About the Archive

Andrei Ershov left a unique archive composed of approximately 500 thick office folders, storing documents which reflect his scientific career, and simultaneously the history of computer science in Russia and worldwide.

Ershov himself assembled each folder, either on a chronological basis, or a subject one. In very first folders the abstracts of lectures he was visiting during his University studies are stored, as well as draft copies of his thesis, materials to the very first papers, etc. The documents, reflecting his transition to Novosibirsk and creation of Department of Programming in the Mathematical Institute follows.

A debugging log of Alfa-compiler - the very first large programming system created under his supervision - may be of special historical and practical interest. Even punched cards of the compiler program for one of the first computers "Strela" (“Arrow” in English, original design of mid-50-s) are present.

All numerous foreign trips of Andrei Ershov are reflected in separate folders - it is possible to find programs of International Conferences and Seminars, Call for Papers and correspondence dealing with his activities in Program Committees, reports on his business trips, etc. History of the largest Computer Science events in the Soviet Union is also reflected by numerous interesting documents.

Some folders are devoted to the process of creation of several research institutions in the field of Computer Science in Novosibirsk. Correspondence with appropriate Ministries, plans of operations, personal applications, etc. may be found in these folders.

A lot of materials deal with Andrei Ershov research management activities. Documents, devoted to creation of the Division of Informatics, Computer Technology and Automation of the Academy of Science of the USSR are assembled in a separate folder. Materials of Committee on the System Software, Scientific Council on Cybernetics, and other scientific bodies, leaded by Ershov in different periods of his activities are stored in many folders as well.

Separate folders are devoted purely to research work of Andrei Ershov. Manuscripts of practically all his papers and books are stored in archive, including unpublished ones. Maybe not only historians of science, but active researchers can find in these papers, which are old, but not obsolete, some new ideas or impulse for such ideas.

About 500 folders, containing material of the archive are to be studied, described and catalogued. The documents of historical, cultural and scientific value are to be scanned and (partially) text-recognized. The most significant groups of events and processes, in which Ershov had essential involvement, which are reflected in the available documents are to be described. Cultural and philosophical heritage of Andrei Ershov is to be described and published. Published papers and materials from his family archive will be used also.

Results of these investigations will be published on the Internet server (joint server of Institute of Informatics Systems and Microsoft Research) on the first stage of the project, as a catalogue brochure on the second stage and as a fundamental catalogue with CD-ROM, containing Web site mirror, on the third stage of the project. All publications are to be bi-lingual, with Russian as a primary language, and English as a secondary one. On the first stage of the project only the catalogue and selected materials will be published in English.