Soviet computing technology smuggling, both attempted
and actual, was a response to
CoCom
The Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) was established in 1949 at the beginning of the Cold War to coordinate controls on exports from Western Bloc countries to the Soviet Union and its allies. Operating through inform ...
(
Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls
The Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) was established in 1949 at the beginning of the Cold War to coordinate controls on exports from Western Bloc countries to the Soviet Union and its allies. Operating through inform ...
) restrictions
on technology transfer.
[
]
History
Mainframe successes
Initially the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
focused on mainframe
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
computing technology, particularly the IBM 360 and 370
__NOTOC__
Year 370 ( CCCLXX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Valens (or, less frequently, year 1123 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 370 ...
. Between 1967 and 1972 much effort went into reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
what they "acquired."minicomputer
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...
s. Failure in 1983 to import a VAX-11/782
The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Development began in 1976. In ad ...
[ did not stop their efforts. "Reverse-engineered and copied Apple IIe parts" brought microcomputers to the Soviet Union; it also brought computer viruses too.][ ]IBM PC compatible
An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...
computers were also smuggled in.[
Production of ]Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...
mainframes, at one point, was estimated to be 180 per year.[
]
VAX failures
The failure of the Soviets to acquire a VAX-11/782, a dual-processor variation of the VAX-11/780, the original VAX, unraveled much of their smuggling system. U. S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger made a public display of the system, about which ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' headlined "Seized Computer Put on Display" in later 1983.[ Weinberger stated at a news conference that the VAX was intended for assisting production of "vastly more accurate . . . and more destructive weapons."
Like the 360/40, the smuggling process involved multiple shipments. The 360 had been disassembled and placed in a large number of suitcases. A smaller number of "huge containers of parts" held the 782. The latter's route involved transhipping, some more than half via Sweden, others via West Germany.]The Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...
'' described the same system's price as $1.5 million. ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote "between $1.5 and $2 million."[
Another VAX-smuggling attempt, five years later, involved a ]VAX 8800
The VAX 8000 is a discontinued family of superminicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) using processors implementing the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA).
The 8000 series was introduced in October 1984 ...
; this too ended in a failure. This time also, the computer involved was a dual-processor system. American government wiretapping revealed that some of the parties involved considered even settling for a VAX 8700, a uni-processor system.
See also
* Toshiba–Kongsberg scandal
References
{{reflist, 31em
Further reading
Technobandits, by Linda Melvern, David Hebditch, and Nick Anning
History of computing hardware
History of international relations