I’m learning about control systems/controls engineering and the Soviet Union was way ahead of this time in this domain.

Essentially, western control theory was focused on communication as it was born, and got to use a couple shortcuts that work well in that context (the “frequency domain”, which focuses on 1 input and 1 output).

I dunno what the Soviet Union was doing controls for (certainly military, almost certainly automating industrial production), but they were the only people who stuck with big ass systems of differential equations.

The latter is known as “modern control theory” and, while much more arduous/computationally demanding, is way more widely applicable.

My point is just that I totally believe Russian science has some areas where it’s just way more successful

I would like to subscribe to Soviet metallurgy facts

Do you have any good links or even book recommendations that discuss this history?

Thanks for sharing, super interesting! My initial reaction was one of cynicism, but then I remembered the west’s tendency to lose its ability to use advanced technologies itself developed, let alone adopting those outside of its orthodoxies:

• https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-big-problem-americas-stealth-f-22-raptor-america-cant-19420
• https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/fogbank-america-forgot-how-make-nuclear-bombs/
• https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39537/the-air-force-needs-to-reverse-engineer-parts-of-its-own-stealth-bomber

It’s amazing how deep the propagandised idea of western superiority/invincibility can run, but then gradually falls apart under inspection, like an F-117A over Serbia