Some aspects of the history of the first Soviet computer development are described. The idea of this work was offered by Sergey Lebedev who formulated the principles, wrote a plan and suggested the structure of the computer which was named BESM – Fast Electronic Calculating Machine. Some new documents are presented – a working notebook with Lebedev’s handwritten notes and a plan of a preliminary project draft development. BESM computer became the first in the long series of Soviet computers built under the leadership of Lebedev. It also was used as a prototype of the first Chinese computer built with the help of Soviet engineers.