The State quality mark of the USSR (russian: Государственный знак качества СССР, translit. ) was the official

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

mark for the certification of quality established in 1967.

Symbol

The sign was a pentagonal shield with a rotated letter K (from Russian word – quality) stylized as scales below the Cyrillic abbreviation for

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

(russian: СССР, ).

History

It was used to mark

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

, production, and technical goods to certify that they met quality standards and, in general, to increase the

effectiveness Effectiveness is the capability of producing a desired result or the ability to produce desired output. When something is deemed effective, it means it has an intended or expected outcome, or produces a deep, vivid impression. Etymology The ori ...

of the production system in the USSR. The goods themselves or their packaging were marked, as was the accompanying documentation, labels or tags. Rules of its use were defined by

GOST GOST (russian: ГОСТ) refers to a set of International standard, international Technical standard, technical Standardization, standards maintained by the ''Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC)'', a region ...

, an acronym for "state standard" (), section 1.9-67 (April 7, 1967). The right to use the sign was leased to the enterprises for 2–3 years based on the examination of the goods by the State Attestation Commission (russian: Государственная Атестационная Комиссия, ) that should certify that the goods are of the "higher quality category". That is: * their quality "meets or exceeds the quality of the best international analogs", * parameters of quality are stable, * goods fully satisfy Soviet state standards, * goods are compatible with international standards, * production of goods is economically effective, and * they satisfy the demands of the state economy and the population. Obtaining the sign allowed the enterprises to increase the state controlled price for the goods by ten percent. When the sign was introduced it indeed suggested high quality of the goods but after some time a lot of Soviet-made goods were certified for the sign while their quality often remained below expectations of customers. After dissolution of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, the Russian government introduced its own sign for certification of quality, known as the

Rostest Rostest (russian: Ростест) is the largest organization of practical metrology and certification in the Russian Federation. Rostest attempts to ensure uniformity of measurements in industry, health care, communication systems, trading, mili ...

mark (or R mark).

References

Economy of the Soviet Union Soviet brands Certification marks Consumer symbols 1967 establishments in the Soviet Union {{USSR-stub

Symbol

History

See also

References