Krawtchouk's Mind 260
A reader writes: "Central Europe Review is running an article on a gulag-condemned Soviet scientist whose contribution to the first computer is virtually unknown because of the Cold War mentality that infected much of society on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
The story tells of how in 1937, American digital computer pioneer John Atanasoff came across a Myhailo Krawtchouk paper on a new method for finding approximate solutions to differential equations. Atanasoff tried sending a letter to him, but received no response. Krawtchouk had been attainted for giving a favorable review of the work of "enemies of the people" and shipped to Siberia for 20 years of gold mining, where he died four years later. Krawtchouk's biography gives a more detailed account of how Krawtchouk was labeled a "Polish spy" and "Ukrainian nationalist," stripped of his Academy of Sciences membership, and forced to sign a confession -- that he later retracted -- under torture and threats upon his family.
"
err... (Score:5, Informative)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Cold War and the Iron Curtain didn't begin until after WWII, in the late 1940's.
Re:err... (Score:5, Informative)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Cold War and the Iron Curtain didn't begin until after WWII
Correct, Churchill gave the Iron Curtain speech after World War II. However, a "cold war" did exist between the Soviet Union and leading western states ever since the October Revolution. Until the Axis invasion of 1941, the Soviet Union was seen as much of a bogeyman as Hitler's Germany. In fact, Britain had toyed with the idea of declaring war on the USSR in the Winter of 1939 - under the pretext of aiding Finland which was being invaded by Stalin at the time, but really as an excuse to occupy ore-rich Sweden.
Chris
Hrm, (Score:4, Informative)
Go Cyclones!
Re:err... (Score:2, Informative)
We should thankful that this piece of scientific history was uncovered, sugnificant or not, since here in the Western world we take our liberites for granted.
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Re:Geek Persecution (Score:5, Informative)
This isn't really even a communist thing. Geek persecution on both sides of the wall was rough. I mean, where's Alan Turing?
While the establishment's treatment of Turing was a disgrace, I think it pales into insignificance compared to Stalin's terror. For an excellent introduction to life at the time of the purges, I can highly recommend Solzhenitsyn's "One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich", closely followed by his "Gulag Archipelago". It's a while since I read the latter, but I'm pretty sure it's the one that fictionalised Russian scientists working in an "intelligentsia prison".
Chris
Ripped off! (Score:5, Informative)
jjayson on kuro5hin.org got ripped off (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/4/27/5153/7362
note the word-for-word plagiarization/ lifting
just trying to keep it honest
Re:Actually... (Score:2, Informative)
A lot of comp. sci folks hold that it's not a computer until it can branch and do conditional logic. Zuse's work was impressive, especially considering they were built way cheap (they used like recycled tin from soupcans and whatnot - very MacGyver) but they were really more like an automated adding machine than a computer as we know it.
At least that's what I was taught about it.
Re:err... (Score:3, Informative)
You are correct, Winston Churchill coined the phrase "Iron Curtain" on March 5, 1946, while accepting an honorary degree in the US.
Far be it from a
Re:err... (Score:5, Informative)
Wow, that's quite an accomplishment for a guy that died in 1924 [marxists.org]. Must have been all the borsch and vodka.
From '22 to '53 it was all Joe
Re:err... (Score:3, Informative)
An earlier Difference Engine.... (Score:5, Informative)
The printer [bbc.co.uk] was completed in 2000. It featured variable spacing and line wrapping. Not bad for something that is 100% mechanical.
It should be noted that as with the machine talked about here, this was a machine for solving simple differential equations (tides) as well as more standard types of maths (i.e., logs, sines and so on) for the production of tables. It was not a general purpose computer, that term was reserved for his Analytical Engine - which was designed but never produced. However Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace wrote some programs for it, converting equations into algorithms and generating register settings which could be punched on the Jacquard cards (Babbage pinched this idea from the manufacturers of automatic-looms, a long time before Hollerith).
If Babbage had completed the Analytical engine, we could have been in a very different world. One version would have been hypothesized in William Gibson's "The Difference Engine".
This sounds like a story out of Scientology (Score:3, Informative)
The secret Library of scientology:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Librar
Operation Clambake:
http://www.xenu.net
(I'm still waiting for my goldenrod)
Re:Do Myhailo a favor... (Score:2, Informative)
I agree that most kids who espose Communism do not understand the distinction, or if they do, do not understand what actually happened under these Stalinist "leaders".
Cold Wars (Score:4, Informative)
Churchill's famous speech referred to the effective extension of Soviet borders to that of the European countries under their influence after the war.
Re:Actually... (Score:2, Informative)
From your link:
The Z3 did not contain the conditional branch. The ENIAC or MARK I did not have the conditional branch, either
And like I said, some consider it the first computer because of this, some dont (nor do some consider ENIAC or MARK I fully programmable either).
It could do math, but it couldnt make decisions.
Re:err... (Score:4, Informative)
So, you see, Churchill's plan to invade Sweden was designed to distrupt the German war effort, not simply a land-grab.
Re:Cold Wars (Score:3, Informative)
The loss of a good proportion of the officer corps contributed to the Red Army's lousy performance throughout the Winter War, but there were other reasons why an invasion was going to be difficult. It was the coldest winter in living memory, and the Soviet troops were poorly clothed for it. Tanks proved ineffectual in the forest conditions above Lake Ladoga. Along with the small number of roads, this meant a lack of mobility that prevented any "fanning" out of Soviet forces to form a broad front. Long columns hemmed in by forest made perfect conditions for Finnish hit and run tactics.
Another fundamental flaw in the Soviet invasion plan was that it occured under a banner of "liberation". Many ordinary folk in the Soviet Union actually believed this propaganda, and the leadership didn't want the same kind of bad press abroad that the Fascists got after Guernica. Therefore, bombing of Finnish towns and cities was sporadic, despite the likelihood that intensive bombing would have broken the Finnish resolve to fight. There again, the utter ineptitude of the Soviet air force didn't help.
Ultimately though, the Finns were doomed to lose the Winter War. Britain was too slow in deciding whether to assist the Finns, dithering over what advantages could be gained (such as a good excuse to put Swedish iron ore beyond Hitler's reach). The US was still wrapped up in its isolationaism, and an international brigade like that which gave the Spanish Civil War such a high profile weren't going to be of much use. Even if the war had dragged on until Spring, a massive offensive along a snow free Karelian Isthmus would have overcome the Finns in the same way it did the Axis several years later. The sheer weight of numbers, and Stalins willingness to sacrifice them would have seen to that.
Chris
John Atanasoff was of a Bulgarian descent (Score:1, Informative)
What Russian? He was Ukrainian (Score:1, Informative)
referring to - guys father was Ukrainian,
mother was Polish - how the f... does it
make him Russian ? He was born in Austro-Hungary,
then move to Russian part of Ukraine that
became Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union.
For me he was clearly Ukrainian.
I guess everything occupied by Russia is Russian
for you.
Re:err...(Frink satire) (Score:1, Informative)