Monday starts with a classic car section. Today I will try to make an excursion into the past and describe the history of the emergence of the automobile concern GAZ. That in Russian stands for “Gorky Automobile Plant”.

The GAZ brand is one of the oldest in Russia. and is of American descent. But, in order. The article will touch on the history of the plant until 1950. The second article on the GAZ plant will touch on the era from 1950 to 1991. The third article is the era from 1991 to 2021.

The decision to create a new brand of cars was made back in 1929. When on March 4, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR signed an order to build the plant. With the subsequent settlement of problems in the choice of the construction site.

And now, on May 31, 1929, the USSR and the American firm "Ford Motor Company" signed an agreement on technical assistance, the supply of production equipment for the production of a passenger car "Ford-A" and a truck "Ford-AA", which the USSR received under license. The equipment was produced in the USA, delivered by sea to the USSR, and installed. The architectural design of the plant was developed by Austin & K.

The construction of the building took 18 months. From May 2, 1930. In 1932, January 1. the plant was successfully launched. And on January 29th. produced the first NAZ-AA truck.



You may ask why the letter “G” in the brand names has been replaced by the letter “N”? Everything is simple here. The fact is that many cities of the USSR were banally renamed. Nizhny Novgorod where the plant was built. was renamed into the "city of Gorky" already on October 7, 1932. and the whole line of cars too. The city received its original name only on October 22, 1990.

The banner that I will attach to the article in social networks will contain the very first car of the brand - “NAZ-AA”.

The plant did not stand still, and continued to produce new car models. Focusing on cargo versions.

So, in 1933, the first, 17-seater GAZ-03-30 bus was produced.


In 1934, a three-axle GAZ-AAA truck, weighing 2 tons; and a dump truck GAZ-410, weighing 1.2 tons.

In 1938, the GAZ-MM truck, with a capacity of 50 horsepower; plus GAZ-42 trucks, a GAZ-60 half-track truck and a GAZ-55 ambulance.




In 1933, the GAZ concern got its own GAZ-4 pickup truck, based on the GAZ-A truck, withstanding up to 500 kg of cargo; in addition, the production of the GAZ-6 sedan was launched.



The production and modernization of cars of the linear brand based on Ford-A (AA) continued until 1935. After which the contract was mutually terminated. But, in return, the USSR received technical documentation for the "Ford Model B" car. On the basis of which, in 1936, the sedan, popular in the pre-war USSR, was created, the sedan, popularly called "Emka".


Modernization of the GAZ-M series continued. And on its basis, in 1937, a new GAZ-M-415 pickup appeared.


From the 39th to the 41st year inclusive, the following were produced: GAZ-11-73 sedan, GAZ-61-40 phaeton, GAZ-61-73 closed-body SUV.




The army, all-wheel drive SUV of the new model GAZ-64, was developed shortly before the war, but its production was only launched in August 1941.

The GAZ plant is known not only for cars and trucks. For some time, he mastered the production of heavy army vehicles - tanks. Such models were: Tank T-38, TM (Molotov Tank).


In 1941, the USSR became a participant in the Second World War. Named in Russia - the Great Patriotic War. During the war years, from 1941 to 1945, the GAZ plant produced:

  • Army cars.
  • Army trucks.
  • Army self-propelled guns.
  • Tanks.
  • Engines.
  • Mortars.
  • Shells for the Katyusha rocket launcher.

Among the models of tanks were the following:

  • T-60
  • T-70
  • T-70-M


  • Self-Propelled Artillery Model - SAU SU-76.

But let's return all the same to cars, and not to tank armament.

Immediately after the end of the war, in 1946, a completely new truck line was developed - the GAZ-51. This model lasted 29 years on the assembly line. A modified version of the GAZ-51-A, was also produced in China, North Korea, Poland, Bulgaria.


Also, from this truck model, there were models - GAZ-63, GAZ-651, GAZ-93, GAZ-51-P, GAZ-47, and other models.

The lineup of passenger cars was also supplemented with a completely new model for the USSR, the GAZ-M-20 model, also called "Pobeda". (On the picture).


This concludes this article. There will be a separate article about each of the above machines.