The Information Revolution: Reform, Contestation, and the Soviet Struggle for the Datafied State, 1960s–80s

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union established Institutes of Cybernetics across its territory, hoping to leverage automated data processing to revive its stagnant economy. In the 1980s, cybernetic experts found their way into politics, and contested Moscow’s centralized rule from the empire’s periphery, particularly in Soviet Estonia. This paper highlights the role of cybernetic thought in late Soviet politics. It argues that cybernetics brought together economic reformers, environmentalists, and political decentralizers using a language that was acceptable for policymakers in Moscow, but with far more radical implications than anyone anticipated. By linking 1960s socialist reforms, 1980s radical politics and contemporary concerns with automated data processing, the paper suggests a new periodization of late twentieth century history, focused on the cross-ideological belief in the supremacy of the automated administrative state.