I figured the West has unified its format by only using VHS, and producing VCR to fit one model, though produced by multiple companies. While this is the result of Japanese predominance in electronics manufacturing from the 50's to early 1990's, I believe the USSR didn't have something quite like it. So was there a "electronic" country ? (I remember reading about Yugoslavia having been a leader in Socialist-countries computing). What were the means of recording in the USSR, and were there available ? The "consumer" market was very different and products were basic (mostly), but I can't picture a European country with no civilian appliance for taping things.
Thanks for your answer ! (and also, applies to audio cassette. Were these available in the USSR ?)
I'm not an expert on The Soviet Union but I have a strong interest in and experience with tech. So a Soviet expert may be able to add a lot to the discussion. But to quickly answer your main question, the main format used popularly in the USSR was VHS and the VCR.
There were other forms of magnetic recording devices used mostly by professionals but I don't know much about them. You seem most interested in personal use though.
According to several US news articles the machines first appeared by being brought back by those who had travelled to the West. Demand for the devices began to grow and video parlors had opened by 1985 using the VHS format.
Here's a link to a book called "Split Signals" by Ellen Propper Mickiewicz.
This book was published in 1988 and she wrote about television in the USSR during this time and has a section just on VCR production and usage. Highlighted is a reference to the Elektronika VM-12 which was one of the first Soviet produced VCRs.
Electronika is a brand name used to describe consumer products created by Soviet military industrial engineers. It's still in use today in Belarus. Although according to Mickiewicz the VM-12 was produced in Voronezh a Russian city south of Moscow.
Unfortunately I'm unaware of the ability of these Soviet produced machines to record as well as playback. The way Mickiewicz describes the machines it seems like the government wanted to be able to control what was available and supplant a growing black market for video watching with approved materials.
Links to contemporary news articles:
*Chicago Tribune Discusses early use and has some pretty slanted views on Vodka vs Video as a hobby.
*LA Times Discusses copy protection and privacy.
*Baltimore Sun Written by a Soviet immigrant to America, it has an interesting personal perspective on the format and the exchange of culture it allowed.