I’m delighted to report that last Thursday (the 18th), the Computer History Museum hosted a wonderful lecture by the 2024 CHM Book Prize Winner, Victor Petrov, discussing his latest book, Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing, Bulgarian Modernization, and the Information Age behind the Iron Curtain.

Sep 22, 2025

[Recorded September 18, 2025] 

Summary:

Behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War lies a high-stakes tale of secret espionage networks, utopian visions of a cybernetic future, and remarkable technocratic reform. Balkan Cyberia, by CHM Book Prize winner Victor Petrov, explores how Soviet-era Bulgaria was a center of innovation in electronics and computing. In an age defined by Silicon Valley and Western narratives of progress, Petrov upends Western assumptions about computing in the Eastern bloc. 

This presentation by Petrov crafts a narrative of coded ambition, hidden trade tunnels, and a cyber-elite that reshaped Cold War geopolitics. Revelations about how Bulgaria became an electronics powerhouse, capturing a staggering 45% market share of electronics exports within the Eastern Bloc. He also draws contemporary parallels between socialist-era tech diplomacy and today's geopolitical and global supply chain tensions. 

Victor Petrov is an associate professor of European History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focusing on the history of the modern Balkans and Europe more broadly. 

His book Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing is the winner of the 2024 Computer History Museum Book Prize as well as the Barbara Jelavich Prize, the Marshal D. Shulman Prize, and the John D. Bell Memorial Book Prize. 

He received his PhD from Columbia University, and his MA and BA from Oxford University.

+++++++

Enjoy: 

CHM Live | Cold War Computing: Balkan Cyberia youtube.com

Dag