Aksel Ivanovich Berg (; – 9 July 1979) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

scientist in radio-frequency engineering and

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

Admiral,

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

. He was a key figure in the introduction of

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

to the Soviet Union.

Early life

Aksel Martin Berg was born on October 29 (November 10), 1893 in

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

to the family of Lieutenant General Ivan (Johann) Alexandrovich Berg (1830-1900), of

Finland-Swedish Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish (; ) is a Variety (linguistics), variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking population, common ...

origin; his mother was

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

. After Berg's father died, the family moved to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and Aksel was matriculated to navy school. Berg joined the Imperial Russian Navy in 1914 and served as junior navigating officer on the

Russian battleship Tsesarevich ''Tsesarevich'' () was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, built in France at the end of the 19th century. The ship's design formed the basis of the Russian-built s. She was based at Port Arthur, northeast China, after en ...

and as liaison officer on the British submarine HMS E8, which was operating in the Baltic in alliance with Russia. In 1916, Berg was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

Soviet times

Before the German-Soviet war

After the revolution Berg served in the Red Navy 1918–22. In 1918 he participated in the

Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet The Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet () was an operation which transferred the ships of the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy from their bases at Tallinn, at the time known as Reval (), and Helsinki to Kronstadt in 1918. Operation On 1 ...

. In 1919 he was navigating officer on the submarine ''Pantera'' when it sank the British destroyer HMS ''Vittoria'' with two torpedoes near Seskar Island on August 31, 1919, bringing the first victory to Soviet submariners. Berg subsequently commanded the submarines ''Rys'', ''Volk'' and ''Zmeya''. In preparing ''Zmeya'' for combat operations he suffered an injury that, left untreated, seriously weakened his health; following his return to port Berg was restricted to onshore duty. Berg was awarded the title of "Hero of Labor of the Separate Submarine Division of the Baltic Fleet" in 1922 for his work restoring the submarine. In 1922, he participated in the development of the "Rules for Service on Submarines". From 1927 he was assigned to the navy radio electronics department and was the chairman of the radio communications and radio navigation section of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Red Army Navy. From 1932 to 1937 he headed the Marine Research Institute of Communications and Telemechanics (NIMIST). On 26 November 1935, Berg was awarded the military rank of engineer-flagship of the 2nd rank. Berg completed his education at the

Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, abbreviated as SPbPU, is a public technical university located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Over the decades, it established itself as a cornerstone of technical education and research, ulti ...

, then at the electrical engineering department of the Naval Academy, which he graduated with honors in 1925. After graduating from the academy, he taught at the Naval Engineering School. As a teacher at the Naval Engineering School, he created a radio laboratory at the school and was engaged in scientific research in the field of radio. In 1932, the laboratory was transformed into a research institute, with Berg appointed as its head.

Imprisoned and rehabilitated

On 25 December 1937, he was arrested on charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary organization and sabotage and was imprisoned while under investigation until May 28, 1940. After being beaten by his interrogators he confessed to having carried out espionage activities for the Swiss Navy for several years; he later retracted his confession. Although all charges carried the death penalty, Berg supervised the development of military communications systems while imprisoned in a sharashka, one of the "special design bureaus" of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. He was not convicted, and on 28 May 1940 he was released "due to lack of evidence" and the case was closed. He was, however, only rehabilitated posthumously only on 18 October 1991.

Service during World War II

When Stalin became interested in developing radar Berg was immediately appointed as minister of electronic technology of the USSR. He developed the Redut-K air-warning radar which was placed aboard the light cruiser '' Molotov'' in April 1941. ''Molotov''´s device enabled her to play a key role in the air defense of

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

in the first stages of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

.Yakubov, Vladimir; Worth, Richard (2009). "The Soviet Light Cruisers of the Kirov Class". In Jordan, John. Warship 2009. London: Conway. p. 88. On May 21, 1941, Berg was promoted to Engineer-Rear-Admiral, then in 1944 to Engineer-Vice-Admiral. From July 1943 to October 1944, he was Deputy People's Commissar of the Electrical Industry. At the same time, from 1943 to 1947, he was Deputy Chairman of the

State Defense Committee The State Defense Committee () was an extraordinary organ of state power in the Soviet Union during the German-Soviet War, also called the Great Patriotic War, with complete state power in the country. General scope The Soviets set up the GKO ...

's Council on Radar; its chairman was

Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (8 January 1902 O.S. 26 December 1901">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 26 December 1901ref name=":6"> – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who br ...

. He was a founder and the first director of the "All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Radar" (now the A. I. Berg Central Scientific Research Institute of Radiolocation). In September 1943, he was elected a Corresponding Member of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

in the Department of Technical Sciences. He became a member of the CPSU in 1944.

After the war

After the war he was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences in 1946. In 1953, the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics was opened as part of the Academy' Berg became its first director, holding this post until 1955. In parallel with his work in the Radar Council, Berg was also a member of the Missile Committee. He was one of the founders, and later the editor, of the extensive popular science book series "Mass Radio Library", published since 1947. Berg was promoted to Engineer-Admiral in 1955 and served as a Deputy Minister of Defence from 1953 to 1957. In May 1957, at his personal request, due to a severe heart attack, he was relieved of his Ministerial responsibilities. In September 1960, he left military service. In 1958 he founded and led the Scientific Council on Complex Problems in Cybernetics. He oversaw the expansion of Computer Center No. 1, established in 1954 by Berg's friend

Anatoly Kitov Anatoly Ivanovich Kitov (9 August 1920 – 14 October 2005) was a pioneer of cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Early life and education Anatoly Kitov was born in Samara in 1920. The Kitov family moved to Tashkent in 1921, as Anatoly's father ...

as part of the Ministry of Defense, into one of the largest computer centers in the world. His main interests were

radiolocation Radiolocation, also known as radiolocating or radiopositioning, is the process of finding the location of something through the use of radio waves. It generally refers to passive, particularly radar—as well as detecting buried cables, wate ...

microelectronic Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre- ...

s and

cybernetic Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

s (i.e.

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

radio-frequency engineering Radio-frequency (RF) engineering is a subset of electrical engineering involving the application of transmission line, Waveguide (electromagnetism), waveguide, Antenna (radio), antenna, radar, and Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic fiel ...

); he also made a significant contribution to the development of

bionics Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word ''bionic'', coined by Jack E. Steele in August 195 ...

structural linguistics Structural linguistics, or structuralism, in linguistics, denotes schools or theories in which language is conceived as a self-contained, self-regulating semiotic system whose elements are defined by their relationship to other elements within th ...

, and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

in the USSR. In February 1959, Berg headed the government commission to consider proposals from Kitov to the

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

on the creation of a Unified State Network of Computer Centers (EGSVC, the prototype of the Internet) in the country to manage the national economy. The commission approved Kitov's proposals.

Death

Aksel Berg died in Moscow in 1979 and is buried at

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

Selected publications

Berg A., (1964), 'Cybernetics and Education' in ''The Anglo-Soviet Journal'', March 1964, pp. 13–20 (English language)

Honours and awards

(10 November 1963) Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet "for outstanding achievements in the development of radio engineering and in connection with the 70th anniversary of Aksel Ivanovich Berg" * Four

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on 31 October 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferred upon individuals or groups for services furthering communis ...

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

, twice *

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War () is a Soviet Union, Soviet military Order (decoration), decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to Partisan (military), partisans for heroic deeds in the Easte ...

, 1st class *

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

, three times * Popov Gold Medal (13 April 1951) *

Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" The Medal "For the Victory Over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union established on May 9, 1945, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to denote military partici ...

* Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" *

Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" The Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" () was a state military commemorative medal of the Soviet Union established on January 24, 1938 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to denote the twentie ...

* Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" * Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Aksel 1893 births 1979 deaths People from Orenburg People from Orenburgsky Uyezd Soviet people of Finnish descent Soviet people of Italian descent Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Soviet admirals Imperial Russian Navy officers Soviet submarine commanders Soviet scientists Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University alumni Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Soviet prisoners and detainees Soviet rehabilitations Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Soviet people of World War II Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery