There was no need for KGB to steal everything, as they already had good optics; the Zeiss factories were moved to Russian-controlled teritories during the Second World War[1], including workers.
A lot more designs than were stolen by the west from the west or non-existant designs stolen from the east by the west.
The parent comentator has a valid point, the East usually copied good designs from the West.
Which they could improve.
I had a teacher in the early '90s that said the Japanese were the best at reinventing things. They would take something, study it, and remake them better.
Re:Before you buy a Soviet Camera
by alistairSH on Monday March 01, 2021 @04:46PM
(#26308892)
I mean..........urgh. It's an unbelivably convoluted topic and I feel like just dismissing it as "stolen by KGB from the West" is simply unfair.
Yep. The article even mentions that initial designs for some of these cameras were taken as war reparations in the aftermath of WWII. I suppose Leica might see that as theft, but it was hardly KGB espionage.
Yes, a lot of designs were simply copied from western equivalents. But also a lot of designs weren't, or were actually improvements over western designs in some crucial ways(washing machines being overbuilt because repairs were unlikely, so certain components were upgraded to last longer). Soviets(and the rest of the Eastern block) had plenty of brilliant, incredibly skilled and competent engineers and designers and thinkers, and they all did the best with what they had access to. It's a topic worthy of tomes of literature.