Let those people cross: respect the pedestrians

As the Soviet Union could possibly be named the country of propaganda, this array of fun educational posters only supports this notion — albeit this time in quite a positive sense. A Ukrainian authorship of the road rules and safety in a funky and engaging manner teaches drivers to give way to pedestrians, respect the zero tolerance limit, reminds of the school zone rules as well as the necessity to get the car checked regularly. Possibly kitschy, but it does get the message across. Enjoy!

School zone: be extra attentive!

Breaking the road rules affects everyone on the roads.

The sign is the boss.

Let the passengers off safely.

Keep it safe.

Do check the car’s fitness

Just a drop can catch up with you

Keep to your lane: swinging is dangerous.

Related posts:

1. The Patriotic Education in the USSR. Part One: the October Kids.
2. Good-Natured Humour Postcards from the 1950s
3. Viticulture of the Soviet Union in Old Ad Posters

A good example of how the ideas to make a new car were born is the story of the factory “Communar”. The Minister of Car Manufacturing made a call to the factory where designers thought over the scheme of a new Ukrainian car and literally said: “I heard you were going to make a spring suspension from the “Volkswagen” but I actually like the Italian Fiat-600”. Shortly the factory commenced the production of ZAZ-965 –nearly the exact copy of the Fiat.

ZAZ-965

By the way, the next model of ZAZ was the replica of German NSU Prinz 4. This car was remembered by the nicknames “Soap Box” and “Big-eared”.

The car for the middle class which replaced “Pobeda” was labelled  in the honour of the great Russian river “Volga”. The design of the car was very much identical to the design of Ford Mainline, 1954, purchased by GAZ as a pattern alongside with Chevrolet Belair and Plymouth Savoy. Even before the new car was put into production, the popular Soviet magazine “Ogoniok” awkwardly published pictures of these three cars with an arrogant headline: “New Soviet cars for the middle class”.

Volga

Despite the popularity of Volkswagen around the world their Soviet copy was not really popular among the consumers. To produce another mass car the Soviet government signed the  contract with Italian Fiat. The capacity of the factory allowed to produce about five thousands cars per year.

At the time, Leonid Brezhnev was ruling the country: he was passionate about cars and racing. In 1965 he got an exclusive American Lincoln Continental sent to USSR right from the Car Exhibition in New York.  The car was purchased by the Soviet Ambassador and was built by the company Lehman & Peterson. This had brought stretch limousines into the fashion.  Lincoln was sent to ZIL where the engineers made a copy which was sent to production by the anniversary of the Great October Socialistic Revolution in 1967.  No doubt, the original Lincoln was much more elegant and graceful than its replica ZIL-114.  Nevertheless, the new Soviet limo was not that bad.  In early 1970s the car was redesigned, based on another American sample. A Cadillac Fleetwood 75 was turned into a ZIL-115 — to serve the aged and weak-minded Soviet leader.

Right up to the collapse of the USSR the Soviet car industry used the same procedure of shameless copying. In order to build “Moskvich-1241″, the engineers slightly disfigured Chrysler 1501. Famous “Zhiguli” was copied from Nissan Sunny 1978 although later they were slightly modernized by the engineers of Porsche.

Probably, “Niva” were the only exception – it was made in a way to make people to cry. That car was ‘too-Russian’ to be good.

Related posts:

1. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 2 of 3
2. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 1 of 3
3. Soviet Automobile Industry — Part 2 of 2

In early 1930s without any licensing arrangements the Soviet engineers copied the first limousine car  for the Communist party executives. In 1932 six limousines were copied off the American Buick 90L. However,  later the factory production line was switched to producing caterpillar tractors,so the limousine business was shifted to Moscow Stalin Factory.

ZIS-101

The car, based on the engine of the Buick and the body copied off the Cadillac, was given another non-poetic name, ZIS — 101.  It also had Buick radiator bars.

By the beginning of the Second World War there were three huge car factories in the USSR.  Despite the fact that the USSR already had its own highly educated and talented engineers,  the very first post-war limousine ZIS-110 was also a copy of an obsolete American car.   When making a decision about the launch of a new car, the engineers selected four models – Packard 180, Packard Clipper, Cadillac 75 and Cadillac 63.   Stalin himself was to make the decision, and he picked the Packard 180.

Chaika

In August 1945 the Soviet government issued a decree on the opening the Moscow Factory of Small Capacity Cars.   The same decree established the technical features of the new car as well as the commencement dates for the production lines.   The patterns for the new car were also selected by Stalin.  The Soviet leader liked the pre-war German Opel Cadette.  In order to please Stalin, the Soviet engineers urgently found several trophy C-38.   The cars were dismantled and the designs of the parts were sketched.  The first five engines were made by November 1946 and the cars were on the road by the end of the same year.  Interestingly enough, thenext generation of cars under the brand “Moskvich” was made on the basis of American Ford Prefect and Ford Taurus rather than the German range.   The samples of those cars were purchased abroad.

The denouncement of the Stalin cult and a new seven-years plan to develop the Soviet economy for the period of 1959–1965 had  inspired the Soviet engineers to create more cars.  The flagman cars of that time were the ZIL-111 and GAZ-13 “Chaika” developed after the trial runs of best American executives cars.  The ambitions towads the rapidly changing American fashion had made the ZIL-111 obsolete by the beginning of 1960s.   That is why this car was later redesigned in the Cadillac style of 1960–1961.  Nevertheless, the production of GAZ-13 “Chaika” was continued without any changes in its design till the 1979.

Related posts:

1. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 3 of 3
2. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 1 of 3
3. Soviet Automobile Industry — Part 1 of 2

Once some music composer said  that “There are only seven notes which compose all the music in the world.  No wodner some songs sound alike”.  Undoubtedly,  all cars  have got four wheels, so plagiarism in the automobile industry is hard to pinch.  In this article we deliberately ignore a popular Soviet point of view that a steam locomotive, an airplane and the radio were not invented in Russia.  All we attempt here is to make a small digression into the history of Soviet automobile industry in order to identify its origins and its development.

ZIS-110

A Russian  philosopher Vasiliy Rosanov once noted that in Russia every single case of wealth originates from theft or extortion.  Historically, the economy of the Russian Empire before the 1917 was so deeply integrated into the European economy that the exchange of ideas, something, which now would have been hugely copyrighted, was very common.  Like, in 1901 in St Petersburg the carriage factory Freze and the Riga bicycle factory Leitner successfully assembled the French oil engines De Dion Buton as part of Russian carriages. Another factory Aksai in Rostov-on-Don purchased the license for the production of the American Oldsmobile Carved Dash.  In 1906 a Russian engineer Boris Lutskoy organised the assembling of  Mercedes cars for the Russian market. At last, the main pride of Russia – the automobile Russo-Balt — was made from foreign parts – the chassis with four-cylinder engine was adopted from a Belgian company with a Swiss name Fondu.

The October revolution of 1917 created  a popular in  Russia myth that all things have been invented in, well, Russia.  The reasons for that would be merely ideological: the new born country needed new morale.  According to an old Soviet joke, even “elephants come from Russia”.  The most progressive country in the World, as coined by the revolutionary communists, should strike the rest of the world with advanced technologies, the propaganda advised.  In order to create the real Soviet cars,  the communists established the Research Automobile Laboratory (later known as NAMI). The very first Soviet motor car NAMI-1 was actually a graduation project by a young engineer Konstantin Sharapov.   The car turned out to be so successful that it was put into production right away. Later,  in 1979, Konstantin confessed to copying  the charts for NAMI-1 off the Czech Tatra-11.

The notorious NAMI-1

During the period from 1927 to 1930,  the factory assembled 403 NAMI-1 models.  Despite all its advantages, this car was not planned for the mass production.  At the same time,  any manager of the robust mind realised that the Soviet Industrialisation needed mass production.   The Soviet Russia wanted giant factories, but what would be the product?

In 1929 the USA was stricken by a severe economic crisis.   As the result of this crisis, the production of Chevrolet halved, the production of Ford dropped three times!   Despite the absence of diplomatic relations between the USSR and the USA, both Chevrolet and Ford offered their production to the Soviet government.  No need to guess,  shortly afterward the awfully cracked Russian roads were voyaged by the dazzling American beauties of all kinds.   The long rally was won by Ford A and, consequently, this car was put into production in the USSR.

The Soviet Ford

The first automobiles under the brand GAZ left the factory in December, 1932.  Quite rapidly these cars got nicknamed as “Soviet Fords”.   Even the logo was very similar – blue oval with the brand GAZ instead of Ford. The car was not a success, however,  as the open body and the lack of boot turned to be its main downsides. Within 5 years the new car GAZ M1 replaced the old model.   Now the body was copied from 1934 model of Ford, although the model was adapted to suit the severe Russian conditions. The front suspension was based on two springs rather than on one, unlike  in the American version, and the wheels were of a different shape.   Later on, the design charts for  GAZ M1 were utilised  for almost all Soviet-made cars.

To be contunied.

Related posts:

1. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 2 of 3
2. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 3 of 3
3. Soviet Automobile Industry — Part 1 of 2

Zaporozhets, ZAZ 968A

In 1960 the construction of a huge car plant in Ukraine was finished and the new car “Zaporozhec” ZAZ-965 (later nicknamed “Humpbacked”) was offered for sale. In terms of design, it was a unique car despite the numerous talks that it was just a replica of Volkswagen “Beetle” and Fiat “Topolino”. This car had a hard roof (unlike Fiat) and an air-cooled engine (unlike “Beetle”). This small inexpensive car rapidly gained high popularity with people not only in the USSR but also abroad.

Zaporozhets, ZAZ 965

By the middle of 1960-s the volume of car production was not high enough to meet the growing demand. In 1966 the Soviet Government issued a decree on the construction of new car plants. The Moscow car plant was reconstructed and the volume of production was increased from 90,000 cars to 180,000. However those were not  sufficient volumes and then it was decided to start developing cars in collaboration with the Italian FIAT.

FIAT, ancestor of Lada 1300 (VAZ 2101)

The first car made due to this collaboration was VAZ 2101 “Zhiguli” which was partially copied off the FIAT-124. Nevertheless there was a sufficient difference between these cars. VAZ was equipped with a newer engine, brakes and reinforced body to fit the condition of a longer-term service, which was probably different to the one in Europe. After the redesign and modifications the car mass production had commenced.
Almost after the production was launched, the USSR stopped its collaboration with the FIAT. As the result they denied the production of full replica of FIAT “Mirabell” (as supposed by the agreement) but developed the unique model “Niva”.

Lada Niva

Realistically, the “Niva” was one the best cars ever produced in the Soviet Union. This car was the realisation of the concept of a “beach crossover” which became a poster child in the rest of the world. Later ALL foreign developments made on the edge between real off-roader and 4WD station-wagon cars were the copies of this concept, initially used in model VAZ-2121 “Niva” in 1977.

Lada 1600, VAZ 2106

In 1984, the Soviet engineers presented a new family of cars under the brand “Samara” initially introduced by VAZ-2108 (later supplemented with VAZ-2109 in 1987 and VAZ-21099 in 1992). This car was widely selling in Germany, France, GB and Canada in large extent because of the low price (in comparison with main rivals Ford “Escort” and Toyota “Corolla”) and powerful economic engine.

Lada Samara, VAZ 2108

Meanwhile another car plant in Soviet city Izhevsk produced the concept model IZH-2126. This was a car of absolutely new generation – equipped with automatic transmission, ABS and double axle drives. Nevertheless the production of this car started only in 1992 in a well-simplified version.

IZH-2126, Oda

At the same time in the late 1980s the car production industry in the USSR began to lag behind  its competitors in the US and Europe. Funding of the production of new models stopped (as it was in the planned economy of the USSR), car part suppliers did not have the new  parts, and parts made were frequently defected. Nowadays the car plants industry is mostly a legacy of the Soviet Union whereas the models of the cars are still sufficiently behind their Western counterparts but the price ranges are similar to the new European cars of a far better quality.

Here and below are some of the most popular cars in 1990 by Los Angeles Times chart.

Mazda Miata MX 5

Lexus LS400

Related posts:

1. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 3 of 3
2. Soviet Automobile Industry — Part 1 of 2
3. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 1 of 3

Let us start with some sad news. Objectively, the automobile industry in modern Russia is way behind the rest of the world, with a 10 to 15 year progress gap.  Lagging behind in technology, low and inconsistent quality of parts and assembling are the actual problems of all car plants in Russia. But was it all the same back in the Soviet times? Today we are going to try and answer this question.

Lada 1300/1.2 or VAZ 2101

Back in remote 1945, the year of the Victory in Second World War, just one day before the Triumph Parade in Moscow the team of Soviet engineers introduced new model M-20 “Pobeda” (eng.: Victory) to Stalin. Stalin was dissatisfied. “That is definitely not our best victory”, — he said with a frown. Nevertheless in the fall of 1945 the car mass production commenced.

Soon, in 1947, “Pobeda” was awarded the medal of the World Car Exhibition in Brussels and shortly afterwards these cars were exported to Western Europe.  “This car is a real Russian tank. It does not care about bad roads, … its cabin is warm and convenient…” – was written in one Belgian car review article.

Pobeda cabriolet

“Pobeda”, designed during the Second World War,  became the world trend setter. Its most distinguishing feature was the absence of the wheel arch skirts. Later this innovation was widely used in the design of many cars made in the USA and Europe. This can be easily proved by comparing “Pobeda” to 50-s Volvo: the fronts look very similar.

Volvo replica of Soviet Pobeda

“Pobeda” was produced in the USSR from 1946 till 1958 in two modifications of the cabin – sedan and cabriolet; a 4WD option was available. Even after the phase-out, the manufacturing rights were purchased by a Polish manufacturer “Warsaw”, which carried it on  till 1974 (sic!).

Willis

Soviet off-road vehicles of that time were introduced by the model GAZ-67. The brisk military jeep looked quite similar to American “Willis” but from the technical point of view, it was an analogue of GAZ-61 designed in 1941, and thus, was an exclusive Soviet development. This car was in the military inventory of the USSR and friendly nations of Eastern Europe. In the winter of 1967 under –50 degrees Celsius two-car race of GAZ-61 started from Russian Yakutsk through to themost Northern point of the USSR Cape Dezhnev. This result was repeated only in 1998 when later models were specially developed and equipped.

GAZ 61–417

In 1956 the new Soviet car “Volga” GAZ-21, also awarded by the Brussels Exhibition, was introduced. The first modification of “Volga” GAZ-21G had an engine from “Pobeda” and a three-speed gear box. In 1957, this car was modified  — now to an automatic transmission (sic!). It was a great success for the USSR automobile industry at the time. It was a fine car with a figurine of a deer on the bonnet and five-pointed star on the radiator, with a roomy comfortable cabin, powerful engine and automatic transmission (never introduced in USSR before).  Unfortunately, the level of car maintenance of that time was not high enough to service and repair automatic transmissions, and as a result, the production was cut down after only 300 cars were produced.

Volga GAZ-21

To replace GAZ-21, the Soviet engineers introduced GAZ-21P where the only difference was the absence of automatic transmission. By 1959 the five-pointed star on the radiator was replaced by vertical slots in the grid. Three years later the figurine of a deer also vanished distressing the potential buyers. Instead the car was modified with a new engine with 75 horse powers (an even more on export modifications).

Volga GAZ 21

The actual price of this masterpiece of the Soviet automobile industry was about 10,000 rubles. Interesting to mention, an average salary of a Russian worker was 120 rubles per month.  According to the statistical data of 1970 only 2 households out of 100 owned a automobile. Dig it.

Related posts:

1. Soviet Automobile Industry — Part 2 of 2
2. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 3 of 3
3. Soviet Cars: History of the Copy-and-Paste Industry — Part 2 of 3