History of the Russian keyboard

[Richard Robin]

I think we all know the legend of the history of the English-language keyboard:
place the letters in an order that slow the typist down so that the keys
wouldn't jam.

Does anyone know if that is also the story behind the standard Russian
keyboard? How did QWERTY become ЙЦУКЕН (JCUKEN)?

--
Richard Robin - http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~rrobin
German and Slavic Dept.
The George Washington University
WASHINGTON, DC 20052
Can read HTML mail.
Читаю по-русски в любой кодировке.
Chitayu po-russki v lyuboi kodirovke.