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About 30 years ago Soviet citizens could only dream about a car, which was never regarded as just a vehicle. To enjoy driving their own car people had to register for a waiting list and only then they had a right to purchase a private auto.
Today city citizens prefer foreign cars to domestic ones, but there was a time when having a car was a special privilege placing the lucky person above all others.
Here are some notes about the key Russian car manufacturers fighting for Russian consumers.
Avtovaz
The name of Avtovaz is firstly associated with Lada model, probably the most frequently met Russian car model on the roads. However, Avtovaz is the leading Russian passenger car manufacturer and now produces a wide range of models quite popular in the country (Niva, Oka, Lada).
Avtovaz dates back to 1966, when the construction works on a new car-making plant started. The Soviet Union and Italian Fiat concluded a cooperation agreement on conjoint development of an automobile design and car-making plant. The term of the contract was 8 years.
The first plant Volzhsky was built in Togliatti, modern Samara Region. In April 1970 first six cars VAZ 2101 were produced. By the end of the year the plant had released 350 cars per day, which was some kind of a record. Since then VAZ cars have been repeatedly awarded and received the reputation of the most public cars for the Soviet people.
Lada Kalina
Nowadays Avtovaz maintains its role as the key Russian passanger car manufacturer and cooperates with General Motors. New model Chevrolet Niva is the result of interests of the two companies.
Avtovaz model line: Lada Kalina, Lada Priora, Lada Samara and others. In the period of 1970-2002 the enterprise produced over 21 million cars with the current plant capacity of 70 000 autos per year.
Gaz Group
Gaz Group is the biggest car manufacturer in Russia. Today it comprises Gaz automobile works, Pavlovski Avtobus, LDV Holding, ltd, Golitsynski automobile works, Yaroslavl Motor Workshop, Ulyanovsk Motor Workshop and several other enterprises.
The company was formed in 2005 due to restructuring productive assets of RusPromAvto. However, all the plants working for Gaz Group were constructed in the days of the Soviet Union. The place of Gorkovsky (Gaz) automobile works is in the front rank. Started in 1929 the works soon signed an agreement with American Ford Motors on technical help and cooperation to produce Ford-A class passenger cars in the Soviet Union. The role of the works in the days of the WWII can’t be overestimated: over 9 000 self-propelled mounts, 12 000 tanks, 24 000 mortar launchers, over 30 000 missiles for missile launchers Katyusha.
Pobeda
After the war the works initiated production of a new truck GAZ 51, and then a new passenger car GAZ M 20 Pobeda (Victory) – this model was recognized abroad and became very popular.
Other well-known cars are Volga and Chaika – in 1958 at the international exhibition in Brussels they won Grand Prix. In the 1960s the works renewed its line of trucks.
In 1981 a ten-million automobile was produced at the plant.
Kamaz
KAMAZ Open Joint Stock Company was established in 1990 as a descendant of industrial association KAMAZ that had been founded in 1969. KAMAZ Inc. is the largest Russian vehicle manufacturer, which insures transport safety of the country.
KAMAZ Inc. is a large vehicle building company. The united production complex of KAMAZ Inc. consists of 13 large special-purpose plants developing, producing, assembling vehicles and components and also marketing end products. The KAMAZ Group of companies consists of 96 enterprises including NefAZ OJSC (Neftekamsk city) and Avtopritsep-KAMAZ OJSC (Stavropol city). Share of KAMAZ Inc. is 51% in each of these two companies.
The first truck was assembled in February 1976. Since then KAMAZ Inc. has been playing a significant role in the world automobile industry. It is among the top ten manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles and is the eighth in the world on production volumes of diesel engines. Thus, within 29 years there has been assembled over 1,7 million heavy-duty trucks and 2,3 million engines. KAMAZ Inc. manufactures a wide range of heavy-duty dump trucks (more than 30 models and about 400 modifications trucks with a right-side steering wheel), buses, trailers, castings, forgings, tools and many others.
KAMAZ is the major vehicle supplier for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, RAO GAZPROM, LUKOIL, SUEK, TNK.
Automobile plant ZIL has many times been renamed, but initially it was called AMO, meaning Automobile Moscow Society. The plant was established in 1916 and was expected to manufacture F 15 trucks under the license of Italian company “FIAT”. However, these plans were not to become implemented due the Revolution and the Civil War. The nationalization of the unfinished works (August, 15, 1918) fixed the expropriation of the property of AMO shareholders. The unfinished enterprise in its essence turned into big workshops where vehicles and other machinery were repaired. 
In 1931 the plant was launched again after reconstruction and in October of the same year it was named after Stalin - ZIS. ZIS 101, the first Soviet seven-seater limousine, was assembled at the plant. ZIS 101’s design was based on the natural sample of American passenger car Buick.
After the WWII the plant manufactured mostly new truck models and buses. In 1956 Ivan Alekseevich Likhachov died, and the plant was named after him. After the successful round-Earth flight of Yuri Gagarin, the space industry developed quickly in the Soviet Union. ZIL was forgotten and produced rescue-emergency vehicles (PEU-1) targeted at rescuing and evacuation operations of space devices and cosmonauts.
On September 23, 1992 PA ZIL was privatized as the first one in the industry and the one of the first among the largest enterprises in Russia, and it was transformed into Open Joint Stock Moscow Company "Plant named after I. Lihachov" (AMO ZIL) keeping the trademark "ZIL". Today ZIL manufactures 3 to 8 ton capacity trucks along with vans, limousines and buses.
Sources:
www.lada-auto.ru
www.gazgroup.ru
www.amo-zil.ru
www.kamaz.net
Olga Pletneva
