That would be logical for USSR culture, but it's completely at odds with AK family reputation — these rifles are said to be one very durable with minimum maintenance.
Now during Ukraine-Russia war after storages of Soviet weapon were opened in Ukraine, some series/years of AK assault rifles were dismissed outright as unusable.
Quality and reliability weren't controlled for in USSR. Only sheer numbers.
There were no penalties in USSR for doing half-assed job (unless someone died because of it, and even then not always). Everyone had a right to work. Even if you're fired (which almost didn't happen), you'll have another shitty job with the same shitty pay in no time.
Is that so? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_quality_mark_of_the_USSR: "Obtaining the sign allowed the enterprises to increase the state controlled price for the goods by ten percent." Arguably this was abused, as explained later, but the original statement that quality control was absent in USSR is not entirely correct. There were penalties for "doing things deliberately wrong" and quite severe from what I recall. Then again I might have warped perception as I grew up in a city with several "black box factories".
There is a difference between actual quality of mass produced items and "obtaining the sign". Either decision was made behind closed doors according to Party interests or limited series (tens of units if not less) were manufactured to get positive assessment.
Everything made in USSR was shit, unless manufactured on recently imported equipment.
