I am curious, for those who know about the specifics of this-- what are some products that Eastern Bloc nations were famous for producing and selling? This could be to their own citizens, or to other Communist countries. I know East Germany produced the Trabi, a fibreglass car. Were there signature products in Romania? Hungary?
I don't know which (if any) product from Eastern Bloc was popular in the West, but I can give you a few examples of such brands that were popular in Poland:
Belarus was well known for their "Minsk" (how creative...) refrigerators - they were loud, they were heavy, but insanely reliable. My grandma was using one up until few years ago.
Polish FSO Fiat cars, models 126p and 125 (manufactured under Italian license), were produced in millions and exported to pretty much every corner of Earth. Some specimens still can be seen in Cuba (http://i.imgur.com/6zMEkEH.jpg)
Unitra is a Polish electronics/radio/Hi-Fi manufacturer
Stomil was a tire manufacturer, got bought out by Michneil at the begining of transformation
Ursus - agriculture machines - they are operating to this day, relatively popular in emerging African markets due to low price, reliability and relatively simple construction allowing owner to make on-site repairs himself.
"Junak" motorcycles and "Romet" bikes - not sure how popular they were outside of Poland. I know that large shipments of bikes were sent off to Vietnam.
"Pewex" and "Baltona" were very "special" chains of stores - you could buy many products unavailable in any other stores. The problem was that they only accepted foreign currencies - "internal export".
Those would be the most "iconic" ones I can think of right now, at least in Poland.
Brands exported to the West (that I personally remember using/seeing in the UK 60s-90s): USSR: Lada cars, Zenit(h) cameras, Stolichnaya vodka, Aeroflot. Poland: Krakus pickles. Czechoslovakia: Skoda cars, Bata shoes, Jawa motorcycles. Yugoslavia: Yugo cars
Brands like Zetor, Tatra, Jawa, and Škoda are older than the Communist regime, but they would certainly have had name recognition for people in Czechoslovakia during that era. There are a number of brands, mostly food, from the Communist era that are still popular today in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for nostalgic reasons: Kofola and Vinea soda, Míša ice cream, Tatranky cookies, Granko hot chocolate mix, Termix pudding, Botas shoes.
