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About This Site
Scope
This site primarially deals with the calculating machines of the former Soviet Union, and as such has the most up-to-date index of all known machines of Soviet design/manufacture. The site does not present the calculators of the satellite countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. The machines presented here range from purely mechanical machines from the early part of the century, through to modern machines still in manufacture today. Slide rules and abacii are not covered on this site.
How to View
I've worked very hard at presenting an ordered view of the site through the two navigation devices; firstly, the arrow at the top right of each page (or, bottom left) - and secondly through comprehensive index pages. I would advise anyone interested in gaining a complete view of all the machines to firstly browse through using the navigation arrows, and then to return to the Article index and browse the remaining articles. If you're looking for a particular machine, I have tried to maintain a consistant naming convention. For B3 machines, you may use "b3-xx.html", replacing xx with the number of the machine - and similarly for C3-, and MK- machines. For most other machines, I've used the actual name of the machine as the name of the html file (lowercase) - but there are some exceptions, so beware!
You can also search this site!
Type a few words describing what you are looking for in the box, and click the Search button. You can search for combined terms (exact phrases) by surrounding them in quotes. This search engine does not include external links.
Sources
The information on this site comes from a wide variety of sources, and most of it is confirmed by a secondary source. My main co-conspirator is Sergei Frolov, a collector based in St. Petersburg. Sergei scours the markets for calculators and books about calculators. Personally, I have sent many emails asking people to look for machines for me. I have several agents around the former Soviet Union who both scout for calculators for me and act as storage/sending depots (for a commision, of course). Together we have built up a coherent picture of the early days of Soviet calculating machines. But it all started with Kenton Green's seminal article "Red Calculators", and to Kenton we owe a debt of gratitude.
Terminology
A lot of the information on this site is provided by Sergei Frolov (a fellow collector, based in St. Petersburg). Sergei asks me to correct his grammar - but in fact most of it is quite OK (certainly understandable), just different. I happen to like the unusual wording, and have kept it where possible.
Most (but surprisingly, not all!) Russian machines use Cyrillic for machine identification. This causes some problems, because Cyrillic uses similar letters for different sounds (e.g.: H in Cyrillic is N, P is really R, B is V, C is S, etc.). To be honest, I'm a bit all-over-the-place in my usage of Cyrillic/English lettering, especially when it comes to listing machines here. I'll try and make this more consistant as updates allow.
Keypresses, where listed, are identified by [keypress], using the closest English description of function possible. Output from the machines is shown in round brackets e.g.: (3.2). The symbol [/] is used for division, and [*] for multiplication.
Calculating Logic
There is quite a variety of methods for performing calculations. These can be generally categorized into 5 groups:
| Type | Keypresses | Result |
| Arithmetic | [2] [+] [3] [*] [4] [=] (20) | (20) |
| Algebraic | [2] [+] [3] [*] [4] [=] | (14) |
| RPN | [2] [Enter] [3] [+] [4] [*] | (20) |
| semi-RPN | [C] [2] [+=] [3] [+=] [*] [4] [+=] | (20) |
| Special | [C] [2] [+=] [3] [+=] [*/] [4] [-=] | (1.25) |
Decimal Positioning
There are basically three methods of representation of the decimal point in output. The decimal point in Europe is, in fact, a comma - and so the naming conventions reflect this:
- Manual Comma
The Elektronika 4-71b, for example, exhibits this unusual method of decimal positioning, where the user must enter the precision of the calculation as part of the first number in a calculation. The calculators known to employ this method are...
4-71b, B3-02, B3-05, B3-11 (Epos 73).
- Manual Fixed Comma
Iskra 210 and Iskra 1103 both have different method for setting comma
position.
After pressing [C] key:
Press [+] key several times for shifting comma to one digit to the left,
and [-] key for shifting comma to one digit to the right.
Iskra 210, Iskra 1103
- Fixed Comma
A set number of decimal positions are displayed (usually selectable by a 0/2/4 switch). These machines are typically business machines, and often also have a 4/5 switch, to indicate how rounding/truncation should be handled.
- Natural Comma
The decimal point appears when and where required. As many decimal positions as required to display the answer (within display limitations) are shown.
- Scientific Comma
To broaden the range of the machine, the last two digits are used as an exponent power of 10. The first part of the number is always between 1 and 9 inclusive.
Power
The Soviet Power grid is 220V, 50Hz. Where a machine is listed as using AC power, it can be assumed that this is the rating it requires. Batteries and transformers are covered on the Power Page.
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