My step-father is a Hungarian who left in 1956 to get away from the Russians. Before that, though, he attended a Russian technical school for engineering and has some amazing stories about it. They were sent to the school because of high scores in math and science. When told they were being sent to the "special" school, they were lined up and were picked randomly for occupations like "duck-duck-goose" for engineering fields. My step father was chosen for mechanical engineering. The first day of school, everyone was issued one pencil and told that they were going to have to accomplish with that one pencil what their contemporaries in the west were accomplishing with sophisticated, modern engineering equipment. The funny thing is that we would probably tend to think of them as being inferior for that, and way behind. However, when he came here in 1956 and learned some English, he was able to write his own ticket as an engineer because he knew so much about mechanics at the most basic levels. Learning how to use the modern tools was a snap. I think as computer collectors, we have a little better understanding of how much money was pumped into computer technology in the west, at a time when people in the east were waiting in line for bread. The techno-history of the Soviets isn't just interesting, it's astounding. Does anyone on the list have any Soviet-manufactured systems? This might be a good thing to look for when (whoever it was that wrote the list that he was going to Hungary soon) goes over there. Aaron