Television in the USSR

Background

Television in the USSR appeared thanks to the research and development of scientists and engineers of even tsarist Russia. It still began at the end of the 19th century with the ideas of P. I. Bakhmetev on transmitting images at a distance, the project of a color television system by A. A. Polumordvinov ^[1] , the creation of a photo cell by A. G. Stoletov and radio A. S. Popov . The first practical developments were made by Professor B.I. Rosing in 1907, and on May 9, 1911, he carried out the first telecast in the world.

Television in the early years of Soviet rule

World War I interrupted television research - the army needed radio stations. After the October Revolution, the Russian Soviet Republic focused on the development of radio; neither money nor specialists were available on television. The situation changed only by the end of the 30s. Support for television, like radio, was carried out at the government level. More than ten research groups worked in laboratories at institutes and factories: in the radio department of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute and the Research Institute of Communications in Moscow, in Leningrad at the Radio Plant named after Comintern, in Tomsk (Polytechnic Institute) and other cities. In parallel, the development of electronic systems and low-line electromechanical devices was carried out. The results were obtained very quickly.

Professor A.A. Chernyshev patented the prototype of the vidicon in 1925, A.P. Konstantinov and S.I. Kataev independently developed tubes in 1931 similar to the Zvorykin iconoscope . But these ideas were not implemented due to technical difficulties. In 1924, in Odessa began his experiments on the transfer of images B.P. Grabovsky , which continued in Tashkent. And on July 26, 1928, for the first time in the world, Grabowski was able to transmit, via radio, without wires, a moving image using a fully electronic television system, which the inventor called “Telefot”. Subsequently, the apparatus was broken, the Grabovsky group disintegrated ^[2] , and Soviet television took the path of developing mechanical, rather than electronic transmitting devices. This was facilitated by the fact that mechanical television could transmit the image via radio channels, in contrast to electronic, requiring special lines.

The development of mechanical television

In 1929, a specialized television laboratory was created at the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute (VEI) in Moscow, which included P.V. Shmakov (supervisor), V.I. Arkhangelsky, S.I. Kataev, P.V. Timofeev, A. M. Shamaev ^[3] . Soon, the laboratory, which had experience in creating both receiving and transmitting equipment for optical-mechanical television, demonstrated its development to the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs . In 1930, the People's Commissar of the USSR decided to establish the Moscow Broadcasting Center. An agreement was concluded with VEI for the development and supply of a television transmitter. The television laboratory successfully completed the task, and on April 29, 1931, VEI conducted experiments on broadcasting radio waves generated by a traveling beam transmitter on a 56.6-meter wavelength with an image spreading into 30 lines. During the experimental broadcast, only one small photograph was transmitted. Over the next few months, several more test broadcasts took place, but not one of them yet supported sound. On the basis of this equipment in 1931 the Moscow Broadcasting Technical Center (MRTU) was created, located at ul. October 25, 7 (now St. Nikolskaya ). On October 1, 1931, regular television programs in the medium wave range began from it. This date is considered the official start date of domestic broadcasting. The equipment was operated by VEI development specialists: P. V. Shmakov, V. I. Arkhangelsky, N. N. Vasiliev, N. N. Orlov and others. That's what the Izvestia newspaper No. 271 of October 1 wrote about the launch of television broadcasting. :

In December 1931, in Leningrad, at the All-Union Conference on Television ^[4] , the provisional standard of the USSR low-mechanical mechanical TV broadcasting system was adopted: 30 lines, 4: 3 format (the total number of decomposition elements was 1260, of which 60 were allocated for transmitting horizontal synchronizing pulses) at 12.5 fps, band 7200 Hz. Such parameters corresponded to the international level and ensured the compatibility of domestic and foreign transmitting and receiving equipment ^[5] .

To receive programs from 1932 to 1936, the first Soviet B-2 television sets were produced at the Komintern factory in Leningrad.

Optical-mechanical television broadcasts were received in many cities, including Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, and Tomsk.

On May 1, 1932, viewers were first shown a film about the parade and demonstration of Moscow workers, dedicated to the May Day holiday. Television operators filmed on Red Square, Pushkin Square, Tverskaya Street. Radio speakers who broadcast from the GUM building and from different cities of the country were recorded on air from the air ^[6] .

On May 2, 1932, regular television broadcasts began, with the image being spread out on 30 lines by the Leningrad radio stations RV-70 and RV-53. From the second half of 1932, television broadcasts were broadcast almost daily by Moscow Radio. They went through medium-wave broadcasting stations, and they were received on the European territory of the country. Transmissions were held after midnight. A radio receiver for receiving a telecast “ESF” was developed in 1930 and put into production in 1932 ^[7] . Throughout the country, there were several hundred televisions.

On November 15, 1934, the first broadcast of a television program with sound was carried out in the USSR. It lasted 25 minutes and was a pop concert. Ivan Moskvin read Chekhov 's story “Attacker,” then the singer and the ballet couple performed (unfortunately, their names did not survive).

Broadcasting of low-line television of the optical-mechanical system in the USSR through Moscow radio stations was discontinued on April 1, 1940.

The development of electronic television in the USSR

The construction of television centers using electronic systems began in the USSR in 1937. In September 1938, the Leningrad Telecentre began broadcasting television ^[8] . It used domestic equipment with a standard decomposition of 240 lines ^[9] . The TV "VRK" (All-Union Radio Committee) was used to receive the image.

On November 5, 1938, the regular operation of the Moscow Television Center (ITC) on Shabolovka began. A concert was shown, and in the following days, the films "The Man with the Gun" and "Lenin in October". On December 31, the ITC was officially adopted by the state commission. The Moscow television center broadcast in the "American" standard for 343 lines and was equipped with equipment of the American company RCA ^{[10] [11]} . The first electronic receiver “TK-1” was used to watch TV shows. It was released by the Komintern factory in the same year 1938 using RCA technology, which in 1940 was replaced by the domestic 17TN-1 TV manufactured by the Leningrad Plant Radist.

December 27, 1940 GOST 60-40 “Television. The main parameters of television broadcasting ": the number of lines 441, the frequency of 25 frames per second, interlaced decomposition. On May 1, 1941, the Moscow television center was stopped for reconstruction in order to organize broadcasts and image reception according to the new standard. The outbreak of war violated all plans. Telecentres have stopped broadcasting.

After the war, the first in Europe on May 7, 1945, the Moscow television center resumed transmission according to the pre-war standard. The Leningrad television center was converted to a clarity of 441 lines and launched on November 7, 1947.

In 1948, a modern standard was introduced in the USSR, which provided for the decomposition of television images into 625 lines ^[12] , a draft of which was developed back in 1944 ^[13] . The systematic development of technical means of television began. In June 1949, the entire complex of the reconstructed Moscow television center, located on ul. Shabolovka, 53.

In 1946-1949, the television sets Leningrad T-1 and Moskvich T-1 were produced. In 1949, the production of the first mass television “ KVN-49 ” began at the Alexandrovsky Radio Plant (based on the first letters of the names of the designers - Kenigson, Warsaw, Nikolaev).

Since 1951, Central Television switched to daily television broadcasts in Moscow. In 1950-1955 began the spread of television broadcasting throughout the country. At the first stages in different cities (in Kharkov (first), Kalinin, Gorky, Odessa, Riga, Tomsk, Sverdlovsk, Omsk, Vladivostok, Ufa, Nalchik, Arkhangelsk, Voronezh, Sevastopol, Gomel, Khabarovsk, Barnaul, Perm ^[14] , Kazan, Komsomolsk-on-Amur) there were temporary amateur television studios. On September 15, 1955, a decree of the Council of Ministers “On measures for the further development of television broadcasting in the USSR” was adopted, which instructed the construction of television centers and relay stations. In 1954 there were only three program television centers (in Moscow, Leningrad , Kiev), in 1955 - nine (in Kalinin , Tallinn, Kharkov, Sverdlovsk , Tomsk, Omsk), in 1956 - nineteen (in Minsk, Vilnius, Baku, Tbilisi , Tashkent, Yerevan, Vladivostok, Stalin , Stalinogorsk , Riga) ^[15] , in 1957 twenty (Novosibirsk), in 1960 - 84 television centers, in 1965-121 television centers, in 1970-130 ^[16] .

In 1951, construction began on the cable television line Moscow - Leningrad (KM-3). On March 1, 1955, the first relay in the USSR began to work in Kalinin , receiving a television signal via cable from Moscow ^[17] . The construction of radio-relay and cable highways allowed the construction of relay television stations that received a program on long-distance communication lines.

Switching to color broadcasting

Since in the post-war years the television park in the USSR was small, in 1953 an attempt was made to introduce a color television system with serial transmission of color fields. It was the Soviet version of the outdated American CBS system, incompatible with black and white TVs ^[18] . With a decomposition standard of 525 lines, 150 color - divided half-frames were transmitted per second, 3 per field . The first experimental color television station (OSTST-1) was built in Moscow, on Shabolovka, and worked from November 5, 1953 to December 5, 1955. Then its equipment was converted to a black and white standard, and with its help in Moscow in early 1956 began regular broadcasting on the second program of the Central Television.

In February 1957, a resolution of the Council of Ministers on color television issues was issued with the order to start pilot broadcasting in the next year, 1958, using an compatible system. By November 1959, the SCST-2 was installed on Shabolovka , which began in January 1960 regular broadcasting according to the Soviet version of NTSC under the name "CCM" (simultaneous system with quadrature modulation).

The test results of foreign color television systems and the Soviet “CT NIIR” revealed the advantages of the French SÉCAM for broadcasting a television signal over long distances ^[19] . In March 1965, an agreement was signed between the USSR and France on cooperation in the field of color television, and two years later, the SÉCAM system was approved as an all-Union standard. The first broadcast color television broadcast of this standard in the USSR took place on November 7, 1967 from OSTST-3, equipped with equipment of the French company Thomson-CSF.

Since January 1977, all programs of the Central Television began to be broadcast in color.

On January 1, 1962, the registration of radios and televisions was introduced, which was introduced for radios back in 1924 ^{[20] [21]} . Televisions were registered at the post office at the place of residence.

In 1965, the first Russian satellite “Lightning-1” was launched into orbit, which made it possible to broadcast television programs, which became a new significant impetus in the development of TV. In 1967, the Orbita national satellite television broadcasting system began to operate, which allowed broadcasting programs from Moscow to the entire territory of the USSR and increasing the television audience by 20 million at once due to the Far North, Far East and Central Asia. An outstanding event was also the commissioning in 1967 of the Ostankino television tower and television center . In 1976, the new Ekran satellite system was put into operation, which made it possible to receive Central television broadcasts in Siberia and the Far East.

The resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of August 20, 1984 “On the development of the material and technical base of television broadcasting in the country in 1984-1990” created the basis for a serious qualitative leap in this area. The television development program provided for the construction of new and reconstruction of existing transmitting stations and enterprises for the production of television equipment, the creation of new satellite communication systems, the production of digital television equipment, the development of high-definition television systems ^[22] . If in 1984, the first program of all-Union television was accepted by 92% of the population, and two programs - 75%, then in 1990 it was planned to bring these figures to 97% and 87% ^[23] .

On February 8, 1991, instead of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting, the All-Union State Broadcasting Company was created ^[24] . On December 26, 1991, the Council of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a declaration on the termination of the USSR ^[25] . December 27, 1991 in connection with the collapse of the USSR VGTRK was abolished.

• 06/29/1949 - the first out-of-studio transmission of the Moscow television center. It was a report on a football match from Dynamo Stadium. It was led by Vadim Sinyavsky ^{[26] [27]} .
• 10.27.1954 - the first issue of the television magazine "Art".
• 06/25/1956 - the first issue of the television journal "Knowledge".
• 12/04/1957 - the first issue of the television magazine "For you, women."
• 02/23/1960 - the first issue of the television magazine " Health ". Leading Yu. Belyanchikova.
• 03/18/1960 - the first broadcast of the "Television Travel Club" (subsequently, " Travelers Club ").
• 11/08/1961 - the first transfer of " KVN ".
• 10.21.1962 - the first broadcast of the information and music program "The Music Kiosk ".
• 12/21/1962 - the first broadcast of the monthly film review " Kinopanorama ".
• 04/06/1962 - the first release of the musical entertainment program of the Blue Light Center .
• 09/01/1964 - the program “ Good night, kids! "
• 01/01/1968 - for the first time an information program of the Central Television “ Vremya ” appeared.
• 04/17/1968 - the first telecast " In the world of animals ."
• 03/10/1970 - the first release of the legal video channel " Man and the Law "
• 02.24.1973 - the first program of the Central Television “ Obvious - Incredible ”.
• 09/07/1974 - the first issue of the entertainment program of the Central Transport Center “ Morning Mail ”.
• 01/04/1975 - according to the First Program of the Central Television, the ABVGDeyka children's program was aired.
• 09/04/1975 - the first issue of the television game " What? Where? When? ".
• 09/04/1976 - the first issue of the program for children " Visiting a fairy tale ."
• 10/18/1983 - under the First Program of the Central Television, the youth program " Up to 16 and older ... " was broadcast.
• 10.02.1985 — первый выпуск информационной передачи « Новости ».
• 13.07.1987 — первый выпуск утренней передачи « 90 минут ».
• 05.02.1989 — первый выпуск музыкальной передачи « Программа "А" ».
• 12.11.1989 — первый выпуск информационно-аналитической передачи « 7 дней ».

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