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Very few Russian sets remain operating in Cuba. For many years all TVs were B/W, mainly tube/hybrid models (and the transistorised Caribe assembled here with the circuit of the Elektron 216) As you say, components were not good. Apart of what you said, transistors were very unreliable and many capacitors (mica and electrolytics) failed miserably. Paper capacitors were not so bad, and on the other hand Russian paper-oil capacitors and oxide-film resistors will probably outlive the Pyramids.
In the 80īs started coming to our stores Russian color TVs. Elektron 280/288, Horizon and Krim (donīt remember the model Nos). All with faded-out color CRTs, with the same problems of the B/W sets but many other of their own. No wonder almost nobody has one working (but some people that canīt afford a new TV still have some Caribes or maybe Krims, I used to call them Kriminals.
Maybe some caught fire, but in our homes it was more likely to have a fire for other causes (bad electrical installation, or maybe kerosene kitchens left unattended).
Portable radios like the VEFs 205-206, Meridian 201, Orbita-4 (assembled here as Taino 74), Selena 215-216 and others were plenty in the 70s. In Cuba we assembled a Varadero radio-rassette-recorder that used to be called Spidola in the USSR. Apart for that and the Selena, no Russian radio had the FM band that we youngsters wanted to hear music broadcasts from the US.
Just a few of them survive, and most donīt work. My filmmaking colleagues have a bad time finding a Russian radio/TV to be used as a prop, even if it is not going to be turned on.
But all the same I think we all remember these old sets with some sympathy. We grew with them! (Because of the US embargo, it was that, or a crystal set, unless your father was a pilot/merchant mariner and could bring you a brand-new Sony Trinitron).
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