During the time of the grandiose scientific breakthrough of the young Soviet state, there was no such field of science where a true genius did not work. And although the rights to advanced computer technologies rightfully belong to the Americans and the Japanese, nevertheless, Soviet scientists also stood at the dawn of the emergence of artificial intelligence, who often made discoveries in complete secrecy. One of these scientists, who possessed exceptional genius and extraordinary creative potential, was Sergei 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 start of the journey
The pioneer of the domestic computer era, SA Lebedev, whose brief biography is presented in this article, of course, had no idea what discovery he was at the origin of. The future academician was born in Nizhny Novgorod on November 2, 1902 in a family of intellectuals and teachers. In addition, his father was a writer, and his mother was fromnoble 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, 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 the biographies of other Soviet scientists of that time, studied the problems of the energy systems created in those years according to the developments of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia.
Further work
After graduation, he continued to work in the field of electrification. For two years he worked at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute. After the electrical engineering faculty of the technical school, which he graduated from, was separated into a separate educational institution - the Moscow Power Engineering Institute - he moved 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 he followed, received the status of a professor. In 1939 he became an academician, having defended his doctoral dissertation. The topic of his research this time was the theory of artificial stabilitypower systems.
War and the continuation of scientific activity
His invaluable knowledge in the field of electricity and energy, of course, Lebedev, like any Soviet scientist, during the war with Nazi Germany turned 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 stabilization system for firearms on tanks during aiming also came out of his pen. For his work, he was presented with two awards at once - 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 take place in the professor's life - a new scientist S. A. Lebedev will appear. A short biography - the computer, or rather its prototype, will henceforth become its main goal - makes a sharp turn, behind which not only laurels will await the scientist.
Moving to Kyiv
It is worth noting that it was the professor's original field of activity that led him to the future discovery. Energy (and everything related to it) required a huge amount of calculations. At some point, the scientist was puzzled by the automation of computational processes. After the war, in 1946, he moved to Kyiv. This is where the new invention comes in. Sergei Alekseevich will head the Institute of Energy at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Then he will be included in the number of 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.
As the biographers of the scientist note, during the two years of his work in Kyiv, he summed up his research in the field of energy, writing, in collaboration with Lev Tsekernik, a work on the construction of generators for power plants. For it, the scientist was awarded the State Prize of the USSR. He then devoted the next three years to digital computing. His research, development and results have become fundamental to further work in this area.
First in continental Europe
It is worth noting that from the first days of work at the new place, Academician Lebedev organized a laboratory for modeling and computer technology, where he began to develop a model of a small electronic calculating machine (MECM). 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 speak of an instant glory. However, the reality was quite different.
It's amazing, but more or less people began to talk about the academician only after his death. During the lifetime of the scientist, no one wrote anything about him. And the reason for that - two objective factors. Since all progress begins with a militaryindustry, and the creation of computers involved the development of missile defense, the name of the great scientist was strictly classified, which is logical. But, besides this, Academician Lebedev himself had the rarest modesty and did not like communication with journalists at all.
Merit
In the year of the first MESM tests, Academician Lebedev was recalled to Moscow to work at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Technology under the USSR Academy of Sciences. Under his leadership, a high-speed electronic computing machine (BESM) is being designed. Later, 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, unrestrained 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 supercomputers that worked on integrated circuits. Even despite a serious illness that forced him to leave the post of director since 1973, he continued to work at home. His latest developments formed the basis of the Elbrus supercomputer. The scientist died at the age of 72.
