I believe no one else here has ran the gamut like I did on FSU cams so I speak from quite a bit of experience.
For what they cost today, there are MUCH better options out there. I bought into my Soviet system when it was cheap and you could get something decent, like very first gen Zenit that uses M39 SLR mount, Leningrad, all of the various KMZ lenses, Drug, those were all decent cameras and optically can produce very good results.
The problem is, copy variation. It took me 3 copies to get a good Jupiter-9 85/2. It took me 3 to get a good Leningrad and I broke it anyway. I went through every version of the FED before I found two good ones, a 4 and a 5. I went through two Zorki 4s before I found a good one and broke them both. Same with my Mir. I went through 3 Helios 44's until I paid hipster tax for a nice one, an original M39 SLR SN <10000 that had went through full CLA with documented pictures of the lens being serviced, was worth the money honestly.
For what I spent on all of that to have a fully sorted LTM Soviet system, I could have bought a fucking Leica M6 with three lenses. And I ended up getting a Canon 7s anyway to put my LTM lenses on. Most of these lenses and bodies I had to sort personally and learn camera repair to get them in proper working order.
There are still diamonds in the rough that can be had cheap. The very original Zenit, if you can find a sorted one, is an excellent option and the KMZ and GOMZ lenses that were made for it are winners, all of them. I have pic related, the Mir 1b 37/2.8 which is a Flektogon copy, the Helios 44 58/2 and the Tair-11 133/2.8. I have less than 300 into this whole system and it makes excellent results.
I got the same results with my Kodak Retina Reflex and I paid 300 for the whole entire system and got two bodies and a split-prism finder and actual German glass not Russian glass from Kazakhstan made to look like Nazi lenses from the 1930s.
tl:dr; Communism sucks, get a German or Japanese cam.
