Eduard Ghazaryan now lives in Canada, and in his youth worked at the Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines, where he rose from a technician to a deputy chief designer and laureate of the USSR State Prize. Its largest development was the Air Force automation system. Eduard Anushavanovich spoke about her and how he himself did not become a military pilot, about work on the first computer in Armenia "Aragats" and emigration to Canada in an interview with the Museum project DataArt.
In the photo from the beginning of 1981, Eduard Ghazaryan is on the far left. In the center is Marshal Pavel Kutakhov - Air Force Commander, on the right Colonel-General Alexander Silantyev - Chief of Staff of the Air Force
Start
The story of my birth is not entirely common. My parents lived in Leninakan (now it is Gyumri), but my mother went to give birth to her relatives in the village. The fact is that she did not become pregnant for a long time, and it was important to prove that it was she who gave birth, and that I was not an adopted son.
I was born on December 31, closer to midnight. But my uncle, the chairman of the village council, decided to write down January 15 as his birthday - so that because of several hours I would not be taken into the army a year earlier. So they made me a year younger.
Leninakan in the 1920s Photo source: pastvu.com
In Leninakan, my mother worked as a judge. When men began to return home after the war, they had to be provided with jobs and were given positions occupied by women. As a result, we moved to Yerevan. Mom was a judge for eight years. Now this is a little strange to me, because she has only three classes of education. It is unclear how she judged, but such were the times. I attended the court hearings several times. Once, back in the late 1930s, I took offense at her for the sentence, but they explained to me that it should be so.
In 1952, I graduated from the Dzerzhinsky school and in the same year I entered the KVIRTU - Kiev Higher Engineering Radio Engineering School. It was located in the building of the old cadet corps on Vozdukhoflotskaya Street, which led to a civil airfield. I studied there until 1956. At that moment, Khrushchev decided to reduce the armed forces by 1 million people, and I was expelled from the school, citing a couple of penalties.
Photo from the Museum of the Kiev Higher Engineering Radio Engineering School
At first I was very offended, but when I arrived in Yerevan, I realized that it was a great success. Otherwise he would have vegetated somewhere in the military service. And here, having 4.5 years of school, I graduated from the Polytechnic Institute almost as an external student. By that time I was an employee of the Institute of Electrical Engineering, which was headed by Grant Tigranovich Adonts, brother of the Central Committee secretary and a very authoritative person. He brought me to the Polytechnic, said that I was a leading figure in almost all sciences, and I was immediately accepted for the 3rd year. Then I transferred to correspondence courses and in April 57th I got a job at the Yerevan Research Institute of Mathematical Machines - a year after its opening.
ErNIIMM
At that time, the first electronic computer in Armenia, "Aragats", was being developed. I was accepted to the position of a technician of the first category, I was assigned to a group with Abdul Kadyrov. He was a great guy, clever, talented, I learned a lot from him. Together with Abdul, we developed the control device.
When I left school, there was no talk about computers. In ErNIIMM, too, few people knew what it was and how to build them. Several times guys from Moscow came from whom we learned a lot, including, for example, Mikhail Shura-Bura. Gradually, I began to understand what a computing device is.
Cell of the amplifier and shaper of the "Aragats" computer. ErNIIMM, 1958
In those days, when they came to the ministry with a proposal to make a specific development, the first question was: "Is there a prototype?" That is, "Is such a thing done in America or not?" Everything we did was ripped off from the USA. In Yerevan we used what Muscovites have already done, who passed on their experience to us.
"Aragats" is a huge machine, 6–8 meters long. In height - slightly higher than human height. The same space was occupied by air conditioners on the top floor: there were about 6 thousand vacuum tubes in the car, they warmed themselves like bad ones, they needed to be cooled. There were generators in the basement, which also took up a lot of space. One was supposed to provide an alternating voltage of 6.3 volts for heating lamps. The second - 180 volts or something, to power the anodes of these lamps, the third gave a slightly lower voltage for one of the grids of the tetrode.
Employees of the Computing Center of Perm State University against the background of the "Aragats" computer, late 1960s
After "Aragats", the head of the department, Boris Yevseevich Khaikin, decided to build a small machine for engineering calculations - "Yerevan". I was transferred to the development of a control device. But since I did not graduate from college, I did not have an engineering degree, and I was still listed as a technician. Then I left YerNIIMM for one year, and when I returned, I was appointed head of the laboratory. Later - the head of the department and at the same time the deputy chief designer. This was no longer considered a position, but a title.
Solemn meeting dedicated to the 10th anniversary of YerNIIMM, 1966
Air Force Automation System
In 1967, we began to develop an Air Force automation system together with the Moscow Research Institute of Automatic Equipment. Now NIIAA continues to work, now it was named after Academician Semenikhin. Our joint project was a computer system based on the American ARPANET protocol. It was supposed to unite the General Staff with all the formations of the Air Force and the Navy, which were engaged in Ulyanovsk. The main task was to get the air strike team from Moscow to the most remote of the aviation regiments in 10 seconds.
The order was brought by the director of the institute Fadei Tachatovich Sargsyan. And he did the right thing - it was work for the military, and it brought a lot of money. Many residential buildings were built on them for the employees of the institute.
I worked on this system until the very end. Since I studied at the Air Force School and knew many of the guys, the military took me for their own, even at the Air Force headquarters. Introduced in the corridor with the three times Hero of the Soviet Union Kozhedub. I told the guys that I wouldn't wash my hand after that for a month. I dreamed of meeting Pokryshkin, but it didn't work out.
The famous ace Ivan Kozhedub (center) held the rank of Lieutenant General in the 1960s and served as Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District
Our department was engaged in the ideology of the system. One of the tasks was to develop a display system. Imagine two large scoreboards made of many cathode ray tubes. It was necessary to figure out what and how they should show, how information should be updated. One board was intended to execute commands, the second displayed data on the number of aircraft, etc. Plus, we came up with the jobs ourselves: what keys should be, what should be displayed on the screen. There were three types of workplaces: a command post (KPU), a unified workplace (URM), and an information workplace (IRM). This is to exchange messages.
Travel to the Air Force Museum in Monino with the Air Force High Command, 1981
At first my work was organized like this. From 8 am to 5 pm, I told two or three leading employees how to write a technical project. Then they wrote, and in the evening I sat down at the table to correct them, this lasted until 11-12 at night. I worked in this mode for probably a year. When we completed the technical project, we came to Moscow for defense. They had a big meeting there. The chief designers of each part of the system reported. I was sitting with our guys at the very end of the hall. Suddenly Fadey came and said: “Edik, can you make a report? How long does it take to get ready? " “I don’t need time,” I answer. A minute later, the chairman announced: "Eduard Ghazaryan will speak on behalf of the Air Force system."
When the technical project was defended, we had a powerful banquet in the restaurant of the Officers' House of the Moscow garrison. They feasted, some got drunk. After this, violent events were no longer arranged. Even when we finished the system, this was not the case. We were all simply summoned to the Sverdlovsk Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace and handed out prizes. In my opinion, there were 5 Lenin and 10 or 12 State ones. More people were awarded only for the development of the hydrogen bomb - our work was considered very serious. One of the State ones was given to me. The diploma was signed by the President of the Academy of Sciences Aleksandrov. In the Kremlin, I was surprised to see two or three people who already had two State Prize medals each hanging. They received Leninskaya. My son once asked me for a gold medal: "Give it, I will keep it, I will hang it on the wall." I gave it and someone stole it. Only the photograph remained.
1967 , , 1955 . 5000
After YerNIIMM, I worked for three years in Armgiprodor - this is a design institute for the development of highways. On the recommendation of a close friend who served on the Council of Ministers, I became Deputy Director for Computer Engineering. I left YerNIIMM hoping that in 5 years I would go abroad. For a very long time I wanted to do this, realizing that the Soviet system would not lead us anywhere. But I worked in perfect secrecy. In addition, I was forced to join the Communist Party. I kicked, ruined four profiles that were valid for 6 months. He specially went on long business trips. But still I was caught and pushed into the Communist Party. I still have my party card.
Monino, 1981 Left - Eduard Ghazaryan, center - Nikolai Stroyev - aircraft designer, deputy chairman of the Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on military-industrial issues
My business trips, by the way, were mainly to Moscow. One year I spent more time in them than in Yerevan. Days 250 or something, but not in a row. When the system was built, I drove around with the military to see if it worked or not. One winter we had to check some communication point in Siberia. There were no roads, they had to go on the ice of the Amur River in an UAZ. As soon as we drove onto the ice, the commander stopped the car, turned to us and said: "In an emergency, you two jump out the back door, you - through the windows next to you." I sit neither alive nor dead. It was not enough to drown in this Cupid! But we arrived normally, the ice was healthy.
Life in Canada
When I worked in Armgiprodor, the Czechs sent a letter in which they said they could give us a program for the development of highways and bridges, since a devastating earthquake happened in Armenia. They wanted to help. I asked the director to send me on a business trip to Czechoslovakia to see what kind of program it was. My secret thought was to check if I could go abroad.
The director sent me, I spent a week or two in Prague. A team from Russia also came there. They rubbed their hands: "You will take this program to Armenia, and we will whistle it with you." The situation is not very pleasant, because in fact, in the eyes of Czech friends, I would become a scoundrel. Thank God, they did not present this program to us, I returned to Yerevan, knowing that I could be released. Then Gorbachev relaxed: he said that directors, chief engineers and deputy directors have the right to travel abroad for three months.
My sister was living in Canada at that time. When she left, they wanted to remove me from the secret work. But everyone knew that if that happened, the job would fail. Fadey Tachatovich Sargsyan, who was already the chairman of the Council of Ministers, wrote a petition to the head of the KGB Andropov. People came from Moscow a couple of times to make sure that I really knew everything, and I can't be filmed.
Eduard Ghazaryan during an interview via Skype
My sister periodically called me from Canada. I asked her: "Write a letter that some organization invites me to teach computerization of production, and that they will bear all the costs, otherwise they will not let me out." She had Jewish friends with her photo studio. They sent an invitation, the director signed with the minister and I was sent on a business trip.
To stay in Canada, I married a Vietnamese woman with whom we studied English during the course. Some were surprised, but I had no doubt that she was a good woman and that we would have a normal family. And so it happened. We lived with her for 8-9 years, then divorced. But I am very glad that I stayed in Canada. The country is wonderful, free. I live as I want, I do what I want. While I was working, I bought myself a three-story house. The salary was excellent, I borrowed 100-something thousand dollars from the bank and bought it. Literally 5-6 years later, when I came here.
Although life in Canada began hard. I knew neither French nor English - only Russian and Armenian. For the same 5–6 years I had to learn languages. Plus, since I intended to work here, I had to learn new arithmetic, algebra, physics, electronics and so on in these languages. We call it a resistance or a capacitor, but what about them? In general, I spent the first years on these matters and worked a little more - my sister arranged it. She was a client of a Pole who ran a company selling and repairing various devices for beauty salons. When he found out that I was a qualified engineer, he took me to him. The first six months I did not issue, I paid in cash. Then, upon learning that I study English and French at school, he said that he could formalize me officially - no need to pay taxes to the state.
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After some time, the Pole began to experience a crisis - everything was too expensive for him. Then I went to work in the most powerful company in Canada, engaged in the development of equipment for the same beauty salons. I worked there for a long time. At the age of 70 you could have retired, but they did not want to let me go. By law, I must give my employer a week's notice of leaving. My supervisor said, “No, that won't work. Write me a letter". I wrote. He: "No, in a month you have to confirm to me with a letter again." After a month, I confirmed. He came running to me and said: “It is inconvenient for the president of the company to ask you, but I will tell you. Will you agree to go to Miami for a month to work there? We will buy a round-trip ticket, put $ 1,000 in your pocket, provide you with an apartment and a car. " I went, worked there for a month. Came back, started messing around.I still laze around. A house bought for 140 thousand, sold for 360 in a few years. I was lucky: real estate prices have risen very sharply. I bought an apartment for 170 thousand. According to our concepts, a three-room apartment. I do what I want.