INNOVATION IN ISOLATION: THE STORY OF UKRAINIAN IT FROM THE 1940’S TO PRESENT

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“Innovation in Isolation: The Story of Ukrainian IT From the 1940s to Present” is a popular science book that tells the story of the development of cybernetics in Soviet Ukraine from the 1940s to 1991 and introduces readers to modern Ukrainian tech companies. It features dozens of archival photographs from the early days of computer development and exclusive interviews with Ukrainian technology pioneers.

The first part of the book is dedicated to the history of cybernetics in Ukraine from the 1940s to 1991 and is illustrated with dozens of rare archival photographs. Readers will learn about the behind-the-scenes development of the first computers in Ukraine, the outstanding engineers and scientists who launched the computer era behind the Iron Curtain, and the conditions they had to work in. The history of technology told in the book is based on dozens of interviews with those who knew the key innovators of the time. Among them are colleagues, relatives and students of the cybernetics pioneers Viktor Glushkov and Serhii Lebedev.

The second part contains stories of eight Ukrainian product companies based on interviews with their CEOs: Ajax Systems, MacPaw, Grammarly, Petcube, Readdle, Jooble, Reface, and Depositphotos.

The book is written in English to show the international audience the significant contribution of Ukrainian engineers and scientists to the global development of technology, who were forced to create inside the box of the Soviet system.

“Innovation in Isolation” is a social and cultural project of MacPaw. All profits from the book's sale will be donated to the MacPaw Foundation, a corporate charity that has been helping to save the lives of Ukrainian defenders and provide assistance to Ukrainians affected by Russian aggression since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

Team

Publishing house: ist publishing, Kateryna Nosko, Anastasia Leonova

Authors: Volodymyr Nevzorov, Victoria Ugryumova

Art director: Aliona Solomadina

English translation: Hanna Leliv, Reilly Costigan-Humes 

Editor of the English text: Rachel McVey

Idea: Yulia Petryk 

Project coordinators: Alyona Gorbatko, Yevhen Kalnyk, Nina Bogush, Oleksandra Lytvynenko

Proofreader: Anna Bendiy

Scientific editors: Natalia Shlikhta, Tetiana Vodotyka

History consultant: Yehor Brailian

Photographers: Ihor Borysov, Oleksandr Strelnikov, Vitalii Sydorenko, Volodymyr Falin, Semen Hrozyan

Photo editor: Maksym Bilousov