Soviet/Eastern Block consumer goods ?

[The Lawspeaker]

This is of course mainly a question for those that grew on the other side of the Berlin Wall: what kind of consumer goods were available ? Where they sold to the West as well ?

I have only been able to find a couple of products (the VAZ-2101 car (a.k.a Lada) or the Czechoslovak softdrink Kofola) so far but it is very much a black hole for me.

[Sultan Suleiman]

Well we covered some of this here

Feel free to copy paste from that.

[Methmatician]

I don't know much about this, but my uncle once visited the Soviet Union back in the early 80's and they bought his jeans because apparently they didn't sell real denim over there. Is there anyone that can confirm this?

[Waidewut]

There are rumors of Americans consuming hair-raising amounts of Stolichnaya vodka.

I don't know much about this, but my uncle once visited the Soviet Union back in the early 80's and they bought his jeans because apparently they didn't sell real denim over there. Is there anyone that can confirm this?

I confirm this. Soviet people who had something to do with Western countries (mostly sailors) were smuggling in jeans and other stuff and making extra money as the demand was very big. All of this was illegal and one could easily be sent to prison as ordinary business like this was called "speculation", which means you were an enemy of the people and communism.

[Virtuous]

Soviet Russian caviar?

[The Lawspeaker]

Soviet Russian caviar?

Yes but what kind of brands were there ? And were they available in Soviet shops as well ?

[Talvi]

Plastic bags were really fashionable. So my parents have told.

[Virtuous]

I found this

[The Lawspeaker]

That kind of makes me wonder whether such products were available and what could be found in shops because, we all know the images of the empty shelves, but no one will tell me that that was the case for the full 70 years that communism existed because then it would have collapsed a long time before that.

[Sultan Suleiman]

That kind of makes me wonder whether such products were available and what could be found in shops because, we all know the images of the empty shelves, but no one will tell me that that was the case for the full 70 years that communism existed because then it would have collapsed a long time before that.

A lot of consumer products that Yugos posted existed in that time up

Only in shitier packages