USSR

                                                                630090 Novosibirsk

                                                                  Computing Center

                                                             Academician A.P. Ershov

                                                                September 19, 1985

To the British Royal Society member, Professor C.A.R. Hoare,

Oxford

Dear Tony!

More than a year passed since our meeting and long talks in Marktoberdorf. I should have written to
you much sooner.

There are at least two excusable reasons.

Approximately since the last year’s autumn I started to feel a progress of certain events that
prompted me to consult doctors in April. The cause appeared to be oncological, I was immediately
sent to Moscow and on the 30^th of May I had a gastrectomy. The next month I spent at the hospital
getting immunotherapy, one more month – in a sanatorium, and in August I returned home to set a
new life going.

The new life is practically put in order, although dietary and procedural restrictions will not yet
allow me to travel for several months. In the meantime I take it as a blessing because it allows me to
quietly work at my desk and not be bothered by any administrative fuss.

The second reason is more constructive. Since the last year’s October I became involved into
planning and realization of the national program of school computerization. The most hard and
 dramatic part of this affair was participation in preparation of a textbook for the informatics course
(IX grade) that was introduced since this September in all schools of the Soviet Union (the
textbook’s circulation is 3,500,000 copies). Presently the business is halfway done and we are
working on the textbook’s sequel for the X grade.

We had time to prepare translation of your paper and my biographical sketch for the 4^th issue of
“Mikroprocessornye sredstva i sistemy” journal. The stuff had a good welcome. Unfortunately our
printing-house does not make reprints so I am sending you only a few copies of the journal. I want
to thank you once more in a friendly way for your consent to give your piece for the journal.

Our “Mir” publishing house intends to publish the translation of your book on the theory of
communicating sequential processes and either started or is about to start formal correspondence on
this matter.