The first Russian cars assembled by inventors in the 80s of the 19th century, unfortunately, were never put into mass production, remaining a fun toy for city dwellers. But already at the beginning of the 20th century, the first automobile plant was opened in Russia.
Cars of the Russian Empire
It is widely known from history that the first gasoline-powered cars appeared in the Russian Empire back in 1896. Inventors E. Yakovlev and G. Frese, who worked a lot on the creation of gasoline and diesel engines, created their own car based on the diagrams and drawings of Western engineers and even successfully exhibited it at international technical exhibitions. Development and production were located in Nizhny Novgorod, and the engines came from St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the Frese-Yakovlev car did not become the prototype of the series, remaining a kind of toy for fans of technical innovations.
From 1910 to 1914 the Russo-Balt plant, based in Riga and other cities of present-day Latvia, assembled more than 200 vehicles (including fire engines), based on Western developments (the Belgian brand Fondu). Cars competed in price and quality with American (Ford) and European models, but the main purchases of cars came from Europe.
One of the original Russian factories producing cars was the plant of I. P. Puzyrev. The most famous were the models "28-35" and "A28-40": the engine power of these machines already reached 40 hp, the body acquired an almost modern look, the ground clearance was 320 mm. The speed of these cars was up to 80 km / h. Unfortunately, the owner of the plant and the main generator of ideas, I. P. Puzyrev, died in 1915, after which the plant focused on servicing cars and producing parts.
The first cars of the Soviet Union
After the revolution, the Soviet Union did not have its own automobile production for a long time. The first Soviet cars were also made at Russo-Balta, although the plant was now located in Moscow. The cars were of high quality, reliability and adaptability to Russian roads and climate, but they were produced in an extremely limited number. Normal mass production began in the early 30s, when the Gorky Automobile Plant began to produce the famous GAZ-A and GAZ-AA trucks, the prototypes of which were the Ford models.
Until the beginning of the forties, there were also cars for individual use, now known only to fans of retro cars "Kim", including the most popular "Kim-10". And, finally, immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union simultaneously began to produce Pobeda (GAZ-M-20) and the first Moskvich models - entirely according to the designs of Soviet engineers.
