Elektronorgtechnica

Key Information

Industry	Import/export of electronics
Founded	1971
Defunct	2005
Fate	Sold to The Tetris Company in 2005
Headquarters	Moscow , Russia
Parent	Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR (until 1989)
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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]

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 franchise 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]

ELORG was responsible for the licensing of the popular video game series 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]