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Of the Cold War: Soviet Computing, American Cybernetics and Ideological Disputes in the Early 1950S Author(S): Slava Gerovitch Source: Social Studies of Science, Vol

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Of the Cold War: Soviet Computing, American Cybernetics and Ideological Disputes in the Early 1950S Author(S): Slava Gerovitch Source: Social Studies of Science, Vol 'Mathematical Machines' of the Cold War: Soviet Computing, American Cybernetics and Ideological Disputes in the Early 1950s Author(s): Slava Gerovitch Source: Social Studies of Science, Vol. 31, No. 2, Science in the Cold War (Apr., 2001), pp. 253- 287 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3183114 . Accessed: 12/04/2013 07:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Studies of Science. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 155.41.121.81 on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:13:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions S S S Special Issue: Sciencein theCold War ABSTRACTSoviet science in the post-WWIIperiod was tornbetween two contradictorydirectives: to 'overtakeand surpass'Western science, especially in defence-relatedfields; and to 'criticizeand destroy'Western scholarship for its alleged ideologicalflaws. In responseto thisdilemma, Soviet scientists developed two oppositediscursive strategies. While some scholars'ideologized' science, translating scientifictheories into a value-ladenpolitical language, others tried to 'de-ideologize' it bydrawing a sharpline betweenideology and the supposedlyvalue-neutral, 'objective'content of science.This paper examines how earlySoviet computing was shaped bythe interplayof militaryand ideologicalforces, and affectedby the attemptsto 'de-ideologize'computers. The paperalso suggestssome important similaritiesin the impactof the Cold Waron scienceand technologyin the Soviet Unionand the UnitedStates. Keywords computers,ideology, military technology, Russia, Soviet Union 'Mathematical Machines' of the Cold War: Soviet Computing,American Cybernetics and IdeologicalDisputes in the Early 1950s Slava Gerovitch In March 1954, researchersof the MathematicalInstitute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow were preparinga comprehensivebook- lengthsurvey of the entiremathematical discipline, Mathematics, Its Con- tent,Methods, and Meaning.An Institute-wide'philosophy seminar', whose missionwas to instilthe rightideological principlesinto the researchers' minds,held a special session devotedto the discussionof a draftintroduc- tion to the book. One of the discussantsdisplayed heightened ideological vigilance,and proposed that the introductionshould de-emphasize the contributionsof American mathematicians.'There is no progressivesci- ence or progressivemusic in Americanow', he argued:'They have luredin a numberof scientistsfrom all over the world,and now barelymanage to maintaintheir military potential. We will not promoteAmerican mathem- atics'.' Anotherseminar participant voiced a differentopinion. 'There are some progressive-mindedpeople [in America],and one should not lump them together with the Wall Street', he said: 'A great majority of American mathematicianshave come out of the ordinaryfolk and do not represent the American monopolisticbourgeoisie'.2 The question of how to treat science produced by a Cold-War enemy - as a value-neutralbody of Social Studiesof Science 31/2(April 2001) 253-287 ? SSS and SAGE Publications(London, Thousand Oaks CA, New Delhi) [0306-3127(200104)31:2;253-287;0 19098] This content downloaded from 155.41.121.81 on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:13:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 254 Social Studies of Science 31/2 knowledgeor as an ideologicalTrojan horse- acquired centralimportance in Soviet public discourse on American science in the earlyyears of the Cold War. Historiansof Sovietscience and technologyhave long struggledto find propercategories of analysisfor the post-WWII period. On the one hand, thisperiod was marredby viciouspublic attackson Sovietintellectuals in a series of vociferousideological campaignsagainst 'idealism', 'formalism', 'cosmopolitanism'and 'kowtowingbefore the West'. Those campaigns destroyedpersonal careers and closed whole areas of research;in a number of disciplines,the most dogmatictrends prevailed, imposing narrow con- ceptualframeworks and stiflingcreative thought. This promptedAlexander Vucinichto describeit as a period ofthe 'triumph of ideology' over science, and to portraySoviet science as a victimof 'totalitarian'control by the StalinistParty/state apparatus.3 On the otherhand, thiswas also an era of genuinetriumph for Soviet science and technology.As Paul Josephsonhas observed,in the post-warperiod large-scaleindustrial and construction projectsaimed at fulfillingStalin's ambitious plan of the 'greattransforma- tionof nature' mushroomed, and the countrycelebrated an unprecedented 'cult' of science and technology.4It was during this period that Soviet scientistsbuilt the firstSoviet atomic and hydrogenbombs. David Hollo- wayargues that closed defencelaboratories served as 'islands of intellectual autonomy', where political controls were relaxed, and scientistscould freelyexchange ideas.5 Loren Graham agrees that science sometimes provided a refugefrom the harsh realityof Stalinism,but he puts the emphasison the tremendousamount of fundingand governmentsupport for science and technologyunder Stalin, concluding provocativelythat moneyappeared to be more importantthan freedomfor the successes of Soviet science.6 While some historianstake for granted a fundamentalconflict between the Soviet scientificcommunity and the Party/statebureaucracy, others stressvarious forms of ideologicalaccommodation, pragmatic cooperation, and even institutionalintegration of the two groups. Mark Adams inter- prets Soviet ideologynot as an essentialset of Marxist beliefs,but as a flexiblelanguage of negotiationbetween the Party,the government,and the scientists.7Nikolai Krementsovargues that the 'controlapparatus and the scientificcommunity became fused not only in their overlapping organizationalstructures and networks,but also . in a commonand quite peculiarset of sharedimages, rituals, and rhetoric',which resulted in their 'culturalunification'.8 Alexei Kojevnikovemphasizes the gradual diffusion of culturalnorms from Party life into science, as Soviet scientistsadapted to the regime. They began to play 'games of intrapartydemocracy', reproducingpublic rituals of 'criticismand self-criticism',and framing politicaldenunciations as 'creativediscussions' of scholarlymatters. In this situation,politics affectsscience via the subtle mechanismof discursive domination,rather than throughdirect administrative pressure.9 Differencesin interpretationalso arise when historianstake one of the two moststudied disciplines - physicsor biology- as theparadigmatic case This content downloaded from 155.41.121.81 on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:13:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Science in the Cold War: Gerovitch:Machine Mathematics & SovietComputing 255 forthe restof Soviet science and technology.The notorious1948 triumph of the ignoramusTrofim Lysenko in Soviet biology usually serves as an epitome of the 'ideologization'of Soviet science. On the otherhand, the case of Soviet physics,which in 1949 produced the firstSoviet atomic bomb and avoided a Lysenko-styleideological pogrom, is ofteninterpreted as an indicationthat the Sovietleadership held a ratherpragmatic attitude, and attached the highestpriority to 'overtakingand surpassing',rather thancriticizing, Western science. Krementsovexplains the differentfates of biology and physicsby theirrelative value with respectto the Cold War priorities,'0while Kojevnikov refersto 'physicists'skill - or luck - in playing the political games of Stalinism';"1Josephson also maintains that post-war'dramatic reversals of fortunewere part and parcel of the arbitraryStalinist system, and not merely aspects of the Cold War situation'.12 This paper is devoted to Soviet computing,which providesan inter- estingborderline case betweendefence-related physics and ideology-laden biology.The earlyhistory of Soviet computingaptly illustrates both the direct consequences of the Cold War in the form of militarizationof research,and its more subtle intellectualand culturalinfluences. Both in the United States and in the Soviet Union, computersemerged as direct productsof military-sponsoredresearch, and became vitalcomponents of weapons systems.'3The militaryimportance of computing suggests a stronganalogy with physics,but the situationwas not so simple. In the United States,the popular perceptionof computerswas largelyshaped by cyberneticman-machine analogies: computerswere seen as 'giantbrains', while human behaviour, conversely,was often interpretedwithin the frameworkof calculation,manipulation and control.14 In the SovietUnion, in contrast,cybernetics came under vicious attackin the wave of public campaigns aimed at eliminatingWestern ideological influences.Soviet computingwas shaped by theinterplay of the two conflictingmotifs, and in this sense may reflectgeneral trends in post-war Soviet science and technology. I examinethe historyof earlySoviet computingthrough the prismof discursivestrategies of 'ideologization'and 'de-ideologization'elaborated by Soviet scientistsand engineersin the contextof the Cold War. These
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