How to Spot Quality Soviet Goods

This little symbol here was the designation stamped on quality Soviet products. Whatever machinery or gadget or whizbang that has that symbol on it may make a lot of noise when operated, it may be rare & high priced, it might be obsolete, but you can BET YOUR @$$ it worked when it left the assembly line, and it will probably still be working 50 years from now, short of someone inflicting severe abuse on it. I'd rather own a higher priced, obsolete version with that stamp on it than ANY of the Chinese made, WAL-MART trash they are pawning these days...



Looks kind of like a Chrysler symbol though, doesn't it?

These are quality goods because the soviet economy unlike the capitalist , was not based on 'planned attrition' aka goods deliberately being made with some error so they won't last. This all to keep us consuming.

Goldfather wrote:

These are quality goods because the soviet economy unlike the capitalist , was not based on 'planned attrition' aka goods deliberately being made with some error so they won't last. This all to keep us consuming.

Agreed. We have a throw away culture...

A lot of my soviet cameras and lenses have this symbol on them. They feel better made than the ones without it.

I hear the testing for this award was rigorous, the product has to meet and exceed all GOST standards.

Aeroflot wrote:

A lot of my soviet cameras and lenses have this symbol on them. They feel better made than the ones without it.

I hear the testing for this award was rigorous, the product has to meet and exceed all GOST standards.

That's exactly what I've been told. I believe that is correct.

Goldfather wrote:

These are quality goods because the soviet economy unlike the capitalist , was not based on 'planned attrition' aka goods deliberately being made with some error so they won't last. This all to keep us consuming.

In the past, Western goods were built to last for a long time but now with globalisation, production has shifted to low-wage countries, where quality control is lowered to achieve lower prices. It's pretty funny to see the West now deluged with crappy goods, when they accused the Soviet Union of doing the same to their market.

On the film advance of this Zenit Automat you can see the Quality Mark.

I bought that Automat new last December. Sealed in box. Made in 1990. Came with a fantastic Helios 44K-4 MC 58mm f2 lens. Really nice SLR camera.

The alternate to cheap products being produced in Capitalism (the view of the SSP):

Instead of hundreds of types of different goods being produced without any idea if anybody wants them or if they will serve any useful purpose, the consumers and producers and the locally communities should democratically decide what is needed by society. 

We live in a world of limited and declining resources and it is only rational to plan what should be produced and what needs should be met by these goods. It would mean that the major components of the economy would be taken into common ownership.
Industries and services should be run by the people who work in them with democratically elected management boards. 

It would require a new style of revolutionary democracy based on mass participation, with people discussing and voting on proposals.  All shades of opinion would be able to be represented and allowed to put their plans and proposals to a network of local, regional and national assemblies.

What is this Сделано в СССР? Is it "Made in the USSR"?

Yes

Here in the Ukraine I saw some shops use the CCCP quality mark as an advertising tool to attract people who lived in soviet times to buy low quality stuff made in China. Amusing really. Maybe I'll take a picture some time of the signs outside their shops and post it here.