[SIGCIS-Members] Cold War Computing

[James Cortada]

Dag, thanks for letting us know.  Bulgaria's experience has been
whispered about for decades so having research done on it before on other
Iron Curtain countries makes sense.  What we know about the Soviet block
and its partners is ridiculously little, even after all these years.  See
if you can get your speaker to opine on what other countries in the area
should be studied next, why and how.  Perhaps do that as a question after
the formal talk?  Jim Cortada

On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 1:06 PM Dag Spicer via Members <
members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:

> Hey Everyone!
>
> Just a heads up: Coming up on September 18, the Computer History Museum is
> hosting the wonderful Professor Victor Petrov who will speak about cold war
> computing based on his 2024 CHM-SIGCIS Book Award winning book, “Balkan
> Cyberia.”
>
> See here: https://email.computerhistory.org/cold-war-computing?
>
> Summary:
> Amid the geopolitical bifurcation of the Cold War Bulgaria emerged as an
> unexpected epicenter of electronics and computing innovation within the
> socialist world. Long overshadowed by Silicon Valley–centered narratives of
> technological progress this history challenges the dominant West-centric
> framework that has shaped both popular memory and much of the
> historiography of computing.
>
> Drawing on recently declassified archives and transnational perspectives
> historian Victor Petrov reframes the story of Bulgaria’s computing sector
> as one of high-stakes espionage socialist visions of cybernetic modernity
> and ambitious technocratic reform.
>
> In doing so he situates Bulgaria not as a passive recipient of imported
> models but as an active inventive participant in the global technological
> order of the late twentieth century.
>
> Lecture is hybrid: online and in-person. Reserve your ticket now.
>
> Hope to see you there!
>
> Dag
> -----
> Dag Spicer
> Senior Curator
> Computer History Museum
> Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
> ACM History Committee
> 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
> Mountain View CA  94043
>
> “History is a vast early warning system.”
> — Norman Cousins, American journalist (1915-1990).
>
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-- 
James W. Cortada
Senior Research Fellow
Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
jcortada at umn.edu
608-274-6382
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