Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled Electronorgtechnica, ), 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. It was controlled by the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1971 to 1989.
The company was associated with the export of Soviet design calculators, Electronika being one brand that was exported, rebranding them as ELORG products.Museum of Soviet Calculators on the Web - Export and Foreign , accessed June 1, 2006 Elorg also marketed the Agat computer, and imported IBM computers into the Soviet Union, starting with the IBM System/360 Model 50 in 1971.
Robert Maxwell pressured Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel the contract between Elorg and Nintendo concerning the rights to the game franchise Tetris.
In 1991, as the Soviet Union was being dissolved, Elorg was turned into a private business by its director, Nikolai Belikov. Elorg was sold to The Tetris Company in January 2005 for $15 million.
Tetris
ELORG was responsible for the licensing of the popular video game series Tetris.Atari HQ: Tetris History , accessed June 1, 2006 Tetris was written by salaried programmers at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which was not allowed to carry out commercial activities directly. As the game was owned by the state, all rights to the game worldwide were handled by ELORG."Tetris Story" by Vadim Gerasimov, accessed April 15, 2007 In 1996 ELORG was reportedly a privatised Russian company which retained the rights to the Tetris trademark.PR Newswire - "Tetris Inventor Gets His Due in Historic Russia/US Joint Venture" , accessed June 1, 2006The Tetris Taxonomy - "Putting the puzzle pieces back together: Alexey Pajitnov has a new game plan for Tetris." , accessed June 1, 2006
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.
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