Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled ''Electronorgtechnica'', ), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer hardware and software in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. It was controlled by the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1971 to 1989. The company was associated with the export of Soviet design calculators,

Electronika Elektronika, also spelt Electronika and Electronica (russian: Электроника, "Electronics"), is the brand name used for many different electronic products built by factories belonging to the Soviet Ministry of Electronic Industry, incl ...

being one brand that was exported, rebranding them as ELORG products. Elorg also marketed the

Agat computer The Agat (russian: Агат) was a series of 8-bit computers produced in the Soviet Union. It used the same MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor as Apple II. Commissioned by the USSR Ministry of Radio, for many years it was a popular microcompute ...

, and imported IBM computers into the Soviet Union, starting with the

IBM System/360 Model 50 The IBM System/360 Model 50 is a member of the IBM System/360 family of computers. The Model 50 was announced in April 1964 with the other initial models of the family, and first shipped in August 1965 to the Bank of America. Models There are f ...

in 1971. In 1991, as the Soviet Union was being dissolved, Elorg was turned into a private business by its director, Nikolai Belikov. Elorg was sold to

The Tetris Company The Tetris Company, Inc. (TTC) is based in Nevada and is owned by Henk Rogers, Alexey Pajitnov and Blue Planet Software. The company is the exclusive licensee of Tetris Holding LLC, the company that owns Tetris rights worldwide. It licenses the ...

in January 2005 for $15 million.

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from N ...

pressured Soviet Union leader

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

to cancel the contract between

Elorg Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled ''Electronorgtechnica'', ), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer hardware and software in the Soviet Union. It was co ...

and

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

concerning the rights to the game ''Tetris''.

Tetris

ELORG was responsible for the licensing of the popular

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the approp ...

''. ''Tetris'' was written by salaried programmers at the

Soviet Academy of Sciences 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 ...

, which was not allowed to carry out commercial activities directly. As the game was owned by the state, all rights to the game worldwide were handled by ELORG. In 1996 ELORG was reportedly a privatised Russian company which has retained the rights to the ''

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

.PR Newswire - "Tetris Inventor Gets His Due in Historic Russia/US Joint Venture"
, accessed June 1, 2006
, accessed June 1, 2006 ELORG was a partner in

which licenses the ''Tetris'' name to game companies, along with ''Tetris'' creator

Alexey Pajitnov Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov. (born 16 April 1955) is a Russian-born American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best-known for designing and developing ''Tetris'' in 1984 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the A ...

and businessman

Henk Rogers Henk Rogers (born 24 December 1953) is a Dutch video game designer and entrepreneur. He is known for producing Japan's first major turn-based role-playing video game ''The Black Onyx'', securing the rights to distribute ''Tetris'' on video game c ...

. Elorg was a 50 percent owner in the company until Rogers and Pajitnov bought ELORG's remaining rights around 2005.

References

{{Authority control Service companies of the Soviet Union Computing in the Soviet Union Computer companies of Russia Companies based in Moscow Defunct companies of Russia Electronics companies disestablished in 2005 Electronics companies established in 1971 Ministry of Foreign Trade (Soviet Union) 1971 establishments in the Soviet Union 2005 disestablishments in Russia