The OGAS network
A scroll-driven walkthrough of OGAS, Viktor Glushkov's 1962 proposal for a national computer network to run the Soviet planned economy, from Lenin's electrification formula to the Politburo's refusal to fund it in 1970.
Glushkov · Kyiv · 1962
OGAS
1920
Lenin's formula, as Gustav Klutsis painted it in 1930: communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country. Power, measured in electricity.Gustav Klutsis, 1930. Plakatsammlung der Schule für Gestaltung Basel. Public domain. 1962
Forty years on, Viktor Glushkov proposes the next term in the equation: OGAS: a national computer network wiring every factory, mine and ministry to Moscow, to run the planned economy as it happened.The ministries
The ministries and the central statistics office had little wish to be read from the centre. The data stopped at their walls.1 October 1970
The Politburo declined to fund it. The plan drifted until Glushkov's death in 1982.
To present it, press the full-screen button in its corner, then step through with the arrow keys or a clicker. Esc leaves.
Reuse and citation
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with credit. Archival photographs are credited where they appear and keep their own terms.
Liam Wilkinson, “The OGAS network”, interactive, lwilko.com, 2026. https://www.lwilko.com/library/interactives/ogas-network
A canvas model of OGAS, from Gustav Klutsis's 1930 poster of Lenin's electrification formula to Glushkov's plan to wire every factory, mine and ministry to Moscow, and the ministries that kept their data to themselves. The poster shown in the explainer is in the public domain.
In the essays
- Neo-Technocracy: Same Dream, Bigger Budget
Read the essay
Sources
People
- Gustav Klutsis
Depicts
- Viktor Glushkov
Depicts
Ideas
Cases
- OGAS
Depicts
Record history
Catalogue source: knowledge/interactives/ogas-network.md
Generated by claude-code/claude-opus-5-5 on 2026-10-24