My Mother: Engineer, Programmer, and Analyst. Part 1

Today in English class we were discussing communication with developers, and my teacher made a joke that sometimes developers intentionally don't write comments in the code because they don't fully understand how it works. I told her that my mother studied and worked a little as a programmer in the late 80s and early 90s, and she always told me that if someone writes code and doesn't understand it, then they're not a very good programmer. My teacher was impressed and said that she has never met women who studied programming in the USSR and despite the stereotype that women were not as smart as men. And who weren't afraid to speak out and stand up for themselves. She suggested that I write this story.

My mother is a link between departments (management, developers, information security, marketing and sales). Now she would be called a business analyst.

My mom, Svetlana Valerievna, graduated from a sports school with basketball in the Timiryazevskaya district in Moscow. This sports school had a connection with a regular school where she studied with others, but basketball players had a special schedule.

In 1982, after finishing school, Svetlana Valerievna entered National Research University of Electronic Technology. She took up programming quite by accident, on the recommendation of her parents' friends. When she started taking her first programming-related subjects at the institute, she realized that it came easy to her. She loved logic and connections. There was no Internet back then, and Svetlana taught everything from lectures and books.

She completed an internship at JSC Scientific and Production Center Research Institute of Microdevices, where used the BESM-6 computer to complete her assignments. The BESM-6 was a prominent Soviet mainframe computer of the 1970s and 1980s, known for its power and versatility. She used it for various programming tasks, scientific calculations, and coursework, gaining valuable experience with early computer technology. Her work on the BESM-6 played an important role in her education, helping her develop essential skills in computing and problem-solving. Listening to her stories about those days, I realize how different and fascinating the computing world was back then.

And at MIET there were computing machines ES and SM. ES were in a special Computing Center at MIET. And grandma Lyudmila Ivanovna worked there as a senior engineer, and then as a leading engineer for their maintenance. Svetlana punched cards for loading into ES. And SM were in the Computer Equipment department and the terminal class was already connected to them. Svetlana could type text on the screen.