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A 1975 news report made for Lviv television describes the use of the ASUP (Avtomatyzovana systema upravlinnya pidpryjemstvom – Automated Enterprise Management System) at the Lviv Electron plant, one of the largest TV manufacturers in the Soviet Union. Developed in cooperation with the Kyiv Institute of Cybernetics between 1964 and 1969, the system employed an electronic computer to perform calculations and record production data, marking the first implementation of its kind in the Soviet Union. The story emerged during a period of technological optimism in Soviet state policy, with the fields of cybernetics and computer engineering having developed over nearly two decades. By 1967, more than 500 institutions and tens of thousands of people were working on cybernetic issues, with half of them focused on economic cybernetics (Peters, 69). Although several projects involving the use of computers in enterprises had been completed by that time, expectations about their future potential were tempered by numerous challenges. These included insufficient computing power, a lack of data for computing, political and economic obstacles to scaling such systems, and resource scarcity during the late socialist period and within the context of a planned economy. With the audio narration for this story lost, it is assumed that the title refers to the broader context: the potential for using the ASUP was seen to be greater than its actual use in production at the time. This discourse on the underutilization of computing technology’s potential is corroborated by archival documents and press reports from that era. “We need to convince people of the usefulness and benefits of using electronic computing. It is still dead and cold without being used in production management,” [speech in Russian – trans. ed.] said Stepan Petrovskyi, director of the Lviv Television Plant, when the Electron party committee listened to a report by the head of the Information and Computing Center in early 1967. This meeting occurred against the backdrop of the implementation of the first stage of the ASUP, which was scheduled to be handed over to the commission later that year (DALO, 568/71/12). Petrovsky’s appeal and the ensuing discussion illustrate how the system and electronic computing were perceived at the enterprise when it was nearly operational. Moreover, the Electron plant played a key role in popularizing such systems, and the enterprise was tasked with developing similar systems for other enterprises and various fields, including public transport management in the city.

Title:

ASUP Can Do More: A 1975 TV Story by Lviv Television

Year:
1975
Source:
DALO, 980/3289
See more:
Urban Media Archive
Original language:
Audio is missing

Further readings:

  • Protokoly zasidan partiinoho komitetu pervynnoi orhanizatsii KP Ukrainy na Televiziinomu zavodi m. Lvova. Derzhavnyi arkhiv Lvivskoi oblasti, fond 568, opys 1, sprava №71.
  • Benjamin Peters, How not to network a nation: the uneasy history of the Soviet internet, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2016.

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Image for The Electronic Eyes of a Traffic Inspector: A 1971 TV Story by Lviv Television
The Electronic Eyes of a Traffic Inspector: A 1971 TV Story by Lviv Television
  A 1971 television story produced for Lviv Television news describes an experiment using television cameras to regulate traffic at one of the busiest intersections in the center of Lviv. The source does not provide information about the authors or the context of the device’s development. However, it is known that the Electron plant, one of the largest TV manufacturers in the city at the time, operated a special design bureau for television equipment. This suggests the presence of technological expertise and infrastructure capable of developing such devices using the relatively new technology of transmitting images via television signals. This technology was becoming increasingly popular in various fields, including traffic control. The...
Image for Radio Communication: A 1959 TV Story by Lviv television
Radio Communication: A 1959 TV Story by Lviv television
    A 1959 TV story filmed for Lviv Television’s Lvivska Nedilia (Lviv Week) (№19) captures the early years of Lviv television and depicts the Soviet modernization of the city. Although the sound is lost, the visuals effectively narrate the story of public transport operations and how remote communication enabled quick responses to breakdowns, preventing disruptions in the public transport infrastructure. In the context of Lviv at the time, the introduction of the trolleybus was a significant symbol of Soviet modernization. Previously, the city only had a tram network. The new trolleybus routes connected the historic city center with the outskirts, where large enterprises and working-class neighborhoods were located. This report highlights...
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Worked on the material:
Research, comment

Taras Nazaruk

Visual Laboratory Seminar

Bohdan Shumylovych, Anastasiya Kholyavka, Oleksandr Makhanets, Ivanna Cherchovych

Translation into English

Yuliia Kulish

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