The purpose of the investigation described in this paper is the study of the effect of very small nonaxisymmetric initial deviations from the exact shape upon the deformations and the critical time of a thin-walled circular cylindrical shell which was manufactured with larger initial deviations of an axisymmetric type. The calculations are carried out in a manner similar to that of a recent paper by the senior author. It is assumed that all the deformations are due to nonlinear steady creep governed by Odqvist's law. In consequence of the nonlinearity of the constitutive equation and the use of three terms in the expressions for the deformations and the stresses the trigonometric calculations become so complicated that they must be carried out by means of the high-speed digital computer. For this purpose use is made of the 'REDUCE' program. It is found that in a particular case the critical time of the shell is reduced to about one-half the original value when one adds to the small axially symmetric component of the initial deviations a nonaxisymmetric component which is ten orders of magnitude smaller. The reduction in critical time is represented by a factor of about 1/15 when the amplitudes of the axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric initial deviations are equal. (Author).