At the time of the great scientific breakthrough of the young Soviet state, there was no such field of science wherever true genius worked. Although the rights to advanced computer technology rightfully belong to the Americans and Japanese, nevertheless, at the dawn of the emergence of artificial intelligence, Soviet scientists stood by, who made discoveries often in complete secrecy. One of such scientists, possessing exceptional genius and extraordinary creative potential, was Sergey Alekseevich Lebedev , whose brief biography, it would seem, quite obviously leads us from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering to the creation of the first computer.
The beginning of the way
The pioneer of the domestic computer era, S. A. Lebedev, a brief biography of which is set forth in this article, of course, had no idea what the source of his discovery was. The future academician was born in Nizhny Novgorod on November 2, 1902 in a family of intellectuals, teachers. In addition, his father was a writer, and his mother was from a noble family. It is worth adding that his sister, who took her mother’s maiden name, Anastasia Mavrina, was a famous artist.
When the future academician turned 18 years old, the family moved to the Russian capital. A year later, he entered the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, where he studied for seven years and received a diploma in electrical engineering. In his final work, S. A. Lebedev, whose brief biography gives rise to associations with biographies of other Soviet scientists of that time, studied the problems of energy systems created in those years according to the developments of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia.
Further work
After completing his studies, he continued his work in the field of electrification. For two years he worked at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute. After the electrotechnical faculty of the technical school, which he graduated from, was separated into a separate educational institution - the Moscow Power Engineering Institute - he went there to teach. His research and their results were later used in the work of Soviet power plants and power lines.
After six years of teaching practice, S. A. Lebedev, whose brief biography, unfortunately, cannot reflect the whole gamut of the research path that he took, received the status of professor. In 1939, he became an academician, defending his doctoral dissertation. The theme of his research this time was the theory of artificial stability of energy systems.
War and the continuation of scientific activity
Of course, Lebedev, like any Soviet scientist, during his war with Hitler Germany turned his invaluable knowledge in the field of electricity and energy to the aid of the Soviet military industry. He was mainly engaged in the development of projects for new types of weapons or the improvement of existing weapons. So, he owns a project of homing torpedoes. In addition, the gun stabilization system on tanks during aiming also came out of his pen. For his works, he was presented immediately for two awards - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45".
After the war, serious changes will occur in the life of the professor - a new scientist S. A. Lebedev will appear. A brief biography - a computer, or rather its prototype, will henceforth become its main goal - makes a sharp turn, beyond which the scientist will be expected not only by laurels.
Moving to Kiev
It is worth noting that it was the original field of activity of the professor that led him to a future discovery. Energy (and everything related to it) required a huge amount of computation. At some point, the scientist was puzzled by the issues of automation of computational processes. After the war, in 1946, he moved to Kiev. It is here that a new invention will appear. Sergei Alekseevich will head the Institute of Energy at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Then he will become one of the full members of the Academy of Sciences. A year later, the institute was reorganized, and S. A. Lebedev, whose brief biography would be quite suitable as a plot for a historical drama, will head the Institute of Electrical Engineering.
According to the biographers of the scientist, during two years of work in Kiev, he summarized his research in the field of energy, writing in collaboration with Lev Tsekernik a work on the construction of generators for power plants. For her, the scientist was awarded the USSR State Prize. Then he devoted the next three years to digital computing. His research, development and results became fundamental for further work in this area.
First in continental Europe
It is worth noting that from the first days of work in a new place, Academician Lebedev organized a laboratory for modeling and computer technology, where they began to develop a prototype of a small electronic computer (MESM). The work was carried out for more than two years. And in November 1950, the first launch was made. MESM was the prototype of the computer created later, and it was the first in continental Europe. And it was created by S. A. Lebedev. A brief biography - the computer became the main and most important invention of the academician - should talk about the instantly fallen glory. However, the reality was completely different.
This is amazing, but they began to speak more or less about the academician only after his death. During the life of a scientist, no one wrote anything about him. And the reason for this is two objective factors. Since any progress begins with the military industry, and the creation of computers implied the development of missile defense, the name of the great scientist was strictly classified, which is logical. But, besides this, Academician Lebedev himself was extremely modest and did not like talking to journalists at all.
Merits
In the year of the first MESM tests, Academician Lebedev was recalled to Moscow to work at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering at the USSR Academy of Sciences. Under his leadership, a high-speed electronic computer (BESM) is being designed. Two years later, he will head the institute, which later received his name.
The biography of S. A. Lebedev is filled with the joy of scientific discoveries, absolute genius and painstaking, rampant work. It’s no joke to say that during his leadership of the institute, fifteen types of computers were created, starting with the first tube computers and ending with super computers operating on integrated circuits. Even despite a serious illness that forced him to resign as director since 1973, he continued to work at home. His latest developments formed the basis of the Elbrus supercomputer. A scientist died at the age of 72.