Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller (Ге́нрих Сау́лович Альтшу́ллер, ) (born

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

Uzbek SSR Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз� ...

USSR 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 nationa ...

, 15 October 1926; died

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population ...

, Russia, 24 September 1998), was a Soviet engineer, inventor, and writer. He is most notable for the creation of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, better known by its Russia acronym TRIZ. He founded the Azerbaijan Public Institute for Inventive Creation, and was the first President of the TRIZ Association. He also wrote science fiction under the pen-name Genrikh Altov.

Early life

Working as a

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

in a patent office, Altshuller embarked on finding some generic rules that would explain creation of new, inventive, patentable ideas. He eventually created the ''Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadach'' (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving or

TRIZ TRIZ (; russian: теория решения изобретательских задач, ', lit. "theory of inventive problem solving") is “the next evolutionary step in creating an organized and systematic approach to problem solving. The deve ...

)).

Arrest and imprisonment

During

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's political purges of members of the Communist Party in 1950, he was imprisoned for political reasons and continued his studies with his fellow inmates while in a

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

. After his release in 1954, Altshuller settled in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, Azerbaijan.

The spread of TRIZ in the Soviet Union

A full-fledged TRIZ movement developed among Soviet engineers and other technically inclined people by the 1970s, and Altshuller played the role of its intellectual leader. He lectured at TRIZ congresses, published articles and books and corresponded with various TRIZ practitioners. He became the founding member and president of the Russian TRIZ Association. A number of his close friends and students have become the most prominent thinkers and teachers of the movement, popularizing TRIZ in Russia and abroad. For a long time he published articles on TRIZ, with examples and exercises, in the Soviet popular science magazine ''Izobretatel i Ratsionalizator'' (''Inventor and Innovator'').

After the Soviet collapse

Altshuller left Baku in the early 1990s amidst post-Soviet-breakup violence in the area. He settled in

(

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...

in north-western Russia) with his wife and granddaughter. As a result, Petrozavodsk became the center of the TRIZ Association. He died from complications of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

in 1998.

Science Fiction

Following his release from prison camp in the 1950s, he earned a living as a science fiction writer, under the pseudonym Genrikh Altov (Генрих Альтов), often in collaboration with his wife, Valentina Zhuravleva.

Science fiction published as Genrich Altov

*Икар и Дедал 1958 (Icarus and Daedalus) *Легенды о звездных капитанах 1961 (Legends of Starship Captains) *Опаляющий разум 1968 (Scorching Mind) *Создан для бури 1970 (Made for the Storm) *Летящие по Вселенной 2002, with Valentina Zhuravleva (They Who Fly Through Space)

External links

Full Biography
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Altshuller, Genrich 1926 births 1998 deaths Deaths from Parkinson's disease Patent examiners Altov, Genrich Systems engineers Soviet engineers Soviet science fiction writers Neurological disease deaths in Russia Engineers from Tashkent Engineers from Baku TRIZ Soviet novelists Soviet male writers 20th-century male writers Soviet Jews Soviet essayists Writers from Baku