Innovation in Isolation

ist publishing is an independent publishing house specializing in books on contemporary culture and art.

“The Story of Ukrainian IT from the 1940s to the Present” is a popular science book in English 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. Inside you’ll find dozens of archival photographs from the early days of computing, as well as 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 creation of the first computers in Ukraine, the outstanding engineers and scientists who launched the computer age behind the Iron Curtain and the conditions in which they worked. The technological history presented in the book is based on dozens of interviews with people who personally knew key innovators of the time, including colleagues, relatives and students of cybernetics pioneers Viktor Glushkov and Serhii Lebedev.

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