It was a popular model.
In just over a decade, over 2.5 million KVNs were sold throughout the country.
One striking feature of the television set is the large magnifying lens in front of the screen.
The lens is made of plastic and is filled with a clear liquid such as distilled water or glycerol.
The Soviets had a voraciousappetite for televisionbut not enough money to buy bigger sets.
Broadcasting itself was heavily subsidized by the state.
This set, another KVN-49, has a squarish magnifying lens.
Photo credit:Soviet Visuals/Twitter
Television first came to the Soviet Union in 1934.
Videos had an abysmal frame rate of only 12.5 frames per second.
The market grew rapidly after the end of the Second World War, and exploded during the 1950s.
Yet, each of the two families crammed into the tiny space possessed a set of their own.
In 1955, there were around 1 million television owners in the Soviet Union, mostly in Moscow.
By the end of the decade there were roughly 25 million households in the USSR with television sets.
Astoundingly, television was never treated as a luxury.
Throughout the 1950s and the 60s, factories struggled to keep pace with the demand for television.
The Ostankino Tower in Moscow.
It is currently the tallest free-standing structure in Europe and 11th tallest in the world.
In 1980, a total of 2.26 million sets were manufactured and 2,126 fires were reported.
People were killed and buildings burned down, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported.
Even if a family did have a functioning television, there was hardly anything to watch.
Moscow TV, the countrys most developed station, aired for only four hours daily.
Why this is so, even we cannot really explain.
A mechanical scan television set manufactured in the Soviet Union.
Photo credit:Runner1616/Wikimedia
A Soviet house with a television set.
Photo credit: M. Filimonov/Sputnik
A Soviet family enjoying a television program.
Photo credit: Anatoliy Garanin/Sputnik
A Soviet television store.
Photo credit: Anatoliy Garanin/Sputnik
A Soviet television store.
Photo credit: Sergey Subbotin/Sputnik
