ES EVM

A joint Academy and State Committee session resolves to base the unified ES EVM computer series on the IBM System/360 architecture. Lebedev becomes the decision's fiercest opponent; only chairman Glushkov files a formal dissent at this meeting.

A joint commission recommends adopting the IBM-360's logical structure and instruction set as prototype for the Unified Series (ES-EVM). The only written dissent comes from the commission's own chairman, Glushkov.

At the highest government level the USSR decides to copy the IBM System/360 as the ES EVM ('Ryad') instead of continuing its own BESM and Minsk lines, against the resistance of leading computer scientists. Babayan later calls it a cardinal error that 'destroyed' domestic innovation; scientists had to study outdated Western software and rewrite it from scratc

Like his old rival Lebedev, Bruk opposes the ES EVM copying decision. In unpublished comments he writes that copying a computer from descriptions alone is practically impossible: 'otherwise, a lag that is hard to remedy'.

IBM clones roll out with KGB procurement help (the USSR illegally acquired IBM 360/370 machines in 1972); over 15,000 are built by 1998, each model trailing its IBM original by about 8 years with lower reliability. Programmers joked the cloned OS contained a hidden command that played the American national anthem.

She leads the APROP system (1975-92) for building large ES EVM programs from modules in different languages, defining module interfaces and a 64-function conversion library; it is adopted by 52 organizations across the USSR.

Still at the GKNT, Rameev conducts a reckoning: 50 percent of the ES-EVM computer park lags 20-25 years behind the state of the art, and downtime losses for 1989 alone amount to some 500 million rubles. He becomes 'a witness to the disintegration of the entire industry to whose development he had devoted his whole life'.