Soviet Programmer's Journey: Debugging Behind the Iron Curtain and the Decision to Emigrate
By
indrora
A bagel you'd recommend to a friend without hedging.
Summary
The article shares a personal story about Sergei, a veteran programmer from the Soviet Union's early computing industry who worked on SM-1800 computers (Soviet PDP-11 clones). The narrative focuses on his experiences in the 1980s and his decision to emigrate from the Soviet Union in 1986, highlighting the intersection of technology, personal history, and political context during the Cold War era.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledSergei is a veteran of the early days of the computing industry as it was developing in the Soviet Union
I picked up more important lessons about both life and embedded programming than any amount of school could ever teach
The most striking lesson is the story of how and why, in late summer of 1986, Sergei decided to move his family out of the Soviet Union
In the 1980s, my mentor Sergei was writing software for an SM-1800, a Soviet clone of the PDP-11
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