Microcomputer, Sinclair Spectrum Clone (black) Keyboard with Russian characters, Russia, c1985

Microcomputer, Sinclair Spectrum Clone (black) with a Soviet-made keyboard with Cyrillic characters, c. 1985. Large numbers of clones of Sinclair computers were produced in the former Soviet Union. It was impossible for computer enthusiasts to legitimately get hold of genuine western computer technology before the removal of the Iron Curtain, leading electronics enthusiasts in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to reverse-engineer smuggled-in western machines. This process was made more problematical for Soviet users by the fact that they used a different alphabet. Sinclair computers remained popular in Russia until quite recently, although PCs are now predominant as elsewhere in the world.