Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled ''Electronorgtechnica'', ), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer support and hardware and software in the

Soviet Union 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 ...

. It was controlled by the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1971 to 1989. The company was associated with the export of Soviet design calculators, Electronika being one brand that was exported, rebranding them as ELORG products. Elorg also marketed the Agat computer, and imported IBM computers into the Soviet Union, starting with the IBM System/360 Model 50 in 1971. Robert Maxwell pressured Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel the contract between Elorg and

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

concerning the rights to the game franchise ''Tetris''. In 1991, as the Soviet Union was being dissolved, Elorg was turned into a private business by its director, Nikolai Belikov. Elorg was sold to The Tetris Company in January 2005 for $15 million.

Tetris

ELORG was responsible for the licensing of the popular

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

series '' Tetris''. ''Tetris'' was written by salaried programmers at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which was not allowed to carry out commercial activities directly. As the game was owned by the state, all rights to the game worldwide were handled by ELORG. In 1996 ELORG was reportedly a privatised Russian company which retained the rights to the '' Tetris'' trademark.PR Newswire - "Tetris Inventor Gets His Due in Historic Russia/US Joint Venture"
, accessed June 1, 2006
, accessed June 1, 2006 ELORG was a partner in The Tetris Company which licenses the ''Tetris'' name to game companies, along with ''Tetris'' creator Alexey Pajitnov and businessman Henk Rogers. Elorg was a 50 percent owner in the company until Rogers and Pajitnov bought ELORG's remaining rights around 2005.

References

{{Authority control Service companies of the Soviet Union Computing in the Soviet Union Computer companies of Russia Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct computer systems companies Companies based in Moscow Defunct companies of Russia Electronics companies disestablished in 2005 Electronics companies established in 1971 Ministry of Foreign Trade (Soviet Union) 1971 establishments in the Soviet Union 2005 disestablishments in Russia