50 Years of Coexistence in Control The Contributions of the Russian Community

This paper gives a concise account of the achievements of the Russian automatic control community – from before World War I, through Soviet years, and to present days in “New Russia.” It emphasizes seminal theoretical contributions with issues in organization and development of research in control theory and its motivations. The narrative is written in the context of a 50-year interaction with the international community, mostly through joint activities in IFAC-the International Federation on Automatic Control and other institutions. It also comments on the specifics of research life throughout the observed years.