The GAZ-M20 Pobeda is a Soviet mid-size passenger car that was mass-produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) from 1946 to 1958.[2] The third generation of GAZ passenger cars and the successor to the M-1, the Pobeda was the first Soviet passenger car with a load-bearing four-door ponton body, and one of the first such mass-produced cars in the world — with no separate fenders, protruding headlights, or running boards.[1]

Development History

The government commission to design a new passenger car was received by GAZ management in December 1941 — in the midst of the war, when the plant was entirely focused on military production. The project was put on hold. Around the same time, at the end of 1941, a captured German Opel Kapitän of 1938 vintage Gorky: it was selected as the prototype as the model best matching the requirements of the commission and Soviet engineers' vision of a modern passenger car. The Pobeda's suspension and body structure were copied from the German Opel Kapitän, though the engineering experience accumulated during years of work on military vehicles led the designers to integrate the fenders into the rear of the body — to ensure the rigidity of the load-bearing structure.[3] The project was resumed in 1943 — the day after the Battle of Stalingrad ended, a meeting of engineers from the People's Commissariat of Medium Machine Building was held in Moscow, at which GAZ chief designer Andrey Lipgart presented a new passenger car model: a streamlined sedan without protruding running boards or separate fenders.[3] Gorky Automobile Plant designers had actually begun work on a prospective passenger car as early as 1938, but when the Great Patriotic War began, all peacetime development was halted.[3][1] Practical work on the new model resumed during the war years. The first Pobeda prototype rolled out of the Gorky Automobile Plant's experimental workshop on November 7, 1944: its sloping body, two windows on one side and three on the other, and the absence of traditional fenders looked fresh and unusual for the time.[3]

A widely known legend surrounds the car's name: when the vehicle was shown to Stalin with the proposed name "Rodina" ("Motherland"), he reportedly asked, "Well, how much will the Motherland cost us?" — and the name was changed. In fact, the car had been planned from the outset to be called "Pobeda" ("Victory") — in anticipation of victory in the war with Germany — and "Rodina" was merely the internal working name used at the plant.[1]

Production

Serial production began on June 28, 1946, and continued until May 31, 1958. During this period, the plant in Gorky assembled 241,497 vehicles, including 14,222 convertibles and 37,492 taxi versions.[1][2] The domestic retail price was 16,000 rubles from 1947, and 20,000 rubles from 1955.[2] In addition to the USSR, the Pobeda was produced in Poland from 1951 to 1973.[2]

Before the Pobeda, passenger cars in the USSR were regarded primarily as government awards; the Pobeda became the first mass-market passenger car in the Soviet Union.[1]

Significance and Legacy

The car attained the status of an iconic symbol of the Soviet era. Surviving examples of the Pobeda are highly prized by collectors. Andrey Lipgart became chief designer of the Gorky Automobile Plant in 1933 and held that position until 1951; under his leadership, 67 experimental models were developed and built, 27 of which went into production, and the silhouette of the GAZ-M20 Pobeda is engraved on Lipgart's obelisk.[3] One example of this model is included in the "Sacred War" exhibition at the Victory Park museum site.[1] In the consolidated catalogue of GAZ Models, the Pobeda is listed as a car produced with a ponton body and no separate fenders, headlights, or running boards — a design decision that defined the look of Soviet automotive manufacturing for decades to come.[1]

Sources

  1. parkpatriot.ru — GAZ M-20 Pobeda (archive)
  2. Wikipedia (ru) — GAZ-M-20 Pobeda (archive)
  3. Kommersant (Volga Region) — A Legend of Soviet Automotive Industry — Gorky Automobile Plant designers began work on a prospective passenger car as early as 1938, but when the Great Patriotic War began… (archive)