Electronics

Yeah, as I said, most factories closed by the end of the 70s, but some operated till the USSR dissolved.

My mind is suitably blown :-) I remember seeing some of the “newer” segmented style tubes in a train ticket machine (probably late 70’s erra manufacture) here in Oakland, California, USA back in the late 90s or very early 00s. Probably not of Russian manufacture, though ;-)

The system wasn't that bad to be honest... at least not in Yugoslavia. USSR was a different story. We had all the perks of the west with none of the obligations. Of course, you can't compete with the western tech markets (yes, we did try that, look up Zastava, Yugo, Iskra, Gorenje)

Don’t sell yourselves short, Yogo’s were very well known here! ;-) … yeah, it’s still rigged pretty well.

There are other open forums, free for registration. I could look up the URLs if you want, I have them in a plain text file on my PC (I'm on my phone right now), some are also good, like vinafix for example (not ex USSR, but still good, it's Vietnamese). I haven't visited them in years though, things might have changed. I started working in IT and just lost interest in that... no money, no point in doing it. Hardware is dirt cheap nowadays.

Yes please, but feel free to do it at your convenience. I have yet to check out the first few you offered — although I will by weeks end. To many projects, as always :-) I’m going to look up the other big companies you mentioned as well. I was born in ‘77 so I missed the coldest days of the Cold War… but I have an irresistible fascination with the evolution of technology… especially these parallel worlds that developed in countries on both sides. Objects that are both instantly familiar but also “alien” in design, not the greatest example but phones are probably the most familiar examples.

Anyway… it’s been delightful chatting the last few days. I hope we can keep the conversation going, but for now I have one or more work tables to excavate ;-)