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I have some in-laws who were avid hikers in the USSR at a time when it was nearly impossible to get off the shelf gear. They showed me some of the stuff they'd made by hand, including a backpack with an aluminum frame and cloth salvaged from an old parachute, and an inflatable boat they used to go camping in inaccessible areas. Both of them were indistinguishable from what you would get from a factory.

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Because a lot of that was done in the factory meaning there was a cottage industry for a lot of it. Done in a normal factory and then sold on the side. Your salary was say $100 a month no matter what you did, you could make things on state time and then sell it and make double that(and still collect the salary). Same reason why vegetables bought from private peasant plots were amazing and kolkhoz stuff you bought in store was shit(when it was there at all lol).

Of course you had to pay some kick back to a manager or more likely give him a case of samogon.

IIRC, the wife was a chemist, the husband was a physicist(?) and their kid is a Tolkein/D&D nerd who grew up and got a computer job. No factory involved. Before he passed away the husband showed me the arc welder he built and I got to tour his apartment in Moscow that he'd completely remodeled with cast away flooring and wall paneling from some pre-revolution building that was being torn down. He was basically just very "handy" and applied that skill to making camping gear sometimes.

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