Berg Axel Ivanovich

(1893–1979)

An outstanding scientist in the field of radio electronics and automation. Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1946), Hero of Socialist Labor (1963), engineer-admiral (1955).

Born on October 29 (November 10), 1893 in Orenburg in the family of a Russian general of Swedish origin.

In 1904 he entered the Alexander Cadet Corps, in 1908 - into the junior class of the Naval Corps, which he graduated in 1914.

Upon receiving the rank of midshipman. Appointed as second navigator of the battleship "Tsesarevich". In 1916, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant and enrolled as a student in the Navigation Class in Helsingfors. After graduating from the Navigation class, he became a communications navigator on the English submarine E-8, which was part of the Baltic Fleet, and took part in the First World War. In 1917–1918 served as senior officer of the destroyer "Captain Belly" and on the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet.

In February 1918, as a navigator of the submarine "Panther", he participated in the transition from Revel to Helsingfors, and then in the "Ice Campaign" of the ships of the Baltic Fleet, their withdrawal from Finland. In 1919, he was appointed navigator of the Panther submarine, then commander of the Lynx submarine. In March 1920, he graduated from the retraining courses for fleet command personnel in the class of submarine specialists. In 1921 he commanded the submarines "Wolf" and "Lynx". In the same year he was awarded the title "Hero of Labor of a separate division of Baltic Fleet submarines." Simultaneously with his service in 1919–1922, he studied at the electromechanical faculty of the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. By the end of 1922, he passed the exams for four courses at the institute and entered the Naval Academy. While studying at the Academy A.I. Berg passed the full course exams at the Naval Engineering School and received a diploma in electrical engineering in 1923. In 1925 he graduated with honors from the electrical engineering department of the Naval Academy with a degree in radio engineering. In 1925–1927 he taught at the Naval Academy, Naval Engineering School, where he was a full-time teacher. At the Military Engineering and Military Technical Academies and the Electrical Engineering Institute, he taught courses on “General Theory of Electrical Engineering” and “General Course in Radio Engineering.”

Main interests and formation of A.I. Berg as a scientist are associated with the problems of radio communications, radio direction finding and radar in the Navy. In 1924–1925 He published 11 scientific articles on this issue in the Marine Collection.

The next decade (1927–1937) for A.I. Berg is full of active pedagogical, research and scientific-organizational activities. In 1927, he was appointed chairman of the communications section of the Marine Scientific and Technical Committee (MNTK). At his proposal, a Marine Scientific Testing Site for Communications (NIPS) is being created, to which the previously created radio laboratory at VMIU is transferred.

In 1927–1932 sent to study foreign experience in Germany (1927, 1930), USA (1929), Italy (1930, 1932).

In 1929 A.I. Berg was approved as a professor in the Department of Radio Engineering at the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute named after V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin). In 1930–1937 and in 1940–1943. teaches the course “Theory of calculation and design of radio transmitting devices” at the Naval Academy and at LETI. In 1932, he was appointed head of the Scientific Research Institute of Communications (NIMIS), later NIMIST (Research Institute of Marine Communications and Telemechanics). Under his leadership, work was completed on the creation and implementation of the Blokada-1 radio weapons system in the Navy. In July 1935, he was awarded the title of professor at the Naval Academy and the military rank of flag engineer 2nd rank. In 1936, the Higher Attestation Commission assigned A.I. Berg received the academic degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences without defending a dissertation. In 1937, under the leadership of A.I. Berg, a new naval radio weapon system, "Blockade-2", was created, which withstood severe tests in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.

In December 1939 A.I. Berg was repressed on the standard charge of counter-revolutionary conspiracy. On May 24, 1940, he was released from arrest, restored to his military rank and appointed as a teacher at the Naval Academy. In May 1941, he was awarded the military rank of rear admiral engineer. In 1943, he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and appointed deputy people's commissar of the electrical industry, retaining his military rank and service in the Navy. In July 1943, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Radar Council under the State Defense Committee, retaining the position of deputy people's commissar of the electrical industry. In 1944 he joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

In the same year, he was awarded the next military rank of engineer-vice admiral. In October 1944, he was relieved of his post as Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry. In 1945–1950 - Member of the Organizing Bureau of the All-Russian National Economic Research Institute named after A.S. Popov and the first chairman of this scientific society. In 1946 he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1947 A.I. Berg was appointed director of the head radiolocation research institute. In 1951, for services to the development of radio electronics, he was awarded the A.S. Gold Medal. Popov Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1953 A.I. Berg was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR for radio weapons. In 1953–1954 Along with other responsibilities, he headed the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In August 1955 A.I. Berg was awarded the military rank of engineer-admiral. Since 1947, member of the Committee for State Prizes of the USSR, since 1956 - deputy chairman of the Committee for Lenin Prizes in the field of science and technology.

In 1957, at a personal request related to his state of health (he suffered a double heart attack), he was relieved of his post as Deputy Minister of Defense. Since 1959, he headed the Scientific Council for the complex program "Cybernetics" under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In September 1960, he was dismissed from the Armed Forces and remained in the group of Inspectors General under the USSR Minister of Defense.

Author of the works “Considerations on the choice of wavelengths of ship radio stations”, “Radio communication of submerged submarines”, “Theory and calculation of tube generators”, etc. For outstanding services in the development of radio engineering and radio electronics and in connection with the 70th anniversary of his birth on October 10, 1963 Mr. A.I. Berg was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, three Orders of the Red Star, and many medals.

Axel Ivanovich Berg died on July 9, 1979 at the age of 86. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

The combat path of the Soviet Navy. 4th ed., rev. and additional M., 1988, p. 11.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia. T. 3. 3rd ed. M., 1970, p. 601–602.
Varganov Yu.V. and others. Naval Academy in the service of the Fatherland. Mozhaisk, 2001, p. 61–63, 239.
Varganov Yu.V. Fleet engineers. L., 1973, p. 53, 60.
Naval Academy. 2nd ed., rev. and additional L., 1991, p. 63, 99, 122, 317, 318.
Naval encyclopedic dictionary. M., 2003, p. 80–81.
Dotsenko V.D., Shcherbakov V.N. Professor at the Naval Academy. SPb., 2004, p. 186, 246, 261, 264–265.
Izv. universities of the USSR. Radioelectronics. 1968. T. 11. No. 10.
Department of Communications of the Navy. SPb., 2002, p. 5–6, 22.
Kreizer L.P. Cybernetics “according to Berg” // St. Petersburg Gazette. 1993. November 9.
Essays on the history of the Naval Orders of Lenin and Ushakov Academy. L., 1970, p. 96, 152, 190, 196, 221, 233.
Radioelectronics and communications. 1993. No. 1.
Radunskaya I.L. Axel Berg is a man of the twentieth century. M., 1971.
Biographical marine dictionary. St. Petersburg, 2000, p. 46.
Smelov V.A. Polytechnicians are holders of the Golden Star. SPb., 2003, p. 79.
Stepanov V. The purpose of life // Morskaya Gazeta. 2003. November 1.

After graduating from high school, Berg A.I. entered the Naval Corps, and after graduating in 1914, he served as a junior navigator on the battleship Tsesarevich. From July 1916 until the end of the First World War, A.I. Berg was the navigator of the English submarine E-8, which was part of the Russian Baltic Fleet. During a submarine accident at the end of 1917, due to gas poisoning by A.I. Berg became seriously ill, but after recovery he returned to the submarine fleet in May 1919.

A.I. Berg took part in the war against the interventionists, being the navigator of the legendary Panther, and then the commander of the Lynx and Wolf submarines. For his dedicated work in restoring the submarine “Snake” to A.I. Berg. in 1922 he was awarded the title “Hero of Labor of the Separate Submarine Division of the Baltic Fleet.” In the same year, due to heart disease that developed after a submarine accident, Berg A.I. was forced to leave the submarine fleet and devote himself to scientific and engineering activities.

In 1921, his first scientific articles appeared, which were devoted to the problems of research, calculation and application in the navy of radio transmitters and radio receivers using vacuum tubes, radio communications of submerged submarines, and the use of ultrasonic systems in the navy.

In December 1922, Berg A.I. Enrolled as a student in the electrical engineering department of the Naval Academy, which he graduated in 1925, at the same time he passed all the exams and defended his diploma at the Naval Engineering School, receiving the title of fleet electrical engineer.

After graduating from the Academy A.I. Berg was enrolled as a teacher at the Naval Engineering School, where he began his research activities.

In 1930 he was awarded the title of professor. At the school he created a radio laboratory, which in 1932 was transformed into the Naval Institute, of which he was the head until 1937. At the Naval Engineering School he taught radio engineering and wrote a number of textbooks.

In 1924, a textbook for naval radiotelegraph operators entitled “Void Devices” (electron tubes) was published, then in 1925 a textbook entitled “Cathode Tubes” was published. A little later, he wrote the textbook “General Theory of Radio Engineering”; this was the first textbook on radio engineering, which for the first time discussed the prospects for using electronic devices in radio.

In 1929 and again in 1930, the “Course of Fundamentals of Radio Engineering Calculations” was published. This book by A.I. Berg has become the most important textbook for students of all radio engineering universities in the country.

In 1932 and again in 1935, a textbook by A.I. was published, also widely distributed. Berg "Theory and calculation of tube generators." From 1937 to the beginning of 1940 Berg A.I. was in prison, where he was engaged in the development of military communications systems. In 1941 he was awarded the rank of engineer-admiral.

In 1943 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1946 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1943-44 Berg A.I. Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry, from 1943 to 1947, Deputy Chairman of the Radar Committee, from 1953 to 1957, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR.

On April 13, 1951, for work in the field of radio engineering, Academician A.I. Berg. was awarded a gold medal. A.S. Popova. Aksel Ivanovich Berg organized a number of research institutes, including the Institute of Radio Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he was director from 1953 to 1955.

From 1950 to 1963 Berg A.I. - Chairman of the Radio Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1959 until the end of his life he was chairman of the Scientific Council on Cybernetics under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he headed the coordination of research in cybernetics.

In 1964, Chairman of the Interdepartmental Scientific Council on the problem of “Programmed Education” at the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR. He supported the creation and work of the first student design bureau of cybernetics at the Department of Automation of Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 1957 - 1959. Berg A.I. participated in the First All-Union Conference on the problem of “Programmed Learning”, held at MPEI in 1966. A.I. Berg was the chairman of the board of the All-Union Scientific and Engineering Society of Radio Engineering and Radio Communications named after A.S. Popov, a member of the editorial board of the popular science magazine "Radio", a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Electricity".

In 1962-1965, he was the editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia “Production Automation and Industrial Electronics.” Axel Ivanovich Berg worked in the field of creation, development and application of radar and modern radio navigation systems, on the problems of cybernetics, becoming a major specialist in the main areas of this new branch of science. A distinctive feature characterizing the scientific and technical activities of Academician A.I. Berg, are the novelty and relevance of the topic, the originality of the methods and the practical purposefulness of his scientific research; completeness of work, which is always translated into calculation formulas, tables and graphs, making it possible to directly apply his research in engineering practice.

For his scientific and pedagogical activities he was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 6 other orders, as well as medals of the Soviet Union.

Top career

Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR

• Hammer and Sickle Medal 1963
• Order of Lenin
• Order of Lenin
• Order of Lenin
• Order of Lenin
• Order of the October Revolution
• Order of the Red Banner
• Order of the Red Banner Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class
• Order of the Red Star
• Order of the Red Star
• Order of the Red Star
• Medal For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
• Medal Twenty years of victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.
• Medal XX years of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army Medal 30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy
• Medal 40 years of the USSR Armed Forces
• Medal 50 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR

Axel Ivanovich Berg(October 29 (November 10) 1893, Orenburg - July 9, 1979, Moscow) - Soviet radio engineer scientist, admiral engineer, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, military sailor, radio engineer scientist, admiral and organizer of science, one of the creators of Soviet radio-electronic reconnaissance and struggle. He made a huge contribution to the development of underwater communications and radar. In the USSR he was one of the pioneers of cybernetics and related fields of knowledge and technology. On Berg's initiative and with his participation, several research institutes were created. Founder and first director of the All-Union Radar Research Institute. In 1953-1957 he was Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, winner, among other things, of four Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Star and the A. S. Popov Gold Medal (1951).

Biography

Axel Ivanovich Berg, full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, was born in Orenburg in 1893.

Engineer-admiral, academician Aksel Ivanovich Berg is one of the largest radio scientists. He was one of the first to create engineering methods for calculating basic radio engineering systems. Created a methodology for calculating receiving, amplifying and transmitting devices. He developed the theory of tube generators, the theory of modulation of transmitters, and the theory of deviation of ship radio direction finders.

Initiator of the creation of a cybernetics design bureau at the Department of Automation of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, which was engaged in modeling the educational process.

After graduating from high school, he entered the Naval Corps, and after graduating in 1914, he served as a junior navigator on the battleship Tsesarevich. From July 1916 until the end of the First World War, A.I. Berg was the navigator of the English submarine E-8, which was part of the Russian Baltic Fleet. During a submarine accident at the end of 1917, due to gas poisoning by A.I. Berg became seriously ill, but after recovery he returned to the submarine fleet in May 1919.

He took part in the war against the interventionists, being the navigator of the legendary Panther, and then the commander of the Lynx and Wolf submarines. For his dedicated work in restoring the submarine “Snake” to A.I. Berg. in 1922 he was awarded the title “Hero of Labor of the Separate Submarine Division of the Baltic Fleet.”

In the same year, due to a heart disease that developed after an accident on a submarine, he was forced to leave the submarine fleet and devote himself to scientific and engineering activities. In 1921, his first scientific articles appeared, which were devoted to the problems of research, calculation and application in the navy of radio transmitters and radio receivers using vacuum tubes, radio communications of submerged submarines, and the use of ultrasonic systems in the navy.

In December 1922, he enrolled as a student in the electrical engineering department of the Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1925. At the same time, he passed all the exams and defended his diploma at the Naval Engineering School, receiving the title of fleet electrical engineer.

After graduating from the Academy A.I. Berg was enrolled as a teacher at the Naval Engineering School, where he began his research activities. In 1930 he was awarded the title of professor. At the school he created a radio laboratory, which in 1932 was transformed into the Naval Institute, of which he was the head until 1937.

At the Naval Engineering School he taught radio engineering and wrote a number of textbooks. In 1924, a textbook for naval radiotelegraph operators entitled “Void Devices” (electron tubes) was published, then in 1925 a textbook entitled “Cathode Tubes” was published. A little later, he wrote the textbook “General Theory of Radio Engineering”; this was the first textbook on radio engineering, which for the first time discussed the prospects for using electronic devices in radio.

In 1929 and again in 1930, the “Course of Fundamentals of Radio Engineering Calculations” was published. This book by A.I. Berg has become the most important textbook for students of all radio engineering universities in the country. In 1932 and again in 1935, a textbook by A.I. was published, also widely distributed. Berg "Theory and calculation of tube generators."

From 1937 to the beginning of 1940 he was imprisoned, where he worked on the development of military communications systems. In 1941 he was awarded the rank of engineer-admiral. In 1943 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1946 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1943-44 Berg A.I. Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry, from 1943 to 1947, Deputy Chairman of the Radar Committee, from 1953 to 1957, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. On April 13, 1951, for work in the field of radio engineering, Academician A.I. Berg. was awarded a gold medal. A.S. Popova.

He organized a number of research institutes, including the Institute of Radio Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he was director from 1953 to 1955. From 1950 to 1963 Berg A.I. - Chairman of the Radio Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from 1959 until the end of his life he was chairman of the Scientific Council on Cybernetics under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he headed the coordination of research in cybernetics. In 1964, Chairman of the Interdepartmental Scientific Council on the problem of “Programmed Education” at the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR. He supported the creation and work of the first student design bureau of cybernetics at the Department of Automation of MPEI in 1957 - 1959. Berg A.I. participated in the First All-Union Conference on the problem of “Programmed Learning”, held at MPEI in 1966.

He was the Chairman of the Board of the All-Union Scientific and Engineering Society of Radio Engineering and Radio Communications named after A.S. Popov, a member of the editorial board of the popular science magazine "Radio", a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Electricity". In 1962–1965 he was the editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia “Factory Automation and Industrial Electronics”

He worked in the field of creation, development and application of radar and modern radio navigation systems, on the problems of cybernetics, becoming a leading specialist in the main areas of this new branch of science. A distinctive feature characterizing the scientific and technical activities of Academician A.I. Berg, are the novelty and relevance of the topic, the originality of the methods and the practical purposefulness of his scientific research; completeness of work, which is always translated into calculation formulas, tables and graphs, making it possible to directly apply his research in engineering practice.

For his scientific and pedagogical activities he was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 6 other orders, as well as medals of the Soviet Union.

Great Patriotic War

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he lived in evacuation in the city of Samarkand, where the Naval Academy, where he was a professor, was evacuated. During the war, he persistently promoted the need for the creation and use of radars, and headed the program to create Soviet radars. From July 1943 to October 1944 - Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry. At the same time, in 1943-1947. - deputy Chairman of the Council for Radar of the State Defense Committee (Chairman of the Council was G. M. Malenkov). He was the initiator of the founding (July 1943) and the first director of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Radar (now TsNIRTI).

In September 1943 he was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Division of Technical Sciences. Engineer-Vice Admiral (25.09.1944). In 1946, he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the department of technical sciences (radio engineering).

Family

• Betling Eleonora Rudolfovna (1893-1942) - the first wife of A. I. Berg, daughter of a doctor, state councilor R. R. Betling.
• Marianna Ivanovna Berg (Penzina, 1901-1981) - second wife of A. I. Berg, daughter of a non-commissioned officer.
• Marina Akselevna Berg is a daughter from her second marriage.
• Raisa Pavlovna Berg (1929-2004) - third wife.
• Margarita Akselevna Berg is a daughter from her third marriage.

Discoveries

• He was one of the first to develop engineering methods for calculating basic radio engineering systems.
• Created a methodology for calculating receiving, amplifying and transmitting devices.
• He developed the theory of tube generators, the theory of modulation of transmitters, and the theory of deviation of ship radio direction finders.

Awards

• By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated November 10, 1963, for outstanding services in the development of radio technology and in connection with his 70th birthday, Axel Ivanovich Berg was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
• 4 Orders of Lenin.
• Order of the October Revolution.
• 2 Orders of the Red Banner.
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
• 3 Orders of the Red Star.
• Gold medal named after A. S. Popov (04/13/1951).

Memory

Memorial plaque on the wall of LETI

The name was assigned to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “CNIRTI named after Academician A.I. Berg”.

Memorial plaques

• The memorial plaque is installed on house number 10 on Sovetskaya Street in Orenburg, where Berg was born and spent his early childhood years.
• The memorial plaque is installed on the wall of house No. 4 on Gubkin Street in Moscow, where A. I. Berg lived.
• The memorial plaque is installed on the wall of the second building of St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI" named after. V.I. Ulyanov-Lenin, where A.I. Berg worked from 1926 to 1941.

Literature and sources of information

• Vus M.A., “Cyber-Berg”: academician Axel Ivanovich Berg, in Collection: History of computer science and cybernetics in St. Petersburg (Leningrad). Vivid fragments of history. Issue 1 / Edited by: R.M. Yusupova, St. Petersburg, “Science”, 2008
• L.R. Graham, Natural science, philosophy and the sciences of human behavior in the Soviet Union, M., Politizdat, 1991.
• Biography on Flot.Com

Specialist in the field of radio engineering, organizer of science and industry. Professor (1930), Doctor of Technical Sciences (1936), Corresponding Member (1943), Academician (1946) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Admiral Engineer (1955).

He graduated from the Naval Corps (1914), the Naval Engineering School (1923), and the Naval Academy with a degree in Radio Engineering (1925). Served in the active fleet: submarine navigator (1914-1919), submarine commander (1919-1922).

From 1923 to 1941 he taught at secondary and higher naval educational institutions in Leningrad. Since 1926 - assistant to Professor I. G. Freiman in the department of “Special Course in Radio Engineering” LETI. In 1929, he accepted the department and scientific archive of I.G. Freiman, becoming the head of the radio engineering cycle of LETI. From 1935 to 1941 - head of the Department of Radio Transmitting Devices.

On the initiative of A.I. Berg in the 30s, a special course in radio engineering was divided into a number of independent disciplines: radio wave propagation, radio transmitting devices and radio receiving devices.

Military career: from 1927 to 1932 - Chairman of the communications section of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Naval Forces. In 1928, under his leadership, the Marine Scientific Test Site was created. From 1929 to 1932 A.I. Berg went on long business trips to Germany, the USA and Italy to study foreign experience and acquire hydroacoustic equipment for the Navy. From 1932 to 1940 A.I. Berg is the head of the Communications Research Institute of the Navy. Repressed and accused of participating in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy (December 1937 - May 1940), released due to insufficient evidence.

A.I. Berg - Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry of the USSR (1943-1944), Deputy Chairman of the Radar Council under the State Defense Committee (1943-1947), Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR (1953-1957), initiator of the organization and director of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IRE) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1953).

On the initiative and with the active support of A.I. Berg in 1962, the Department of Electronic Medical Equipment was organized for the first time in Russia at LETI.

Chairman of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the complex problem of “Cybernetics” under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1959-1979). Since 1964 he has headed the coordination of research in this area. One of the organizers of the Scientific and Technical Society of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Communications (NTORES) named after. A. S. Popova (1946) and chairman (1950-1955) of its central board. He took an active part in organizing the A. S. Popov Memorial Museum at LETI (1948), author and editor of a number of publications on the history of the invention of radio.

Gold medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences named after. A. S. Popova (1951). Hero of Socialist Labor (1963). Four Orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, two Orders of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War, three Orders of the Red Star, medals. In memory of A.I. Berg, a memorial plaque was installed on the building of the 2nd building of St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University (Prof. Popova St., 5).

• Berg A.I. Theory and calculation of tube generators (1932);
• Berg A.I. Independent excitation of undamped oscillations (1935);
• Berg A.I. Selected works, vols. 1-2, M. -L., 1964.

Aksel Ivanovich Berg born on November 10, 1893 in Orenburg in the family of a Russian general of Swedish origin. Aksel Ivanovich’s mother was the head of the girls’ gymnasium in Tsarskoe Selo.

Upon graduation from the Alexander Cadet Corps A.I. Berg served as an officer in the navy. He met the First World War as a junior navigator of the battleship Tsesarevich. At the end of the war A.I. Berg commanded a submarine of the Red Baltic Fleet.

In the 20s A.I. Berg began as a student at the Naval Academy in Petrograd, where he began his scientific and teaching activities. Since 1935, he was a professor at this academy, and also taught at the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute (LETI).

In 1936 A.I. Berg was awarded the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences.

In 1937 A.I. Berg became the head of the Marine Research Institute of Communications and Telemechanics. In December 1937, on charges of sabotage (allegedly unjustified expenses for research and development work to create new equipment), A.I. Berg was arrested and spent two and a half years in prison. There he met very interesting people who suffered the same fate, for example with K.K. Rokossovsky (future marshal), A.N. Tupolev (famous aircraft designer), P.I. Lukirsky (future academician).

In May 1940 A.I. Berg was rehabilitated, restored to his military rank and returned to teaching. In 1941, he was awarded the military rank of rear admiral engineer.

During the Great Patriotic War, A.I. Berg made a huge contribution to the development of radio engineering and radio-electronic weapons of the Soviet Army. As you know, then he persistently put before I.V. Stalin addressed the issue of creating radar equipment and achieved the necessary solutions. In the 40s and early 50s A.I. Berg headed the Central Research Institute 108, which developed radar equipment.

In 1946 A.I. Berg was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1953-1957 A.I. Berg was the USSR Deputy Minister of Defense for Radio Electronics. His assistant K.N. Trofimov subsequently played a major role in organizing the development of military computer equipment.

In 1955, as part of the USSR Academy of Sciences, it was opened Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IRE). A.I. Berg became its first director.

The latest brainchild of A.I. Berg, which he led for 20 years, was the Scientific Council on the complex problem of “Cybernetics” (NSC) under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, created in 1959 by the decision of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a coordinating body, in 1961 the NSC received the status of a scientific research organizations of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The organization of the NSC was preceded by the work of a representative commission of scientists chaired by A.I. Berg. A report on the main tasks of cybernetics at a meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences was made by A.I. Berg April 10, 1959

“At the present time,” Aksel Ivanovich began his report, “there is still no generally accepted, precise definition of the term “Cybernetics”, introduced by Ampere in 1843. About cybernetics, we can say that humanity has always used its methods, but without using this term, so to speak, unconsciously, just as it has been using speech for a very long time to exchange information, and in most cases people speak in prose, and some do not know this.” This was followed by a short and succinct definition: “Cybernetics can be called the science of purposeful control of developing processes.” Summing up the work of the commission, A. I. Berg noted that this is only the first attempt at “theoretical justification and broad generalization of the main problems of cybernetics.” The recommendations developed by the commission under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences contained:

Approval of the general idea of ​​the problem note “Main problems of cybernetics” (later published by the USSR Academy of Sciences in the series “Questions of Soviet Science”);

Recognition that cybernetic problems should be solved in all departments of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences should play a leading role in the development of the scientific problem as a whole;

A proposal to create a permanent scientific council on cybernetics within the USSR Academy of Sciences with the tasks of developing a long-term plan on the problem for 1959-1965, expanding and coordinating research in cybernetics.

“If this is not done now,” said A.I. Berg, “then the Academy of Sciences risks remaining in the rear in the development of the most important problems, the solution of which is necessary for the speedy and most effective deployment of work...” I must specifically note that On the part of some scientists and executives in various fields of the national economy, the following manifestations are observed:

a) complete ignorance of what cybernetics is;

b) the negative attitude towards the development and practical use of cybernetics resulting from this ignorance and isolation from life;

c) based on this ignorance, non-recognition “a priori” of everything new and unusual that is contained in the problems of cybernetics, with reference to recognized authorities... “The enormous harm caused by all this is difficult to overestimate.”

By the decision of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, A.I. Berg was approved as chairman of the NSC, his deputies and A.A. Kharkevich(specialist in information theory), scientific secretary - M. L. Tsetlin. Ya.I. became the full-time deputy chairman of the NSC. Khurgin.

During the year, the largest scientists of various profiles gathered around A. I. Berg and the NSC: V. V. Parin (biology and medicine), V. S. Nemchinov (economics), N. G. Bruevich (reliability theory), V. I. Siforov (information theory), N. I. Zhinkin, B. F. Lomov (psychology), M. A. Gavrilov, Ya. Z. Tsypkin (technical cybernetics), V. V. Ivanov (linguistics), B. S. Sotskov, V. M. Akhutin (bionics), A. G. Spirkin (philosophy) and many others. Among the sections of the NSC it was created Section of linguistics headed by V.V. Ivanov.

In the early 60s, with the support of A.I. Berg, institutes of cybernetics were created in the republics of the USSR, new departments and laboratories in the institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The NSC report for 1967 stated that more than 800 leading scientific specialists were involved in the work of the NSC on a voluntary basis, including 14 academicians, 30 corresponding members, about 200 doctors and over 300 candidates of science.

An article by A. I. Berg and A. A. Lyapunov, “Theoretical and practical problems of cybernetics,” was published in the “Marine Collection” (No. 2) for 1960.

On the initiative and under the editorship of A. I. Berg, a translation of the book was published F. M. Morse and D. E. Kimbell "Operations Research" made I.A. Poletaev and K.N. Trofimov.

At the end of the 50s, A. I. Berg initiated the development of work on structural, mathematical and cybernetic linguistics and semiotics, referring to the applications to language of mathematical methods stimulated by the advent of computers.

The new area, which later became known as " computational linguistics", attracted the attention of A.A. Lyapunov and two prominent linguists of the Moscow school - P.S. Kuznetsov and A.A. Reformatsky. These works led to the creation of a formal theory of grammars (developed in the same years N. Chomsky in a slightly different direction). Later, the most successful area of ​​application of this approach turned out to be not so much natural languages ​​(where difficulties similar to those discovered by K. Gödel in relation to the axiomatization of mathematics), as well as the metatheory of grammars and grammars of programming languages ​​(as well as some other artificial languages).

In the problematic note mentioned above, “ General issues of cybernetics”, developed under the leadership of A. I. Berg, included a section “Cybernetic problems of linguistics”, which stated: “The main means for the exchange of information in human society is language. Human speech, as is known, encodes a wide variety of information, which is why speech is a universal means of communication between people. At the same time, now that information processing is increasingly carried out by machines, the extremely important question arises of developing the most flexible and universal ways of exchanging information between machines and between people and machines. In this regard, the need for research devoted to the creation of machines controlled by human speech and capable of communicating speech information (both oral and written) to a person is understandable. To effectively solve this issue, an information-theoretic study of oral and written speech is necessary. These same questions lead to the development of an abstract theory of language - mathematical linguistics. Traditional linguistics sets itself completely different tasks and therefore cannot serve these needs. Only recently developing formal linguistic systems, united under the general name of structural linguistics, can essentially be used in the construction of mathematical linguistics. A characteristic feature of all these theories is the study of language as an abstract system of signs.”

The note highlighted the following main tasks.

1. Development of problems of structural and mathematical linguistics and linguistic statistics as a theoretical basis for speech control, machine translation and information service automation.

2. Machine translation problems. Construction of specific translation algorithms and methods for their implementation. Formulation of requirements for the construction of special machines and development of models of such machines.

3. Problems associated with the development of various kinds of machine languages ​​- machine translation intermediaries, specialized languages ​​for information processing in certain branches of science and technology. Theory of machine languages ​​in connection with the general theory of codes and sign systems (semiotics).

4. Development of devices for automatic input and output of speech information (oral and written).

It is easy to see that the problems posed by A.I. Berg, A.A. Lyapunov, V.V. Ivanov et al. in 1959, remain relevant for modern computer science. It is no coincidence that A.I. Berg, when formulating proposals for the creation of an Institute of Semiotics in the USSR Academy of Sciences, proposed calling it the Institute of Sign Systems.

In 1960, under the leadership of A.I. Berg, the Resolution of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences “On the development of structural and mathematical methods of language research” was prepared and adopted.

In the fall of 1962, a symposium on the structural study of sign systems was organized, and in April 1963, a commission headed by A.I. Berg, gave him a positive assessment. The decision of the linguistic section of the NSC stated: “Sign systems (natural oral languages, written languages, artificial logical languages, information-logical and other machine languages, film language and other systems) are essential for the processing, storage and transmission of information in human society. Therefore, semiotics as the science of the structure and functioning of sign systems, as well as semiotic disciplines that study individual sign systems, already have and will acquire in the future important theoretical and practical applications.”

Generalization work A.I. Berga, V.V. Ivanova, V.Yu. Rosenzweig "Linguistics, semiotics and cybernetics" was presented at a conference on theoretical linguistics in 1974.

In 1976-1977 A. I. Berg was particularly interested in the problem of functional asymmetry of the brain, the neurosemiotic and cybernetic aspects of this problem.

Axel Ivanovich Berg died on July 2, 1979. After his death, the NSC was headed by academicians B.N. Petrov, O.M. Belotserkovsky, E.P. Velikhov.

Literature

1. The path to big science: academician Axel Berg. M., Nauka, 1988.
2. Sat. : Cybernetics and scientific and technological progress (to the 75th anniversary of Academician A.I. Berg). M., Knowledge, 1968.
3. Collection: Academician Axel Ivanovich Berg (on the 100th anniversary of his birth). M., State Publishing House. Polytech. Museum, 1993.
4. Radunskaya I. Axel Berg is a man of the 20th century. M., Young Guard, 1971.
5. Aksel Ivanovich Berg. Series “Materials for the biography of scientists of the USSR.” M., Nauka, 1965.
6. Ivanov Vyach. You. Academician A.I. Berg and the development of work on structural linguistics and semiotics in the USSR. In: Essays on the history of computer science in Russia, p. 257-273.
7. Maschan S.S. The last years of the life of Academician A.I. Berg. Ibid. 536-544.
8. Berg M. A. Memories of my father. Pre-war life. There, p. 544-550.
9. Markova E.V. Echo of the Gulag in the Scientific Council on Cybernetics. There, p. 551-555.