Computers and Their Application in the USSR in the Middle of the 1980s: Situation, Actions Taken, Predictions of Development

By the beginning of the 1980s the use of computing technologies was booming in all areas of human activity. One of the reasons for this was the appearance of a new kind of mass use device - personal computers - on the market. By that time in some of the ministries and departments of the USSR attempts were made to design and produce new computing technology equipment, however, falling behind the world leaders in the field was harder and harder to ignore. In late 1982, after the death of the USSR leader Leonid I. Brezhnev and the election of Yury V. Andropov to the position of the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, changes started to take place that affected the computing technologies too. The leadership of the nation has made some decisions aiming to cope with the falling behind problem. The rules of those times suggested that decisions of the kind were executed in the form of decrees of the CPSU Central Committee or the Council of Ministers of the USSR, or the decrees of both governmental bodies.