Who was the first scientist in the USSR who published works on "regular structures" (or cellular automata in the modern interpretation)?

Question

Mathematics

Who was the first scientist in the USSR who published works on "regular structures" (or cellular automata in the modern interpretation)? There is an opinion that this was done even before the first works of von Neumann.
Thank you!

Answer 1

See the works of Shalyto, perhaps he has links to earlier works of other authors.