Some critical points in the history of the Soviet computer industry development Sergei Prokhorov Department of Technology and Technology Sciences S.I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of RAS Moscow, Russia sergei.prokhorov@gmail.com Abstract. The article describes a number of critical moments in the creation of Soviet computer technology and the outstanding role of Academician Keldysh in solving these problems. Keywords: computer, history of computing, Keldysh, Bruevich, Academy of Sciences, USSR Well before World War Two, in 1934, the Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences (MIAS) established what it called the Approximate Calculations Department to develop new computation techniques for applied purposes. A separate unit named Computations Group was established within the new department. The Group grew in size steadily, and the Approximate Calculations Department came to account for 80 percent of the Institute’s entire staff by the mid- 1940s. Well-known scientists were appointed to guide the group’s work: Lazar Lyusternik, an eminent mathematician and corresponding member of the Academy, led the department’s activities in Moscow, while Leonid Kantorovich, a future Nobel Prize winner, was in charge of the work at the Institute’s Leningrad branch. Overall guidance was exercised by Academician Mstislav Keldysh, MIAS deputy director. Keldysh's scientific and organizational activities are multifaceted. The monograph published by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences contains a detailed description of the scientific and organizational activities of this outstanding scientist [1]. Dates of major events related to the history of the development of computer science in Russia and the Soviet Union are given in the paper [2]. In this article, we will confine ourselves to only certain points related to the influence of Keldysh on the development of computer technology in the USSR. The number of tasks that the computing group had to solve was rapidly growing. More and more qualified people had to participate in the calculations. There was a danger that soon there would simply not be enough people for calculating work. It was like a snowball. In addition, there was a danger that there would be an error in the calculations. Therefore, Keldysh better than anyone else in the Soviet Union understood the need of the creation and implementation of computer technologies. He was vitally interested in the emergence of high-speed universal computers as quickly as possible. In 1948, the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a resolution to set up a center named Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering (IPMCT) within the Academy of Sciences system [3]. At the time, the United States was known to have made significant progress in designing general-purpose electronic computers, including successful trials of one such computer, ENIAC, in solving applied problems. Development of computer technology was recognized by the USSR as an urgent need and a state-level task . Academician and general Nikolai Bruevich was appointed director of the institute [4]. At that time he held the post of academician-secretary, the second most important post in the system of the Academy of Sciences. General Nikolai Bruevich who held the second most important position in the system of the Academy of Sciences was appointed director of the new Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering. The Academy of Sciences enjoyed a special and very high status in the Soviet Union, gathering under its umbrella the country’s most competent professionals and strongest research centers. It had its own engineering design units, even factories and plants. It was for this reason that the atomic project was started at the Academy of Sciences which performed all the calculations for it as well as for space missile and rocket dynamics. Already in the title of the new institution - Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering, was indicated two main directions, which was supposed to develop the institute. First was the creation of exact mechanics mechanisms for specialized calculations,