I first visited the Soviet Union in 1964 and was amazed to see the wide variety of Soviet-made cameras, few of which I had seen in the west. After further visits, I started collecting Russian, or rather Soviet-made, cameras in 1980. Although second-hand cameras were somewhat elusive, Russian friends began helping me, and by the end of the decade a wider variety of cameras became easier to find.
In 1994 I started the Russian Camera Collectors Club (RCCC), and also began to give talks to camera collectors' clubs around the U.K. In 2009 the RCCC became subscription-free and web-based. I closed the RCCC website in December 2010. By 2011 my collection amounted to around 470 cameras and over 200 accessories. My original aim was to collect one of each model, but as we have all now discovered, there are increasing numbers of variations of each model to be found. It appears that my collection may never be complete! Well, by 2017 I had accumulated around 600 Soviet-made cameras and decided that the time had come to stop collecting. In 2018 I sold my collection, but I remain fascinated by Soviet cameras. Many thanks to Vlad for such an incredible web site.