Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kharkevich (russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Харке́вич ; 3 February, 1904 – 30 March, 1965) was a specialist in radio engineering, electronics, acoustics and instrumentation. He was a corresponding member in 1960 and an

academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...

in 1964 of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

Biography

He was born in 1904 in Saint Petersburg. From 1922 to 1930 he studied at the

Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI" (ETU, ETU "LETI", russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный электротехнический университет «ЛЭТИ» им. В.И. Ульян� ...

. He began his career in 1924 as a battery laboratory fitter, later as an intern, technician and supervisor at the plant. The first of his scientific and engineering was

instrument engineering Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...

. He created a number of original designs of devices, many of which were kept in our industry as universally recognized samples for many years. He also successfully developed a number of issues of

spectral theory In mathematics, spectral theory is an inclusive term for theories extending the eigenvector and eigenvalue theory of a single square matrix to a much broader theory of the structure of operators in a variety of mathematical spaces. It is a result o ...

, the theory of nonlinear oscillations, and parametric phenomena. In 1938 he is already a doctor of technical sciences and professor. At this time he gets a chair at the

St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications The Bonch-Bruevich Saint Petersburg State University of Telecommunications Russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет телекоммуникаций им. проф. М.А.Бонч-Бр� ...

, where he works until 1941. In 1948 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. In the early 1950s, he moved to Moscow and, combining several disparate groups, created the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the

. On December 17, 1956, A. A. Kharkevich gave a speech stating that ''"considering the set and value of communication problems, it is time to create Institute for Telecommunications in USSR Academy of Sciences, which has already been decided in principle, but is delayed for technical reasons"''. He headed this institute until his death. In 2004 the institute was named after A. A. Kharkevich. In 1962, he published an article in the journal "Communist" about a computer network for processing information and control of the economy. In fact, he proposed to make a network like the modern Internet for the needs of

algorithmic governance Government by algorithm (also known as algorithmic regulation, regulation by algorithms, algorithmic governance, algocratic governance, algorithmic legal order or algocracy) is an alternative form of government or social ordering, where the usa ...

. In his later years, A. A. Kharkevich focused on the development of

information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...

and

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...

. He died on March 30, 1965 in Moscow. He is buried at

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery ( rus, Новоде́вичье кла́дбище, Novodevichye kladbishche) is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist ...

Awards

He was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

and the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

Bibliography

A. A. Kharkevich published more than 100 scientific works and 12 books, many of which have had several editions and translated into several foreign countries (USA, France, Poland, China).

References

1904 births 1965 deaths Academic staff of Lviv Polytechnic Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University alumni Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Acousticians Cyberneticists Electrical engineering academics Government by algorithm Internet theorists Russian information theorists Soviet engineers {{Russia-scientist-stub Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery