On February 8, the Day of Russian Science, the Central House of Scientists hosted an Academician Viktor Glushkov commemoration gathering. Mr. Glushkov was an outstanding Soviet cybernetician and, in fact, the “father” of today's digitalization. Colleagues and relatives of Viktor Glushkov gathered in the hall of the Central House of Scientists. The academician's daughter, Olga Viktorovna Kitova, spoke about her father, his activities and achievements, and the scientist's colleague, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Ekaterina Mikhailovna Lavrishcheva, shared her memories of how Viktor Mikhailovich was in work and life.
Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev and adviser to the director of the Center Vladimir Gorzhaltsan also took part in the event. Andrey Vorobyev noted that the legacy of the outstanding cybernetics should not be forgotten, and young people should know about the history of the development of Russian informatics. “The process of digitalization today has covered all spheres of the economy of our country, but the very concept of “digitalization” is closely connected with the name of Viktor Mikhailovich Glushkov. 2023 has been declared the Year of the Mentor and Teacher in Russia, and it just so happens that this year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Academician Glushkov, whose contribution to the development of domestic information technologies is invaluable. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ continues to promote the achievements of Soviet scientists and teachers, and in 2023 it is planned to hold a number of events related to the name of Viktor Mikhailovich Glushkov,” Andrey Vorobyev said.
Viktor Glushkov is a Soviet mathematician and cybernetician. He put forward the idea of creating a universal control machine that could be used to control any complex technological processes. The first Soviet computers and state automated systems for recording and processing information were created by a team of scientists under his leadership. Under his leadership, one of the world's first single-user computers “MIR” (Machine for Engineering Calculations) was created in 1965. In the 70s, Viktor Glushkov and a team of colleagues set out to create OGAS, a nationwide automated system for accounting and processing information that, with the help of distributed computing centers, could process all the necessary information for the rapidly growing Soviet economy. Unfortunately, OGAS was not implemented, although it could become a prototype of the modern Internet.
“The day is not far off when ordinary books, newspapers and magazines will disappear. Each person will carry an electronic notepad, a combination of a flat display with a miniature radio transceiver. By typing the desired code on the keyboard of this notepad, you can, from anywhere on the planet, call up texts and images from giant computer databases, which will replace not only books, magazines and newspapers, but also televisions,” Glushkov wrote back in the early 1980s in his famous book “Fundamentals of Paperless Informatics”.
