The origin and formation of the digital educational environment in the USSR

With the development of electronic technologies in the second half of the 20th century, it became obvious that the formation of a digital educational environment would become one of the key directions in the development of domestic education. Since the 1950s, electronic computers have gradually been introduced into the Soviet education system, programming courses have been developed, and computer science textbooks have been published. The article presents an attempt to characterize the experience gained in pedagogical practice in implementing the digital environment in a secondary school. A brief historiography on the stated issues is given. Some facts illustrating the attitude of the Soviet society to the introduction of new technologies in the educational process are given. It is argued that throughout the history of the USSR, it is in the issue of digitalization and informatization of school education as a whole that it will lag behind Western European ones. The article is a kind of continuation of the study “Domestic experience in the formation of a digital educational environment in 1980-1990” published in 2023, which examined only the last decade of the existence of the USSR. This work expands the chronological framework and expands on previously mentioned events regarding the formation of the digital educational environment in the USSR in the 1960s - 1980s.The presented materials may be of interest to historians, teachers, as well as those whose activities are related to the study of the history of computer science at school.