"... the orchestra performers and conductors would have to beg the officials to let the fellow out of jail so he could fix their instruments ..."

Interesting story John.
I spent some of my youth behind the "iron curtain" in the 80's. Your stories fit with my experience. The Domra I had on my bench definitely looked like it was built to tick some numbers box for a bureaucracy that had long ago stopped caring about what they put out.

As a teenager during the cold war period, I headed off to the soviet block expecting to see the big adversary we had been warned about. Some sort of equivalent counterpart to the U.S.A. It was totally stunning. Like climbing into a time machine. They proudly showed off their factories. Dirt floors and horrific conditions, donkeys pulling carts of coal along the streets to heat with. The first sign was climbing onto the Aeroflot airplane and seeing all the tires on the plane were fuzzy!
There was so little rubber left, the cords were just flapping like an old tennis ball. Only the cyclists on the soviet national team had handlebar tape. The others just gripped the aluminum. We brought luggage stuffed with old used bike parts that served as bribes at border crossings. And the food in the spring, after a long winter, Brutal! Racing for days on end while subsisting on last years veggies suspended in aspic. Coca-cola or salt brine water to wash it down.................I digress

He commented that due to currency exchange issues - they usually ended up being paid for these instruments in gold, jewelry, or precious stones..