And note that the first four USSR transistor radios shown on this site ( Atmosphere, Spidola, Neva, Gauja) each use only two different transistors in their circuits (yes, that includes the ten-transistor Spidola!). The Cold War still lives on in many Western minds in sentiments best typified as, “The Russians couldn't even build a decent refrigerator.” And it's true that the USSR's best engineers took an embarrassingly long time to perfect production methods for the transistor device itself - 1957's history-changing Sputnik 1 went into orbit without a single transistor in its circuits. These sets live in a sort of parallel universe of transistor radio history, one which until seven or eight years ago I didn't even know existed. What I find of interest about these radios:įirst, just the fact that they exist.
Several dozen more transistor radio models were produced in the first half of the 1960s - most were domestic, some were also exports - and a few interesting models appeared in the latter half of the '60s, particularly the Orljonok micro-radios, memorable for their toy-like plastic color combinations. And like the TR-1, both the Atmosphere and the Neva were available in a plentiful variety of cabinet colors. The first mass-production Russian “pocket” transistor radio, Neva, came out in 1960 - a 6-transistor vertical shirt pocket set with almost exactly the same cabinet dimensions as the Regency TR-1 but with a price you couldn't beat: 43 Rubles (about $1.50).
#1970s satellite vintage transistor radio portable
The second “mass-production” (probably fewer than 10,000 units produced) Russian transistor radio, Atmosphere, appeared at the beginning of 1959, produced at Voronezh Radio Works - this was a small lunchbox portable with a truly memorable cabinet design, highly treasured today by Russian collectors, though more for its rarity and early production date than for its cabinet design. This second Surprise model, with its paltry 2700 units reportedly produced, could be considered as having been the first Soviet "mass-production" transistor radio, even if the production run was very limited. These were produced in the Russian factories Voronezh Radio Works in western Russia near the Ukraine boarder (Sverdlovsk, Sputnik, first Surprise, Progress) and Znamia Truda Plant in Saratov in southern Russia (second Surprise). The first five Soviet transistor radio models are reported to have been produced in 19: Sverdlovsk, Sputnik, Surprise, Progress, and another model also named Surprise: All but the second Surprise model (2700 units reportedly produced) were produced in very small runs, only a few hundred units each, with the first four (perhaps excepting Sputnik) currently described as having been "experimental" models. As of this writing (August 2014), domestic models made in the late 1950s and early '60s have rarely shown up on eBay over the years and are pretty much still found today only in Russia. The domestic models are a different story. While it's true that several 1960s Soviet transistor radio models (Spidola, Cosmos, Mikro, Sokol, Selga, Signal) were exported to Great Britain and Western Europe, and some of these in massive quantities, most transistor radios from the late '50s and early '60s that were produced in Russia were made for the Soviet domestic market only and apparently not even for export to the satellite states of Eastern Europe.Īn eBay search for “Russian transistor radio”, “Soviet transistor radio” or “USSR transistor radio” will normally bring up a load of Russian 1970s and '80s models on US eBay - also, a few of the above-listed earlier '60s models will often appear on UK eBay and eBay Germany: Nearly all of these radios were export products, each bearing the English-language phrase stamped on the back of the set, “MADE IN USSR”. Further info on early Soviet transistors can be found on Andrew Wylie's Soviet Union Vintage Semiconductors page. The Soviet Union's development of transistor devices was well behind the times, though probably not as far behind as most transistor radio collectors in the West might have thought: the USSR's first point-contact transistors were created in the early 1950s, and the first Soviet-made junction transistors were produced in the mid- and late-1950s - the later devices among these included the black top hat versions found in most of the early Soviet transistor radios from the late-1950s through the mid-1960s. Soviet transistor radios (Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus): Transistor Radios Around the World Home - Timeline - Radios by Countryīefore '54 - US - Western Europe - Japan - East Europe and USSR
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