Introduction

     Nowadays world, the globalization of markets and the globalization of production is the fusion of historically divided and national markets into one huge market. When trade barriers are eliminated, we can observe the emergence of global brands in national / regional markets that carrys new models of goods to the consumer, example the binoculars. This is wonderful, but at the same time, local manufacturers of binoculars can not compete with global brands both in price and in assortment.
I remember the late 80s-early 90s, when the industry of the USSR could not provide consumers with the necessary goods, at the same time, purchases of goods from world brands were not carried out in connection with political ideology. Only after a few years, supplies of low quality goods mainly from the countries of South-East Asia began to be carried out.
Since 1985-1989 the Camera Stores and Department Stores were showing on the counter with new binoculars and spotting scopes.
Since 1989-1990 the range began to decline sharply and by 1991 there were no more than 10-20% of the assortment on the shelves.
This is a terrible situation when you come to the Camera Stores or  Department Stores to buy or test the binoculars that arrived in the store, and you do not see them, because they do not exist and will never be. Scary, right?
I remember that time, and when I recall it, a cold sweat pierces me every time.

Deliveries of optics to Camera Stores and Department Stores were carried out once in 2 weeks. Department Stores that visited foreign tourists were delivered 1 time per 1 week. Usually the optics devices were received to warehouse that distributed it between Camera Stores and Department Stores. It often happened that good optics were delivered to a provincial Camera Stores, and low-quality optics was supplied to a new Department Store. This was due to the fact that there were limits on the supply of goods. And many directors of Camera Stores and Department Stores agreed to get a quality product for a bribe so that they could sell it to their acquaintances and earn money on this financial transaction. That was the following goods: Praktica cameras with the M42 lens mount (DDR/GDR), Carl Zeiss Jena lenses with the M42 lens mount (DDR/GDR). I've never seen Praktica cameras, Carl Zeiss Jena lenses and Carl Zeiss Jena binoculars  from the DDR/GDR on the shelves Camera Stores and Department Stores in USSR.

In the 90s, before the beginning of 2000, there were almost no import binoculars in the CIS countries. The exception was Carl Zeiss's branded stores, which sold glasses and lenses, and had several binoculars in shops.
Also there were binoculars in the Hunting Shops, which were imported not by official supplies, mostly that was single models.

At that time the most Best Buy binoculars were BPC 8x30, BPC 10x40, BPC 12x45 in soft cases which costed from 20 to 40 dollars. Binoculars of BPShC, BPV, BPB, BP and B series were very expensive and they were bought by few people.

In 2002-2003, Japanese binoculars from the companies Pentax, Olympus, Nikon appeared on the CIS markets. A little later, the first binoculars with optical stabilization were represented by Canon. All those binoculars made a real revolution on the CIS markets.
In comparison with Russian-made binoculars, they were like a miracle from another universe. From that moment, I began to buy actively and test binoculars of famous brands.
My friends often assisted me in this activity but it is the next story.