This person could have made the USSR, and therefore Russia, a computer superpower, thereby possibly preventing the collapse of the Soviet Union and turning the history of our state in a different, more prosperous direction. But this was not destined to come true.
Gorokhov's Intellect
True, he nevertheless patented his computer, which Arseny Gorokhov calls an intellectual, and even received an inventor's certificate number 383005, in which the "programming device" was described in detail. That is, the first computer was practically registered in 1973 - three years before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak assembled their Apple I.
Today it is difficult to say whether they ripped off the idea from Gorokhov, since the bulletin on inventions and discoveries, where the description of the Soviet intellectual at that time was published, was available to almost anyone in the world, especially those working in the patent law system. And Western scientists, to be honest, have always tracked discoveries in the world, and especially in the USSR, which is so generous with inventors, but completely unable to properly use this wealth. At least, if not even Jobs and Wozniak themselves, then their investor, most likely, was familiar with the publication about the "programming device" of the Russian inventor.
Gorokhov received a patent, but what next?
Arseny Gorokhov nursed his computer, being the head of the design bureau of the Omsk Research Institute of Aviation Technologies for five years, when he realized the complete inefficiency of the chain, starting from the draftsmen of his unit and ending with punching a punched card for a computer by girls-machinists. It was necessary to put it all together. And he did it. In its selector there is a data entry unit - today's keyboard, a graphical display unit for a process - a current monitor, a converter - a motherboard, a storage unit - a hard drive, and so on. Isn't it just the usual mouse.
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It turned out to be an even more difficult task to break through his invention in the USSR. And although by chance, thanks to a meeting of intelligent and understanding people, Arseny Gorokhov still received a patent for his invention, but this did not go further. Not that Gorokhov's computer was launched into mass production, the country did not find the money and smart officials even to create at least an industrial design and understand what it is - a computer! And even at his own institute they told him: what do you need, Gorokhov, registered the patent, received the prize, they hung you on the honor board …
Russia did not become a computer superpower only because of the shortsightedness of officials
By the way, the prize that Arseny Gorokhov received for his invention was only 50 rubles - by today's standards, about five thousand. And in order to establish the industrial production of computers, the state had to spend, according to the conservative estimates of the inventor himself, about one hundred thousand rubles (the current ten million). This is exactly how much money the state did not have enough to become a computer superpower …
Arseny Gorokhov still lives in his native Omsk. He is the author of more than sixty different inventions, including not only the world's first computer - an illuminator, but also a 3D printer, which is now fashionable (a patent numbered 706700 was issued to him for this invention back in 1979).
By the way, in Omsk there is a Museum of Education, in which the stand "Omsk - the homeland of the personal computer" is dedicated to Gorokhov. But, as the director of the museum, Igor Skandakov, says, even in the hometown of Arseny Gorokhov, few people know about this, not to mention Russia and the planet in general. That is why I really want to say this in the words of one of the most famous Soviet film heroes - not for myself, for the state it is insulting …