«It is best of the accessible»: quality of imported consumer goods of the USSR from the socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (1950s – 1980s)

Abstract

The article is first studied in the historiography of the problem of import from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the context of the consumer revolution in the USSR. The author gives primary attention to questions of the quality of goods of the mass demand. In the course of a study clerical documents and statistical materials from the Russian State Archive of Economy and State Archive of the Russian Federation were used, and also the published memoirs and works of literature. The author shows that the purchases of imports within the framework of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), expanded in 1950s, had great significance in the consumption structure of Soviet citizens. Foot-wear, clothing, furniture, household goods from socialist countries partly compensated scarcity on the domestic market. The quality of these products, however, not always corresponded to the highest standards, deliveries were achieved in violation of contractual obligations on the assortment, the timing, the seasonality. The government was forced to create the multi-stage system of control, intended to prevent the penetration into the retail network of substandard things. However, piety before the import was formed independently of its consumer properties, being the component of the mythical means of the West.