'Mathematical Machines' of the Cold War: Soviet Computing, American Cybernetics and Ideological Disputes in the Early 1950s.

Soviet science in the post-WWII period was torn between two contradictory directives: to 'overtake and surpass' Western science, especially in defence-related fields; and to 'criticize and destroy' Western scholarship for its alleged ideological flaws. In response to this dilemma, Soviet scientists developed two opposite discursive strategies. While some scholars 'ideologized' science, translating scientific theories into a value-laden political language, others tried to 'de-ideologize' it by drawing a sharp line between ideology and the supposedly value-neutral, 'objective' content of science. This paper examines how early Soviet computing was shaped by the interplay of military and ideological forces, and affected by the attempts to 'de-ideologize' computers. The paper also suggests some important similarities in the impact of the Cold War on science and technology in the Soviet Union and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]