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Soviet Lawn Mower
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Posted by: Cheburashka

It is very hard to imagine, that people of Soviet Union didn’t have access to many simple appliances many Americans or Western Europeans used every day. For example such a simple thing as a lawnmower was totally absent in Soviet Russian homes. First of all because only village citizens had a right to have a private house - citizens didn’t live in private houses - only in multi-stored, state-owned buildings, so they simply had no lawns to cut, as well as those countrymen who had a private house were too poor or to busy with working in state farms to take care of some lawns.

But still there were lucky ones, those who were lucky enough to have a lawn to take care of and time to do this. They wanted to have a lawnmower but couldn’t buy it - nobody sold them, again, because all the shops were state owned and all suppliers to the shops were state owned factories, producing things according to the Soviet Party Plan without any correlation to the demands of those minor fortunate lawn-owner group members. So they had to build lawnmowers themselves. Different parts of other more available house hold appliances were used, like: child bicycle, baby trolley and the engine was taken from Soviet washing machine.

This particular lawnmower still works and sometimes is used by this Russian man on his “dacha”, the summer wooden cottage where he spends some of his weekends, like many other Russians do.

Posted by: Longfellow

Childs broken bicycle - 2 rubles.
Flux, solder and iron - 5 rubles.
Russian ingenuity - PRICELESS!

Posted by: sidney

Inially my wife had trouble with the concept of mowing your lawn. I never saw a lawn mower in russia myself. I did see hand sickles by probably gov't workers along the highway. Her yard by where she grew up was a combination of dirt and weeds.
Sid

Posted by: AkMike

Hmmm, someone needs to get the Honda franchise for all the FSU...

Posted by: EasyTarget

Honda franchise would not be a bad idea. You could make a mint selling portable generators, with the amount of times the electricity goes out.

Posted by: Chrismc

LOL I don't see any safety precautions being adhered to here

flying blades coming out of the side of the pram chassis is a sobering thought

Posted by: AkMike

Flying blades,,, No Problem..

The next guy'll fix that!

Posted by: dagpop

This mower doesn't require gas.

Posted by: Chrismc

Heres one that looks a little safer

Posted by: Chrismc

Kalashnikov: 'I wish I'd made a lawnmower'

He will go down in history as the creator of the world's most famous rifle, the AK-47, hailed by enthusiasts for its durability and lightweight firepower. But now Mikhail Kalashnikov says he wishes he had paid more attention to his garden instead.

Mr Kalashnikov, now 82 (July 2002), said if he had his time again he would try to design something useful rather than destructive - preferably a lawnmower. "I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists," he said on a visit to Germany, adding: "I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work - for example a lawnmower."

.

Posted by: dagpop

Chris that is a primitive riding lawn mower.

Posted by: GoingToRussia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrismc

Kalashnikov: 'I wish I'd made a lawnmower'

He will go down in history as the creator of the world's most famous rifle, the AK-47, hailed by enthusiasts for its durability and lightweight firepower. But now Mikhail Kalashnikov says he wishes he had paid more attention to his garden instead.

Mr Kalashnikov, now 82 (July 2002), said if he had his time again he would try to design something useful rather than destructive - preferably a lawnmower. "I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists," he said on a visit to Germany, adding: "I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work - for example a lawnmower."

.

Gatling said a similar thing about the gun he invented and Nobel invented dynamite ... he founded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Posted by: EasyTarget

Einstein's famous quote.

"The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."

Posted by: Cheburashka

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrismc

Mr Kalashnikov, now 82 (July 2002)

The old man still walks through his Ukrainian factory occasionally. A friend of mine visited the factory last year and met him. He loved the fact that she weighs about 100 lbs, had never fired an automatic weapon before, and became completely empowered with the first gun burst.

Posted by: Lonestar

Ingenious, to be sure. I'd often wondered about lawnmowers in Russia.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkMike

Hmmm, someone needs to get the Honda franchise for all the FSU...

Or Briggs & Stratton...especially since it's moving production to China, and thus will be nearby.

Posted by: freebird

Russian/Ukrainian car repair kit - duct tape, coat hangers, wire etc.! On our trip to Odessa the muffler fell off, driver got out with some wire and strapped it back on - no Auto club over there!

Posted by: Lonestar

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird

Russian/Ukrainian car repair kit - duct tape, coat hangers, wire etc.! On our trip to Odessa the muffler fell off, driver got out with some wire and strapped it back on - no Auto club over there!

Sounds like something we'd do in our South. Necessity is the mother of invention, y'know.

I once used a paper clip to get a stalled Mercury Cougar running again. It might have been more MacGyver than redneck, but still...