Representation of Cybernetics and Network Projects in the Soviet Society During the 1960s–1970s: The Socio-Political Context of Information Technologies

The paper is dedicated to the representation of computer and information technology in Soviet society from 1960s to 1970s. A range of contemporary researches note that information society today is tightly linked to the ideas of democracy, freedom, commerce and decentralization. Nevertheless, in the Soviet project information technologies were called upon to serve official ideology and principles of planned economy. Reference to documentary and narrative sources reveals that information technologies can be loaded with varying cultural meanings and those views of the configurations and roles of electronic communications systems (hierarchy/decentralization, verticality/horizontality) are conditioned by their political context. The paper is mainly focused on the difference in interpretation of sociocultural consequences of automatization and development of information technology in capitalist and socialist countries.