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Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled Electronorgtechnica, Russian: Всесою́зное Объедине́ние «Электро́норгтехника», romanized: Vsesoyúznoye Obyedinéniye "Elektrónorgtekhnika"), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer support and hardware and software in the Soviet Union.[1] It was controlled by the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1971 to 1989.[2]
 | |
| Industry | Import/export of electronics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1971 |
| Defunct | 2005 |
| Fate | Sold to The Tetris Company in 2005 |
| Headquarters | , |
| Parent | Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR (until 1989) |
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The company was associated with the export of Soviet design calculators, Electronika being one brand that was exported, rebranding them as ELORG products.[3] Elorg also marketed the Agat computer,[4] and imported IBM computers into the Soviet Union, starting with the IBM System/360 Model 50 in 1971.[5]
Robert Maxwell pressured Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel the contract between Elorg and Nintendo concerning the rights to the game Tetris.[6]
In 1991, as the Soviet Union was being dissolved, Elorg was turned into a private business by its director, Nikolai Belikov.[7] Elorg was sold to The Tetris Company in January 2005 for $15 million.[8]
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ELORG was responsible for the licensing of the popular video game Tetris.[9] Tetris was written by salaried programmers at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which was not allowed to carry out commercial activities directly.[1] As the game was owned by the state, all rights to the game worldwide were handled by ELORG.[10] In 1996 ELORG was reportedly a privatised Russian company which retained the rights to the Tetris trademark.[11][12]
ELORG was a partner in The Tetris Company which licenses the Tetris name to game companies, along with Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and businessman Henk Rogers. Elorg was a 50 percent owner in the company until Rogers and Pajitnov bought ELORG's remaining rights around 2005.[13][14]
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