4 ms·

What you see at the pictures is all USSR industrial complex was capable of. And I don't mean the computer. I mean single instance of wooden/paper "device" repre

What you see at the pictures is all USSR industrial complex was capable of. And I don't mean the computer. I mean single instance of wooden/paper "device" representing how the concept would look like.

nemo44x 5y ago
Like many of their policies, looks good on paper. But the reality just doesn’t support it as anything practical.
fsloth 5y ago
That is quite harsh. While no credible consumer goods requiring complex manufacture or design come from the former USSR area (except of Baltics which retained pre-soviet spirit) to this day, the industrial complex managed to create quit a lot of ... industrial stuff that they managed to sell around the world. Some well known examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family) And of course the list would not be complete without: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalashnikov_rifle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalashnikov_rifle
- pantulis 5y ago
  And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_Niva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_Niva
- helge9210 5y ago
  Most of the stuff in your list was basically produced manually in very small quantities. UAZ/AK would be an exception, but they were unusable without careful selection or manually manufactured replacement parts.
  - fsloth 5y ago
    While inefficient, the system did create complex things that worked more or less as advertized - which is quite far from the the claim that the system could not make anything real or worthwhile. It's just not a very good system.
    - helge9210 5y ago
      There was a joke in Soviet Union: Americans stole plans for super secret soviet stealth fighter. Every time Lockheed-Martin engineers try to replicate the design according to documentation they end up building steam engine. So Americans kidnap one of the Soviet engineers to help them to decipher the design. Once he sees the documents he points at the small remark at the very end: to get the desired device after building a steam engine shape it manually with a file. This joke is a pretty accurate description of the state of precision manufacturing capabilities of USSR. Manually created single prototype is not a "complex thing that worked".
  - seanw444 5y ago
    The Kalashnikov rifle family is undoubtedly the most common weapon platform in the world (even if only having a slight edge in numbers over the AR platform). They made a lot of them. And they were quite effective. I'm no USSR shill, but credit must be given where due.
    - rsj_hn 5y ago
      Kalashnikovs were great. Many Russian things were great -- mathematicians, physicists, composers, attack helicopters, etc.
      - euroderf 5y ago
        Kalashnikov's autobiography is worth a read if you're into small arms. Most interesting to me was his description of how competitors for a large acquisition were tested.

nemo44x 5y ago

Like many of their policies, looks good on paper. But the reality just doesn’t support it as anything practical.

fsloth 5y ago

That is quite harsh. While no credible consumer goods requiring complex manufacture or design come from the former USSR area (except of Baltics which retained pre-soviet spirit) to this day, the industrial complex managed to create quit a lot of ... industrial stuff that they managed to sell around the world. Some well known examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family) And of course the list would not be complete without: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalashnikov_rifle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalashnikov_rifle

pantulis 5y ago
And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_Niva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_Niva
helge9210 5y ago
Most of the stuff in your list was basically produced manually in very small quantities. UAZ/AK would be an exception, but they were unusable without careful selection or manually manufactured replacement parts.
- fsloth 5y ago
  While inefficient, the system did create complex things that worked more or less as advertized - which is quite far from the the claim that the system could not make anything real or worthwhile. It's just not a very good system.
  - helge9210 5y ago
    There was a joke in Soviet Union: Americans stole plans for super secret soviet stealth fighter. Every time Lockheed-Martin engineers try to replicate the design according to documentation they end up building steam engine. So Americans kidnap one of the Soviet engineers to help them to decipher the design. Once he sees the documents he points at the small remark at the very end: to get the desired device after building a steam engine shape it manually with a file. This joke is a pretty accurate description of the state of precision manufacturing capabilities of USSR. Manually created single prototype is not a "complex thing that worked".
- seanw444 5y ago
  The Kalashnikov rifle family is undoubtedly the most common weapon platform in the world (even if only having a slight edge in numbers over the AR platform). They made a lot of them. And they were quite effective. I'm no USSR shill, but credit must be given where due.
  - rsj_hn 5y ago
    Kalashnikovs were great. Many Russian things were great -- mathematicians, physicists, composers, attack helicopters, etc.
    - euroderf 5y ago
      Kalashnikov's autobiography is worth a read if you're into small arms. Most interesting to me was his description of how competitors for a large acquisition were tested.