Sergei Lebedev is rightly considered a leading designer and developer of domestic electronic computers. His contribution to this branch of science is compared with the role of Korolev in rocket science and Kurchatov in the creation of nuclear weapons. In addition to scientific work, he conducted active teaching activities and prepared many young scientists of world renown.
Childhood and youth
Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev was born on November 2, 1902. His father, Alexei Ivanovich, graduated with honors from a school for orphans and a teacher's institute, taught in the village of Rodniki, Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya province. The mother of Sergei Lebedev, Anastasia Petrovna, was a hereditary noblewoman. She left her wealthy estate to become a teacher as well.
Sergey had three sisters, one of whom - Tatyana - is a world famous artist. The parents of the future scientist tried to be a model for their students and children. At the head of education were placed such qualities as hard work, decency and honesty. There were a lot of books in the Lebedev house, and children were instilled with a love of theater, music and folklore.
His favorite pastimes in childhood were swimming, music, reading, chess and the carpentry, which his uncle taught him. Even then, he was fond of electrical engineering - he made a dynamo machine, an electric bell, a Leyden jar.
After the revolution in 1917, the family of teachers was transferred from one city to another. In 1919, Sergei moved to Moscow with his father, who was entrusted with the organization of the production of transparencies for educational and propaganda purposes. In 1921, S. A. Lebedev passed the exams for the school curriculum and was admitted to MVTU im. N.E. Bauman.
Study at the institute
In his student years, a young scientist was fond of sports: he went to the mountains, went skiing, kayaking. An active lifestyle did not prevent him from doing science - in his graduation project, he developed the problem of the sustainability of large power plants in a system where consumers and electricity producers were located over long distances.
This was his first serious scientific work, the work on which took 2 years. At the age of 26, having defended his diploma at MVTU, he became the most competent specialist in this matter.
Work in the prewar years
Sergey Lebedev's working biography begins with teaching at the Moscow Technical University. At the same time, he was a member of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (VEI). Under his leadership, a special laboratory was created in which the scientist continued to work on the selected topic. Its complexity consisted in the fact that when designing the main electric networks it was required to make very complex calculations. This prompted the young scientist to develop models of electric networks and to search for new methods for calculating their mode of operation.
In 1935, Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev was awarded the title of professor. The basis of his dissertation on the title of Doctor of Sciences, which he defended in 1939, was a new theory of the stability of energy systems. In the years 1939-1940. He participated in the design of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric complex. In addition, he was engaged in the creation of a device for solving differential equations, and then proceeded to the development of an electronic computer, which is based on a binary number system.
The Great Patriotic War
In 1941, Lebedev enlisted in the people's militia, since he was no longer subject to military draft by age. He was not allowed to go to the front, and VEI was evacuated to Sverdlovsk. The work switched to defense topics. In a short time, the scientist mastered aerodynamics and began developing homing torpedoes, as well as a system for stabilizing a tank gun during aiming.
Like all VEI employees, in the winter Sergey Alekseevich worked on logging. During the evacuation, the Lebedev family was in poverty: they had to live in the waiting room, the children were often sick. In 1943, when the threat of a Nazi attack on Moscow passed, the institute was transferred back to the capital.
There Lebedev continued his teaching and research activities. In 1943 he was appointed head of the Department of Automation of Electrical Systems of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, and in 1944 - head of the Central Design Bureau of Electric Drives and Automation. In 1945, the scientist was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.
On the way to the computer
In 1945, the scientist made the first attempt to organize work on the design of digital machines. But the leadership of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks did not take Sergey Lebedev’s idea seriously. Under the patronage of acquaintances, he was offered to move to Kiev and head the Institute of Energy, which made it possible to expand this work.
In 1947, this institution was divided into two institutes - thermal power and electrical engineering. Director of the latter became S. A. Lebedev. Here, he finally set up a laboratory to solve problems associated with electronic computing.
Even during the design of the Kuibyshev power line, the scientist was simultaneously developing the basics of the binary number system, but because of the war he had to interrupt research. At that time, computers did not yet exist in the world. Only in 1942, the Atanasov computer was assembled in the USA, designed to solve systems of simple linear equations. Lebedev came to his technical solution on his own, so he can be called a pioneer of domestic computer technology. If not for war, then the first computer could be created in Russia.
BESM and MESM - large and small electronic computer
In 1949, S. A. Lebedev began work on the design of MESM. It was conceived as a layout with the representation of numbers with a fixed rather than a floating point, since the latter option led to an increase in the volume of equipment by 30%. Initially, it was decided to stop at 17 binary digits, then they were increased to 21.
The first circuits were cumbersome, and many nodes had to be reinvented, since there were simply no standard guides on the circuitry of digital devices. Suitable schemes were logged. Due to a lack of financial resources, household electronic lamps were installed in the car. MESM debugging went around the clock, and Lebedev himself worked continuously for 20 hours. In 1951, the first working computer in the USSR and Europe was built. She could perform 3,000 operations per minute, and the data was read from a punch card. The area occupied by the machine was 60 m 2 .
Since 1951, MESM has been used to solve important defense and theoretical problems in the field of space flights, mechanics, and thermonuclear processes. For Lebedev, the creation of this machine was only a stepping stone to the development of BESM. Its productivity was 2-3 times higher than that of MESM, and by 1953 it became the most productive computer in Europe. BESM could work with floating point numbers, and the number of bits was 39.
In 1953, Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev was elected an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then he was appointed head of ITMiVT (Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering), where he worked almost until his death.
Further developments
Following MESM and BESM, Lebedev designed more advanced electronic computers (BESM-2 - BESM-6, M-20, M-40, M-50, 5E92b, 5E51, 5E26). Some of them were used in the defense and space industries. M-20, built using semiconductors, became the prototype for the commercially available BESM-4.
In 1969, Sergey Alekseevich, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was given a very difficult task for those times: to create a computer with a capacity of 100 million operations per second. Analogs with such characteristics were not even abroad. The scientist called his project to create a super-productive computer “Elbrus”, in memory of the peak conquered in his youth.
The first step towards the goal was the Elbrus-1 computer, which was put into operation after the scientist’s death in 1979. Its productivity was still far from necessary - almost 7 times less. The second modification that followed was already 1.25 times faster than required. The Elbrus computer — the development of Soviet engineers — outstripped the first Pentium-I superscalar computer by 14 years.
Personal qualities
Relatives and colleagues of Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev noted his kindness, modesty, straightforwardness and integrity in everything: from household trifles to work. He easily found a common language with young people and was respected among students and graduate students.
The scientist never fawned before the authorities, and one of the revealing facts is that when the Order of Lenin was awarded in 1962, he sat next to Patriarch Alexy. None of the invitees wanted to compromise themselves by communicating with the church head.
Many friends always came to the Lebedev house, including eminent actors and musicians. He never retired to work in his office, but studied in a common room while talking with children.
With his future wife, 16-year-old cellist Alisa Steinberg, Sergey Alekseevich met in 1927, and after 2 years they got married. The scientist respected his wife and addressed her to you. After the birth of the first child - the son of Seryozha - Alisa Grigoryevna fell ill and was hospitalized. Lebedev himself looked after the baby and carried it twice a day to his wife so that she would breastfeed the child. In 1939, the twins Katya and Natasha were born into the Lebedev family, and in 1950 the adopted son Yakov appeared.
Lebedev Sergey Alekseevich: awards
For his fruitful work, the scientist received many awards, including the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the title Hero of Socialist Labor, the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR, and others.
For his achievements in the development of Soviet electronic computer technology, Lebedev was awarded the Order of Lenin 4 times during his lifetime, and in 1996 (posthumously) he was awarded the Medal “Pioneer of Computer Technology”.
Memory of Sergey Alekseevich
In 1974, after a long illness, the scientist died. Sergei Alekseevich was buried in the Moscow Novodevichy cemetery. Now there also lies the remains of his wife, who outlived her husband by only 5 years, and his son.
The Moscow Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering named after S. A. Lebedev still functions and graduates in Moscow. RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences) every year presents prizes to them. Lebedev for the development of domestic scientists in the field of information systems. Streets in his hometown - Nizhny Novgorod and in Kiev, where he worked, were also named in honor of Sergei Alekseevich.