Development and applications of computer science in Poland during the communist rule

In view of the reluctance with which cybernetics was treated in the Stalinist times in the USSR and other countries of the communist camp, the research on digital machines became possible on a larger scale in Poland only from the mid-1950s. As a result of the work carried out at that time in several scientific and research units, the first Polish computers based on electronic tube technology were created. Their implementation to wider production was entrusted by the central authorities in the early 1960s to the Wroclaw Electronic Works “Elwro”. The company also undertook to manufacture digital machines “Odra” of its own design. They were widely used in science, administration, communication and industry – both in Poland and abroad, primarily in the member states of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Then a few more plants were launched, which cooperated as part of the “Mera-Elwro” group. Since the late 1960s, an important impulse in the creation of local IT systems were internships of Polish IT specialists in the USA and the UK, as well as software brought to the country together with the IBM and ICL machines. By the end of the 1960s, about 30 models and prototypes of digital machines had been created in Poland, which gave it a leading position among communist countries. The situation changed in the early 1970s when Poland lost its position among the Eastern Bloc countries by introducing the production of machines from the Unified System Series (ЕС ЭВМ), imposed by the USSR. At that time, Polish exports were mainly based on products from the machinery industry, while the sales of electronic products and software sharply declined. The attempt to create a national IT system, undertaken in the 1970s, also ended in failure. This was due not only to technical or financial problems but also to the government's fears of losing control over information about the state of the economy or social processes. The crisis of the 1980s significantly limited orders for Polish computers, which, during the PC revolution, remained at the stage of specialized digital machines for large enterprises and institutions. The production of Polish microcomputers did not develop on a larger scale due to a shortage of components imported for hard currency, high taxes, and the lifting of restrictions on the import of Western computers. As a result, although Poland carried out large-scale development and production of digital machines until 1989, trained many specialists to work with them and implemented numerous applications, this effort did not bring the expected results.