1963 Selga (Селга)
Micro-table / coat pocket radio, thermoplastic cabinet
6 5/8 x 3 13/16 x 1 5/8 inches / 168 x 97 x 41 mm
2-band LW/MW, six transistors (Russian, 3x П-15, 3x П-401 + д9B diode)
Superheterodyne circuit
One tubular 9-volt battery(?)
Manufactured at Rigas Radio Rupnica (RRR); Riga, Latvia
With its reverse-painted plastic tuning dial and a red/white/black/gold color scheme, this Soviet radio’s cabinet design follows Japanese cabinet designs familiar in the West at the time. Made both for the Soviet domestic market and for export, the Selga's export version is one of the few "early" USSR transistor radios that can be found today on Western auction sites.
Unlike the cheap-production reverse-painted plastic found on the Сокол (Sokol) made in the same year, the Selga's better-made reverse-painted plastic has held up well on most of the examples I've seen.
Quite a few more radios named "Selga" came out over the following decade or more, some of them in large quantities for export, and most or all of them having much lower cabinet manufacturing standards.
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