In Soviet times, engineer Rafael Sargsyan worked at the Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines and was engaged in the creation of mobile automated control systems for military facilities. In an interview with the Museum project DataArt, he explains why in the 1970s techies were quoted above programmers, how the secrecy regime worked, why they kept idlers at the institutes and why he himself was ready to disappear for months on business trips.
Assembler and radio technician
- I was born in 1946 in Leninakan. I was sent to study at a Russian school. Four years later, our family moved to Yerevan, and I continued my studies at the school named after Anastas Mikoyan. Then, under Khrushchev, they decided that it was not good to name institutions in honor of living leaders, and the school was named Kamo - there was such a famous revolutionary expropriator in Lenin's team. We studied experimentally for 11 years. One year was added due to the fact that Khrushchev offered to teach children a serious work activity. A mini-assembly workshop of the Elektrotochpribor plant was created at the school, and we spent one day out of six training there. It was a room of 50-70 square meters. Each student took his place on the assembly line. So, collecting ammeters and microammeters and successfully passing the exam, I received the category of an electrical appliance assembler.
I finished school with good grades. I had three "fours", so I didn't get a silver medal. I had to enter either the mechanics and mathematics or physics faculty of our university, or the polytechnic, as my cousin put it, "a difficult specialty." So in 1964 I became a student at the Karl Marx Yerevan Polytechnic Institute. Faculty of Computer Science and Automation, specialty - radio engineering.
The main building of the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute. Illustration for the announcement of the recruitment of students for the 1964/65 academic year in the institute newspaper "Polytechnic"
Where did he go, by and large, he did not know. Teaching in this specialty was organized in 1963, I think the organizers themselves were not very clear about what we should teach. But I am grateful to fate and to my teachers, because I got the broadest understanding of radio engineering. Starting from maser lasers and ending with complex modern systems, including space ones.
- There was no thought to go to study in Moscow, Leningrad?
- Of course, I wanted to go to Moscow. Not because there are more serious educational institutions, well, perhaps only Physics and Technology and Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, it's just that Moscow is such an attractive force. Everything was good there: a beautiful life, beautiful girls. You could listen to jazz - Kozlov, Garanyan. In Yerevan this was little or none at all. On the other hand, my family did not have great financial resources. In Soviet times, people lived worse than now.
“Nairi” -K is a modification of the “Nairi” computer, developed at the Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines in 1962-1964.
- When did you study, did you work on a computer?
- Once, already at the Polytech, we were shown a small computer "Nairi". But in general, we did not deal with machines, since the specialty is different. We were taken to radio stations - long-wave, short-wave, to an Armenian television studio with its own television tower for antennas. That is, we studied radio receivers and radio transmitters for the entire frequency range, both in theory and in practice.
"Zhelezyachnik"
- How did you end up in the Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines?
- By distribution. In the USSR there was a rule: if you unlearn, you must work for three years where the party sends. She sent me to the Research Institute of Mathematical Machines. In the beginning there was a depression (can you imagine, in my work there was not a single "oscillating circuit" - a sacred concept for a radio engineer), but very soon I began to like the work. In the year 1971–72, our institute was instructed to make a serious automated control system. It is known that every army fights in the air, on water and on land. We automated one of the branches of the triad, we were engaged in the automation of its strategic direction. We were separated into a separate large division that required special confidentiality. Each had its own little piece, and many did not even imagine what the result of the work would be as a whole. I was engaged in devices and systems for displaying information.These are monitors today.
ErNII MM actively cooperated with the USSR Air Force. In particular, in the 1970s, as a leading industrial organization, he developed a combat control system for Long-Range Aviation. In 1981, as a result of its implementation, the head of the test brigade, commander of military unit 19161 (Air Force Science Center in Noginsk), Major General Andrei Gladilin (third from left in the photo) was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the USSR State Prize.
I think I was lucky. It was nice to feel like a part of an empire that spoke to America as "you".
- What were these monitors?
- Cathode ray tubes, black and white. I remember that at first there was even a question of creating an electronic pen. Imagine that you have such a pen in your hands, you touch the screen and put your signature, and it is displayed on the screen. Now this is not a problem, you can even sign with your finger, but then it was 1970. We did this with the use of optical fibers, laboratory samples, which we then had, I don't remember where. As far as I know, their mass production was never organized, and now our country buys them from foreign countries
- Did you deal with computers?
- Yes, with digital computers. As such, I, a newly minted engineer, have not yet seen the machines. Then it turned out that in the next department, across the floor, my friends are making a specialized computer. It was called the SVK - a special computing complex. The operating system for it was called SOS - a special operating system. At that time it was a unique complex that had no analogues in the world. But it is better to ask Hamlet Harutyunyan, one of the main developers of SOS, about this.
YerNII MM was established in 1956. The first major work of the institute was the modernization of the M-3 computer, carried out in 1957-1958.
Our institute developed both hardware and software. I was a techie doing hardware. The techies had a lot of contact with programmers when the operating system was made. Sometimes these contacts went beyond the scope - disputes began. Everyone believed that he was more important in creating the architecture of the machine. But our excellent chief designer handled everything.
Techies were, of course, the most respected part of this society. They were older - young people were becoming programmers - and took them with their authority and solidity. Also, what is program creation? Writing zeros and ones, practically "tic-tac-toe" is a classic mockery when there were not enough words. And it was very, very difficult to create iron with that limited technological base. But we created.
Although the Soviet hardware lagged significantly behind the American ones in their characteristics, thanks to our mathematicians it was possible to anticipate emergency situations and get out of them in the most magnificent way. Our hardware and software complex was in no way inferior, and in some moments even surpassed American counterparts.
- Do you remember the most difficult tasks that you faced?
- At the beginning of my career, the unit in which I worked was entrusted with creating jobs (functionally a personal computer) for the high command. Within the framework of these works, perhaps the most serious task facing us is the removal of the display from the control cabinet by 50–70 meters. It was necessary to transmit a high-frequency signal that goes to the display, not through the air, but over wires. There were no transistors that could transmit a signal over such a distance that it would not be distorted or attenuated. I had to come up with all sorts of tricks.
The monitor was developed in Moscow. That institute was the main one in our common business, it monitored the entire triad. Naturally, they were offended that some engineer had suggested an improvement. In the end, it still had to be done. Made. For me, this was the first serious test, although I was already a senior engineer. After the institute, the graduate became an engineer of the third category, then the second, first. And only then they gave you a senior engineer. Further - the leading engineer, but this is very far away.
But the most difficult tasks appeared later, when I had already become the head of the department, and the work itself was somewhat redesigned. We started to deal with systems. Mobile automated control systems for forces and assets of units and formations. Cubes of computers, modems, information secret devices, workplaces had to be assembled into one hardware complex, installed in a vehicle, saturated with an operating system and functional software. In addition, to ensure the vital activity of the personnel of the control team at a continuous round-the-clock operation, in the conditions of a possible operational relocation.
At first it looked strange and even offensive, because we were engaged in development: impulses, oscilloscopes - and suddenly everything is on the side and we need to collect cubes in cars. Deal with the issues of autonomous uninterrupted power supply and do not forget about countering foreign technical intelligence in the field. But the task turned out to be very interesting and helped me grow into a good specialist who understands not only my own work, but also the work of related structures.
It was at this time that a formidable weapon was developed in the USSR. As I was told, it was not inferior to Western models, but in accuracy of hits exceeded them ten times. We are talking about land-based cruise missiles. The weapon was developed, but they forgot about the automation of their control. Atoyan was instructed to create the necessary mobile automation complex as soon as possible. And then I was appointed one of his deputies for the creation of this ACS.
Anticipating interest, I will say that the complex was created in the required time frame, its state tests were almost completed (almost because there was only one check point, in the positive results of which no one doubted). Unfortunately for me as a developer, the tests were categorically suspended, and the weapon itself fell under the reduction and further destruction. Thanks to Gorbachev.
- Was your job secret?
- Everything was simple and smart. At the entrance to the institute, all employees were given passes of one color, and we were given another. We could walk throughout the entire territory of the institute, and the rest were everywhere, but not to us. This was controlled by a separate security service. In our unit, with our pass, you could walk wherever you want, except for one place - the first section. It is still there - both you and us - the first department. Here you can take secret notebooks and keep secret notes in them, work with secret literature and documents.
The first section pass was red, issued in exchange for our personal secret portfolio. It was not allowed to leave the floor with him. We received a briefcase with documents, sealed with a seal, and checked its integrity. When they handed it back, the guards demanded that the seal be visible. The briefcase contained secret documents of personal use. There were also wider ones - for different bosses and employees. The first department called: "You have received documents, read it." We did not feel any inconvenience because of this - just part of our work.
Atoyan's team
- I said how I was appointed one of the Deputy Chief Designer Robert Atoyan. He was a great scientist, engineer, man, our Chief Designer. For us, Atoyan was like Korolev for the Russians. In his address, he was simple (a property inherent in aristocrats), so when he was around, his greatness was not oppressed, it was not felt. He was one of us. We could all get together and he never sat at the head of the table. He could sing (and he sang in a beautiful velvet baritone) and dance just like us. But at work, he was the undisputed leader. I first encountered the concept of "brainstorming" when working with it when there was a problem, and it had to be solved not only quickly, but very quickly, because it arose during the tests.
1958 —
There is such a concept "availability factor". In accordance with it, our system could stop or freeze, as they say now, for no more than 20 seconds (on average) in 24 hours of continuous operation. The problem that arose was solved by a team of the best specialists, everyone was ready to admit that it was he who was to blame for the failure, in the sense of the device or program developed by his department. Usually people try to shift the blame onto someone else, but here they said, “Maybe it's me. I'll go and check. " This is a class indicator. Then all my life I tried to adhere to this approach in my work, and Robert Vardgesovich Atoyan, as one of the chief designers of the global automated control system for special purposes, was awarded the Lenin Prize.
Meeting of Robert Atoyan's team, November 11, 2018. Third from left - Henrikh Melikyan - one of the creators of the functional software for automated control systems, laureate of the USSR State Prize. Next to him is Levon Abrahamyan, one of the creators of a special real-time operating system, laureate of the USSR State Prize; another - Hamlet Harutyunyan, an indispensable toastmaster, sits at the head of the table
- In what years did you work on the complexes?
- In the 78th year, I already went to the test. That is, we started probably in 72. Development went on for five years, then the chief designer was tested. According to the standard of that time, the customer was one of the testers on them. Errors were identified so that the chief designer could fix them at some known time. Then we went to state tests, where the customer was the main one.
On tests everything was checked inside and out. The best forces were involved. We understood that we were doing very serious work and were competing with America. That as a result of our automation, something bad will fly from here to there and from there to here. It was necessary to anticipate, defend, be on time. "Maybe" or "come down somehow" does not work here.
On state trials in one of the military units, May 9, 1979 From left to right: Hamlet Harutyunyan, already a laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize; Rafael Sargsyan; chief designer Robert Vardgesovich Atoyan, later Lenin Prize laureate, academician
Special microclimate
- Tell us how your salary has changed?
- Then money was not in the first place for us. We were young, we considered honor and dignity the most important for ourselves. When it comes to salaries, in the Soviet Union, engineers were just above the modern homeless person. It was much more profitable to work as a taxi driver. They stole a lot in the USSR. If you are in trade, you live better. The same if you are in service or a party worker, an official. Even a cleaning lady or a simple electrician lived no worse than me, because they could get a job in two or three places, and an engineer had no right to work in more than one place.
For the special importance of the work we received, of course, a bonus. 25 percent of salary plus quarterly bonuses. A classic case: I had 23 people in my laboratory, but by and large all the work was done by three or four employees. The rest were in the wings, or were simply present at all. But it was profitable for me to keep loafers. Because when we received the bonus, it was given to the entire division according to its salary fund, and I could pay less when distributing it to idlers, and distribute the rest to well-performing employees.
The word "slacker", by the way, is found in the short film "Short Circuit", filmed in 1967 by our employees. An ironic film, on the anger of that time. Its author Radik Ananyan is a pioneer of our institute, who started working there in 1957. This is the first generation, I am 10-11 years younger. When they arrived, the concept of digital technology was not yet there, and they started doing all this. The generation that created a special microclimate at the institute, they were completely different people, and they remain so to this day.
Still from the film "Short Circuit", dir. Radik Ananyan, Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines, 1967
It was a time of physicists and lyricists with a very interesting relationship. All were equal, superiors and subordinates addressed each other by name. On you - only if necessary. This was so ingrained that in the future our customers did the same at military facilities, although in Russia it is customary to call by first name and patronymic. Towards the end of the Soviet Union, I felt that this was slowly disappearing. The bosses became, as in Russia - Rafael Grigorievich, ha-ha. But this is understandable, after all, we worked mainly with Russian counterparties.
At the grave of Robert Atoyan
Soviet entertainment
- How did you celebrate the completion of important stages of your work?
- Major stages were completed at test sites, and the strategic system that we developed was distributed over different geographical points of the USSR. Our representatives were everywhere and, naturally, successes were celebrated - good, in Russian, as we can. They could drink not only vodka, but also alcohol.
- One of the engineers who were involved in the operation of the EU machines said that a smaller part of the alcohol issued for work went to work.
- And so it was. At the sites, we were given medical alcohol for preventive work - to wipe the contacts. We wrote the instructions ourselves, and medical alcohol, by and large, was needed only for optics. The rest can be wiped with hydrolysis. Some people also drank hydrolyzed alcohol, but we preferred not to.
In fact, people in Armenia drink very little. My friends in Russia drank much better at first, in the sense more than me. When they started drinking too much, I already drank more. I could handle two bottles of vodka, but they got drunk right after the first.
- Was the drink often present?
- In no case. We were just young - we were hanging out. This is not to say that this happened often. But if a joyful event happened, it should be celebrated. It's the same everywhere.
- The Russians, with whom I spoke, in Soviet times went out of town together, went on hikes. Have you had a similar experience?
- Yes, this is a purely Soviet entertainment. The trade union committee allocated a bus, some money. We went on picnics with pleasure, barbecued. We knew how to have fun, although the Russians do it better than us.
Rafael Sargsyan (left) with his eldest son and colleagues at a picnic after visiting the Bureaukan Observatory . 1982
- It can't be.
- One hundred percent! I have always had great pleasure being in the Russian company. I had wonderful friends in Moscow. Unfortunately, none of them are already gone.
To Moscow for a mixer
- Were your trips to the Soviet Union connected only with testing, or with development too?
- During the development, business trips were very frequent. A lot of approvals - with contractors, at the ministry, at the customer. To agree now, just write an e-mail. If you write a letter in those years, at best you would be told: "Can't you send a person?" To quickly resolve the issue, I had to go. My son was born in 1977. When he turned four, I calculated that I had not seen him for a total of two years - I was at the Customer's facilities.
Sometimes, from one object you immediately go to another. You work for two, three months. Each of us remembers that time, because nothing brings people closer together as joint trips. In my home department, I had fewer friends than among those with whom I was on business trips. We worked hard together, suffered when something didn't work out, then celebrated success. The last time Atoyan's team (these are all number one developers for each of the devices and systems) we got together last year. Those who do not live abroad - 11 people, boys, girls. The youngest boy is 72 years old.
“In the circle of people who are close in spirit, who have gone through fire, water and copper pipes together with you, you somehow easily forget about the burden of past years”. September 29, 2019
- Where did you go most often? To Moscow?
- Since our facilities could have been destroyed by enemies in the first place, they were not located in large cities. But they were placed nearby, so that in case of anything it was possible to relocate.
- Where did you like to travel the most?
- Nowhere. I enjoyed being at home with my family and children. The only thing in the Soviet Union was that the trade system was, as my friend used to say, “centralized” and closed in on Moscow. Moscow received everything "centrally", and then it was necessary to come and try in wild queues to pick up what would get. In Moscow it was possible to buy goods more or less. In the provinces, especially in Russia, there was practically nothing. Therefore, we tried to drive one or two days free from some stage of testing to Moscow. There were special shops from the countries of social democracy - Yugoslavian, German, Czech ... You could buy a mixer so that your wife could make a delicious cake, or something else. The deficit, of course, was terrible. All the money was spent on work similar to ours. Keeping up with America was not easy.
- Were there factories in Armenia that produced what you developed?
- Almost the entire Armenian industry, with the exception of the one that made the "spoons and forks", was of union importance and belonged to the ministries of the radio and electronic industry of the USSR. It is clear that the best forces and means were concentrated here. With the collapse of the USSR, Armenia lost a lot.
When Microsoft is bullshit
- With the advent of personal computers, large systems gradually began to go away. What was going on with you at that time?
- Already when the first personal computers appeared in the West, I was on a business trip in Moscow, where they told me about them. We decided to do the same, but for a special application. Then I had to test it. There is such a test - called "impact" - an imitation of an earthquake or other shock wave. They put it - it broke. They made an iron stand - it bent. They put in a thicker one - everything is fine. We were engaged in transportation and found out that due to vibration it deteriorates. We put it on a shock absorber and so on. Finally, we got what we got.
Today, your computer will not stand up to any military test. If you think that there are such people in America, you are wrong. First, it's a different operating system so that no hacker can get in. Microsoft is nonsense. The piece of iron itself is different. The microcircuits that you have in your computer work at best from plus five to plus 35 degrees. For military purposes, this interval should be at least from minus forty to plus forty.
- When did the personal computer come into your life?
- After the collapse of the USSR, my close friend, who was developing a real-time operating system for the machines that we developed, was appointed director of another institute. He invited me to be his deputy, and there were personal computers. The deputy director, of course, was assigned. What did I do on it? Nothing. He wrote letters, reports, appeals. Then the operating system was DOS. Because of my curiosity, I studied the computer completely from the book by Peter Norton.
The book by Peter Norton, published by the Moscow publishing house "Radio and Communications" in 1991
- What was the institute you went to?
- At one time, he was also under the Union and belonged to the USSR Ministry of Radio Industry. At first it was called "Algorithm", then it was renamed the Research Institute of Computer Engineering and Informatics. Now there is nothing left of him. At the initial stage, we tried to create something, but working in the 90s was very difficult given the provinciality and small resources. Then we had a war.
Decay and new development
- How did you get through the 1990s?
- For us, this period was the most difficult in life. 10 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union in my memory - like a black hole. A piece of time torn from life.
The institute had to survive. We rented out premises, and some money came from this. If it was possible to find drafts of some records, they carried them home in order to light a stove in the apartment and warm the children. There was no light or gas.
Then the children had to go to college. My boy made candles himself. When I came home from work, we were doing math by candlelight. Mother raised us early in the morning so that we could still work out. A terrible period. Our first president believed that he did not need to know and deal with economics. This is not a royal affair. Plus it was compounded by the war. We lived from hand to mouth, with all the bad consequences.
- Are you somehow connected with computers now?
- No more than any user. It's been five years since I stopped being technically interested in them. Previously, I could tell what capabilities this or that processor has, now I look at technology as an opportunity to make people's lives easier. I am very sorry for my country and, in general, for yours too. Because there are things that could have been done a long time ago, but for some reason they don't. Not profitable, probably. For example, we have long raised the issue of digitizing the entire healthcare system. There was also a questionnaire survey in polyclinics. Then they said that personal data should not be kept by anyone except the patient, and the questionnaires were handed out. Make them electronically! The ID-card contains a chip with doctor's prescriptions for me to go to the pharmacy. It's so easy, why not?
-, 2017
— ?
- People who were engaged in ironwork were not needed, although we could pass on the experience to the next generation. There are many questions about information leaks. But in general, now there is a rapid development in Armenia. So violent that there are not enough programmers. There are two directions. The most common is automation. These are mainly automated control systems. The current sites are basically ACS. They are expensive, there are many orders. As a rule, from the West - England, America, etc. We work a lot in this area. Another direction is people involved in the development of microcircuits with certain characteristics. Including temperature, climatic. There is such an international company "Synopsis". At one time she organized her subsidiary company here, which takes programmers directly from the Polytechnic University. They teach many students themselves.In some confidential jobs, they pay the same salaries as in America.
Development is underway, and it attracts attention. As for our institute, physically it exists, but, unfortunately, the work that was done with us is now not being done. The people who created the name of the institute, brought it orders and medals, are gone.