Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled ''Electronorgtechnica'', ), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a

state-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer hardware and software in the Soviet Union. It was controlled by the

Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR The Ministry of Foreign Trade (russian: Министерство внешней торговли СССР; Minvneshtorg) was a government ministry in the Soviet Union. The foreign trade of the USSR was a government monopoly and was conducted by t ...

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. 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 The Tetris Company, Inc. (TTC) is based in Nevada and is owned by Henk Rogers, Alexey Pajitnov and Blue Planet Software. The company is the exclusive licensee of Tetris Holding LLC, the company that owns Tetris rights worldwide. It licenses ...

in January 2005 for $15 million. Robert Maxwell pressured Soviet Union leader

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

to cancel the contract between Elorg and

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

concerning the rights to the game ''Tetris''.

Tetris

ELORG was responsible for the licensing of the popular video game '' 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 has 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

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 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