Anatoly Kitov

Anatoly Ivanovich Kitov (9 August 1920 – 14 October 2005) was a pioneer of cybernetics in the Soviet Union.

Early life and education Anatoly Kitov was born in Samara in 1920. The Kitov family moved to Tashkent in 1921, as Anatoly's father, Ivan Stepanovich Kitov, had served as a junior officer in the White Army and wanted to avoid the repercussions of the Russian Civil War.

From 1953 to 1954, Kitov lectured on cybernetics in well-known Soviet organizations. Kitov invited the mathematicians Sergei Sobolev and Alexey Lyapunov to become co-authors of his article "The Main Features of Cybernetics". The article was published in the journal Voprosy Filosofii (1955, No. 4) and for the first time presented the principles of cybernetics to Soviet audiences. The victory for cybernetics was bolstered by the publication two months later of Kitov's article "Technical Cybernetics" in the popular technical monthly Radio. From 1955 to 1961, the scientific works of Kitov played a significant role in the recognition of cybernetics as a science and in its development in the USSR and other socialist countries.

In his first book Digital Electronic Machines (1956), Kitov described what he called "non-arithmetic usage of computers". Large sections of the book were dedicated to usage of computers in economic planning, automation of production processes, and solving other intellectual problems. In his next book, Electronic Computing Machines (1958), Kitov describes in detail some perspectives of complex automation in management, including managing industrial production and solving economic problems.

Kitov was the creator of the idea of automated management systems in the Soviet Union. In his paper "Programming information and logic tasks" (1967), Kitov presented "associative programming" technology, a method for solving logical problems with large data array processing. The programming language ALGEM, created with Kitov's guidance, was described. ALGEM was used in the USSR and in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe.

In his next book "Programming of economical and management tasks", Kitov generalised his experiences as the chief designer of the automated management system (AMS) for the Ministry of Radio-Industry. That system was recognised as the basic model for AMSes for the other nine Ministries of the USSR weapons industry. The book presented basic principles of creation automated management systems for the plants and industry.

Computer networking for national economic planning

Clear understanding of the importance of AMS development led Kitov, at the end of 1958, to conclude the need for automated management of the national economy and armed forces, on the basis of full-scale usage of electronic computers and mathematical methods. The main point was that this AMS should be based on a national network of regional computer centres (project "Red Book"). Kitov is famous in the former Soviet Union for being the first cyberneticist in the world to suggest a global integrated computer network for automated management of both the USSR's national economy and the armed forces.

Kitov proposed that the technological structure of that system would be a global, double purpose, computer network, covering the whole of the USSR's territory, anticipating OGAS and the Internet. This network should consist of hundreds of computer centres maintained by specially qualified military personnel. In the autumn of 1959, Kitov sent his second letter on his project of global computer network (project "Red Book") to the new General Secretary, Nikita Khrushchev.

Information retrieval systems

A typical example of Kitov's scientific intuition was his opinion on information retrieval systems. Kitov initiated scientific works at the CC No. 1 on computational linguistics and machine translation. Kitov proposed to concentrate the centre's initial basic efforts not on direct increases in performance, but on the development of methods, algorithms, and programs which permitted extending processing, storage, and retrieval semantic information.

Theory and practice of algorithmic programming languages

Kitov was the creator of two algorithmic programming languages: ALGEM and NORMIN. Compared with ALGOL-60, ALGEM was completed with new types of data, which made possible processing of not only numerical but also text-based information and data groups of various types.

For a long time, ALGEM was a "workhorse" for Soviet programmers working with non-arithmetical applications of computers. ALGEM was also used in numerous automated management systems of various levels, implemented in industry and administrative management structures, both in the USSR and in other socialist countries.

In the 1970s, while working as the chief designer of the AMS 'Healthcare', Kitov developed an algorithmic programming language known as NORMIN, which was widely used in the USSR for medical diagnostics. NORMIN was the first Soviet query language for information retrieval on formalised natural language. Taking under consideration that medical AMS would be used by the public, who did not have special technical education, Kitov implemented a special interface in his systems, which was convenient and intuitive as much as was possible at the level of computer development of that time. The interface realised, among others, a dialogue mode called "human-computer" in the normalised natural language NORMIN, and served as a testbed for usability testing techniques.

Computer unification and standardisation

In his 1 July 1959 letter to Khrushchev, Kitov insisted that the introduction of automated systems in the country should be conducted under the supervision of state administrators at high levels – such as the members of the Soviet Politburo. Kitov proposed that all work in the field of computing research and automated management systems be subjected to a single state body which would be granted a monopoly to coordinate, control, and implement all developments and achievements of that branch. "Only such organisation will grant successful progress, rational, without time-delays or senseless chaotic actions", he wrote.

In his article "Computers – Assistants in each Thing" from 12 July 1960, Kitov declared that: "Taking under consideration exceptional importance of the computer development for the national economy and for the state defence, and also considering the fact that production of these computation means is steadily increasing, the need for centralised control over the work of computation centres of all kinds and categories and in control and coordination of usage of single computers, belonging to various organisations, is getting clear. These measures will enable the most rational usage of computers in interests of the whole country."

Kitov wanted the system to perform on the national scale, and wrote about it in many of his articles. Unfortunately for him, his ideas and proposals went unheard and the bureaucratic machine was too slow.

Medical cybernetics

By the 1970s, Kitov had worked in healthcare for more than ten years. He became a world leader in medical cybernetics, overseeing the development of the information model of the Soviet medical industry; unified software packages for forming and logical control of information arrays were worked out. Within the health care field he established scientific schools of thought, educated a number of talented followers, and guided many dissertation works. Kitov also published several conceptual articles and three monographs: "Automation of Information processing and Management in the Healthcare Field" (1976); "Introduction into Medical Cybernetics" (1977); and "Medical Cybernetics" (1983).

Kitov made great contributions to the creation of "local" medical AMSes, which functioned within specific enterprises: at hospitals, clinics, and drugstores. The first AMS of that type operated at the clinical hospital No. 6, subject to the Third Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health. Later this AMS supported the curing and rehabilitation of victims of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

For 12 years, Kitov was the national representative of the USSR in the field of medical informatics at the United Nations and UNESCO, serving in top-level positions at the International Federation of Medical Informatics (MedInfo), the International Medical Informatics Association, and Technical Committee No. 4 of the International Federation for Information Processing (TC-4 IFIP).

Kitov participated in the organization of three international congresses of MedInfo: the first World Congress of MedINFO (1974, Stockholm), the second World Congress (1977, Toronto), and the third World Congress (1980, Tokyo). About a thousand scientists from developed countries gathered at the second World Congress. Kitov also chaired the section on biomedical research.

Academic career

Between 1951 to 1952, Kitov conducted one a course on computers and programming at the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy. More than 40 postgraduates, both Soviet and foreign, prepared and defended dissertations under Kitov's scientific supervision. In 1980, he accepted a position at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, where he worked for seventeen years, as chair of the Computer Programming department.