The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#1

Post by martinlaz » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 6:37 PM UTC

The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"
lareviewofbooks.org

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#2

Post by mrtksn » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 6:58 PM UTC

Asionometry has a brilliant piece on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-UVPw1c_So

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#3

Post by mrkramer » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:13 PM UTC

Interesting fact about Bulgaria and Amazon, first order on Amazon.com was from Bulgaria.

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#4

Post by boulos » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:18 PM UTC

This is also directly available from MIT Press as Open Access: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5598/Balkan-Cyberi...

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#5

Post by malkia » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:21 PM UTC

Anyone remembers The Dark Avenger :) - lol, another fellow bulgarian!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Avenger

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#6

Post by thriftwy » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:23 PM UTC

One of the first Sovirt Union's general purpose computers, the MESM[1], was built in some pre-revolutionary mansion outside Kiev.

Romania also had significant semiconductor industry and DDR too, such as Kombinat Mikroelektronik "Karl Marx" Erfurt.

I'm disappointed the article is so eager to tag late communist Bulgaria "repressive". The same myopic vision where Bulgaria can be of no significance, but also where socialist regime can manifest with nothing but repression.

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESM

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#7

Post by gremlinunderway » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:31 PM UTC

Really cool to see other attempts at historically understanding Warsaw Pact and fUSSR tech industries.

Every other treatment I've ever seen for describing the Soviet computing and internet development has always just been a lazy "well it wasn't innovative like silicon valley" which, while not necessarily wrong, sounds more like awkward and insecure attempt at justifying our own processes, and also isn't all that descriptive or useful.

This isn't surprising because we still have a very heavy Cold War stink on history to do with the USSR and just continue to discover we were wrong about certain aspects of that experiment or didnt quite fully understand it without heavy ideological bias.

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#8

Post by pavel_pt » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:46 PM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #3

Interesting fact about Bulgaria and Amazon, first order on Amazon.com was from Bulgaria.

[flagged]

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#9

Post by mrkramer » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:49 PM UTC

pavel_pt wrote: post #8

mrkramer wrote: post #3

Interesting fact about Bulgaria and Amazon, first order on Amazon.com was from Bulgaria.

[flagged]

You think Jeff would ship a product that was paid with a stolen card....

Re: The Bulgarian Computer's Global Reach: On Victor Petrov's "Balkan Cyberia"

#10

Post by handzhiev » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 7:52 PM UTC

pavel_pt wrote: post #8

mrkramer wrote: post #3

Interesting fact about Bulgaria and Amazon, first order on Amazon.com was from Bulgaria.

[flagged]

It was cash sent by snail mail. Quite a famous story https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/5hd561/jeff_bezoss_...