successfully
to defend it. The next challenge to
the people of Central and Eastern
Europe as well as the rest of the
world is to realize that computer and
cybernetic development requires the
types of innovation, hacking and
diversity characteristic only of
amateurs in close touch with each
other. This requires the continuing
struggle for uncensored and widely
distributed communication. The gov-
ernments and profiteers of every
society want the advantages of the
computer revolution for their own
purposes. So, in every society the
promise of computer improvements will
remain a dream for workers unless
there continues to be the fight for
openness, support for innovation and
the challenging of previous authori-
ty. This makes the defense of amateur
computing and innovating worth the
support of all working and progres-
sive people.