Computers for the Planned Economy: Franco–Soviet Scientific–Technical Cooperation during the Cold War

Abstract

This article contributes to the study of governmentalities of the late twentieth century with regard to the proliferation of computers and information technology. Based on archival materials and oral history interviews, this study reconstructs and analyses the story of Franco–Soviet cooperation in the field of economics from the late 1950s to the 1980s, which was initially motivated by a common interest in promoting planning methods, but was later recast as a dialogue dominated by technical issues of information processing and communication and ultimately became part of a commercial strategy to support the French and Eastern European computer industries.