Cars - Russia: Books - History and Models

Russian Motor Vehicles - Soviet Limousines 1930-2003

This book investigates the whole story of why the Soviet Communist Party required limousines, and how production was subsequently achieved. Following the orders of Stalin, work on the Limousines commenced during the first Five Year Plan (1927-1933) at the Putilov Works, late the Kirov Zavod, where the Leningrad L-1 was made in a limited number.
From these beginnings, the Moscow and Gorky models emerged, and later the Chinese-derived types made with Russian aid during the late 1950s.

Covering all of these models, up to the last one produced in 2003, and featuring full specifications translated from the relevant primary sources in Russian and Chinese literature, this is a meticulous and unique account of a previously neglected subject.

Information

Russian Motor Vehicles: The Czarist Period 1784 to 1917

This work covers the motor vehicle industry in Russia prior to World War I and provides data on steam vehicles, electric vehicles, motor cars, trucks, motor cycles and military vehicles. The writer spent time in the former USSR researching the book, and to his knowledge it is the most comprehensive account of the subject ever produced. The archives of the Polytechnical Museum in Moscow were consulted in depth, and a large number of Russian books in the author's possession have also been examined to achieve a reliable report.

Whilst many books have appeared concerning Russian aircraft, railway locomotives and naval craft, there has been nothing published outside of Russia concerning the activities of its motor industry. Bearing in mind that by 1937 the Soviets had become the largest producers of motor vehicles in Europe, albeit with the help of Henry Ford, it may appear strange that nobody has attempted to document this enterprise in any shape or form in the west.

The writer decided to concentrate on the work of the pioneers in Czarist Russia, for their efforts were more diverse than those of their counterparts in the Soviet era. However, one Soviet motor car which was an indigenous product, and which was manufactured in a factory in Moscow previously occupied by the coach builder P Ilyin, has been included to illustrate how the industry might have evolved if Henry Ford had not been approached.
The writer spent time in Russia in the 1970s, and with the help of the Polytechnical Museum of the USSR and the former trade organization V/O Autoexport, he managed to build up a comprehensive overview of all facets of vehicle production from the early days to the final demise of the Soviet Union. All the manufacturers of motor vehicles, certain accessories, military machines, and even aero engines are recorded in this unique book.

Information

Personenwagen aus Osteuropa - Was nicht in die DDR importiert wurde (Typenkompass)

This book complements the two previously published Typenkompass volumes "DDR-Personenwagen" and "DDR-Personenwagen - Importe aus RGW-Staaten". Many types of cars produced in the other Eastern Bloc countries were not available in the GDR at all or only in the basic version.

This work describes all of these other cars, off-road vehicles and vans with a payload of up to one tonne that were mass-produced in the former Eastern Bloc countries of Bulgaria, Romania, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia, so that all three volumes together provide a comprehensive overview of the variety of types in the Eastern European vehicle industry.

Each type is presented with a photo, a historical description and a technical sheet.

Information