(first posted 12/12/2011) The real reason the Soviet Union imploded? No good advertising agencies! OK, these cute twins in the ZAZ 966 are fetching, but not exactly up to Western standards for the times. And the one tv ad I found on YouTube is pretty bizarre. But then, advertising was hardly needed, when the waiting period for a new ZAZ was measured in decades. Maybe twins got a shared one in half the time?
Actually, most of these print ads weren’t made for domestic consumption, exactly for that reason. They’re from Autoexport, the Soviet agency given the less-than ideal mission of selling Soviet cars abroad, so a bit of sizzle was in order.
Here’s another fetching beauty to get Westerners excited about the mini-Corvair ZAZ. But it wasn’t just the fairer sex that was pressed into service for Mother Russia.
This one I scanned from my 1969 Automobile Revue catalog. Let’s just say it really stands out compared to what was going down about then. Or maybe the Russians were ahead of the time? Sexy dudes!
Looks more like someone’s snapshot than an ad for the rugged Volga, here probably by its namesake.
This Volga wagon is fetching, regardless of the model.
Is this the Volga Brougham edition?
Here’s a shot of the earlier version of the Volga. If Russians are nostalgic about the old days, the traffic on Moscow’s streets might be at least a legitimate reason.
This one has a bit of flair actually, for the Izh Combi, no less.
We’re entering almost modern times (1970s) and the new Lada is being presented rather nicely here. Did Fiat send a photographer along with the blueprints for their 124?
As is customary, I save the best for last. Wow! Now that’s a van I could like, the UAZ 2269. How odd to show it in a setting where its rugged four wheel drive is so utterly irrelevant. Oh well.
The only domestic tv ad I found is mighty bizarre, and makes me almost wonder if it’s for real. I’ll let you decide.
(some images from englishrussia)
Those Red army guys are pretty good, but…
They’re no Leningrad Cowboys…
Why did you post this video here? I just clicked on it and it said “This video is private.” What’s with that?
Since this was first posted in 2011, its accessibility has obviously been changed.
…and apparently changed again by 2020. I just watched it, which does not mean I comprehend it.
It’s hilariously, disturbing.
The question is why they feel the need to advertise at all? Demand usually vastly exceed supply, and those poor USSR proletarians usually didn’t get to pick a car anyway, they had to be satisfied (and feel quite lucky) for whatever car their betters bestowed upon them, after years of waiting, of course.
These were ads for Western consumption, not for internal consumption.
But the East Germans did produce Trabi and Wartburg commercials for their domestic TV. I’ve always assumed this was to help maintain the illusion of normalcy, a sort of internal propaganda — kind of like calling it the Deutsche “Demokratische” Republik when it was anything but.
North Korea has a big billboard of a car ad..Near the border with the south..And the add faces the South…Go Figure.
A Pometkin village..
Considering the absolute rubbish on the US car market I wouldnt put too much shit on the Soviet efforts.
Customers got to choose their rubbish, that’s the vital difference. Many chose foreign instead, anti-competitive Export [sic] Quotas notwithstanding. One thing I’ve learned is, corporations & trade unions are only in favor of free markets when it benefits them. Never assume big business favors capitalism.
BTW, the Soviets were really good at marketing Communism, & we helped them along by providing a convenient foil.
Bryce, as bad as American cars of the era were, they were a whole lot better than any of the East Bloc offerings, which were total junk.
Not true.
The Lada and the Volga were robust machines.
You mightn’t like them..but hey ho.
Have a T-34 instead.
Early T-34s had bugs like transmission problems, which were solved in later years. The one thing NO country matched, including the Germans, was its powerful Kharkiv aluminum Diesel engine. More power means more armor or speed.
This V-12 was also used in the heavier (~45 ton) KV/IS series tanks. I find it astonishing that they were so far ahead of the West here.
I’ll give a thumbs up to the Volga.
On vacation in 1973, my father hired a taxi in Poland, so we could travel the country for over a week visiting relatives. That Volga as a pampered car, clean, polished and very comfortable on those terrible Polish roads and highways.
It certainly had a fifties vibe to it, but it was quiet, smooth riding and swallowed a lot of luggage. I was 18 at the time and learned a lot in six weeks about some of the quirky communists cars I saw.
The Skodas, Tatras, Volgas and Wartburgs of the 60s/70s held their own against Japanese and European cars (though not Porsche or Rolls-Royce, obviously). American cars are a different kettle of fish altogether, but I’m really not sure a Chevy Citation was any better quality than a Lada…
Surely you can lay the boot into Australian cars of the era too mate.
I’m sorry, but this is just BS. How do I know? I live in Norway, we used to exhange fish with Eastern European cars in the 50s and 60s. That was because of the Norwegian currency situation after the WW2.
The most of the Eastern Europe cars was rubbish. The quality of some of them was extremely bad, even compared at an British car from the 60s.
In the 50s and 60s, and even the 70s, the american cars reliability, quality and durability was way and ahead over any other. The only European automakers that could match Detroit was Mercedes and Volvo.
The ZAZ kind of reminds me of the old Skoda 120LS. I wonder if they’re related?
The second-generation Volga makes me think the Sovs screwed an early-sixties Falcon grille onto a mid-sixties Rambler American.
I respect Soviet cars for what they are, and Soviet owners even more for keeping their little bombs on the road (what choice did they have?). And yes I do think that in like years American cars were much better than the Sovs.
Those Fiat 125 Ladas out lasted the Fiat versions quite well and there are still some in the wild around here *(mind U we have a dealer) the bottom shot looks like a Samara not much of a car but plenty of survivors about
Come off it Bryce, they “outlasted” the FIAT versions because they were still being sold new two decades after FIAT had canned the 125!
The Soviet engineers tested Fiat 124s at their proving grounds initially before starting to adapt it for the locale, the Fiat chassis started to literally tear apart from all of the stresses of driving over very poor roads constantly. So many changes they introduced such as specifying thicker sheetmetal for the unibody and beefing up the suspension could very well have led to the cars lasting longer. But you are correct that the production runs for the 124 based ladas was immense (right up until 2012 I think for the 2107!).
Sounds just like how Holden found the ’70’s Opel Commodore fell apart on our rough country roads, before they beefed it up to make a Holden out of it. IIRC it literally broke in half at the firewall, and Opel engineers couldn’t believe the stress readings our guys sent them until they saw our roads and how we use them.
They outlasted the Fiats because the were produced a lot longer. But, the Soviets made the steel ticker, other engines and a more heavy duty suspension design. The car was more durable, but was a penalty box to drive.
In the Samara commercial, look at the guitar at about 41 seconds… That’s some ax!
The young lady in the Lada ad (next to last photo) is just killing me… Da! Tovarisch!
I know the Russians had an export market, it seems to me mostly the Baltic countries, UK and Canada. Some the ads shown are in French, maybe they were trying to expand?
I can still remember when I saw Ladas in Canada, I thought where did they get those weird looking Fiats?
I still have a hard time understanding why someone in the Western world would willingly buy a communist bloc produced car…
I still have a hard time understanding why someone in the Western world would willingly buy a communist bloc produced car…
Three words. They. Were. Cheap.
Also remember that outside the US anti-communist sentiment was much less fervent.
Cheap cars + buyers less inclined to fret over other peoples’ politics = modest sales
“still have a hard time understanding why someone in the Western world would willingly buy a communist bloc produced car”
You then must have a real hard time understanding why Americans buy millions of Toyotas, Hondas, Mercedes, Audis, VW’s from the evil Axis nations.
Consumers generally seek value, no matter the source.
You make the assumption that this is a politically based comment. I cannot speak for another and it could be…..however, they had a bad reputation for the quality of their product. Not all of that reputation was deserved I found when I bought a Jawa motorcycle. In that case I was very pleased. The communist focus never seemed to be on high quality consumer goods.
Russian and East Bloc cars had quite a following on Vancouver Island when I wa a teenager, mostly with Goddess Mother of the Universe types. The GMOTU’s wanted to show their solidarity with the great socialist state that was the Soviet Union. This hit its peak about the invasion of Afghanistan, which stimulated quite a flurry of Lada sales. When I was doing my first year of college in Nanaimo in 1983, there were dead Lada’s liberally sprinkled through the backyards of Harewood, a GMOTU stronghold.
Does it count that I bought a Yugo that was low mileage and in good condition just to see…it looked ok. The worst US car was more reliable than that thing. 30k on it and I was stuck once every 2 weeks, period. Drove ok WHEN it could be driven. Sold it for a profit after 6 months so all’s well that ends well. The $200 ignition module (once I sourced one) for a $100 car killed the love.
The super CR#99^ fuel sending unit that was constantly stuck (but easy to remove and fix) was it’s other charming quality. A bigger screw and a chunk of electrical tape keeps the windows moving. Burlap for seat fabric….who knew? Bright Red?? absolutely!! Radio?? a little TAP will do…oh and the antenna just slid back down.. LOL!!
Hence popular in the north of England. Used as cabs in Hull. A dealer was buying RHD Rivas and re exporting them back to Russia by the boat load. For 150 of your American Dollars Russian garages were converting them back to LHD. See Quetin Wilson old Top Gear report on Utube.
My late wife, during her decades living in Montreal, had a co-worker who was the prototype for every cheap bastard you ever met. Never had a cigarette, always bumming one of yours, never joined the rest of the office if they hit a pub on Friday evening (he might be expected to buy a round!), constantly dressed in fashion a couple of years old, etc.
He drove a Lada. Actually had a series of them, kept them running until they died. Patti rode with him a few times. She hated the experience, the cars were terrible, even for the passenger.
Sounds like Henry and his Skodas. He wanted a car nobody would steal, so he got an old rear-engine Skoda. Sure enough, they left it alone. But he needed a steady supply of them to keep him mobile down through the years.
The guitar is called “Stella”, made at the Rostov music instrument factory in the late 1980s. It had 4 pickups and a stereo output. Fairly collectible these days.
I bought an 8 year old FSO 125p because it was cheap,I was living in a war zone were car theft and vandalism was rife and it was a genuine old lady low mileage dealer serviced car.My car was left alone but a neighbour’s 3 week old Celica was repeatedly keyed and had it’s wipers bent.
6 years happy almost trouble free motoring,more than my ex BIL got from his much more expensive Marina and Ital.
That’s a good point, about Soviet expansionism. Dominoes, prepare to fall!
The USSR tried to export to many European countries. Moskvich cars were definitely sold in Belgium and France in the 60s/70s, soon followed by Lada. Some Volgas made it to Belgium as well.
But I have no idea about the ZAZ. Zose… sorry, Those were pretty unexportable. Terrible cars, thought not as bad as a Trabant or a Velorex. Even in the Eastern block, Zaprozhets were not a hit. Still, that ZAZ French prospectus exists. I doubt it would have been made for Quebec or West Africa, but I also doubt many ZAZ made it to the West.
A big reason why there was some of the Soviet and other Eastern Europe cars in Western countries was because of shortage of currancy.
Norway did have a import rule that said we could by any car we want, as long as it was a Eastern European car, because we send them fish, and got cars back. If you wanted a western car, you had to have a permission from the government, that used be like you had to have a car at your job. In 1960 this rule was no longer there, and the Eastern Europe cars all of a sudden disappeared.
Because communist bloc produced cars were cheap and (no matter your opinions on their reliability) they were built to last and most importantly to be repaired by their owners. Compare and contrast with western cars, where some nigh-unobtainable piece of plastic would grow brittle and disintegrate and the dealership would ask the then-equivalent of 200 euros for a replacement. Or if that didn’t happen, the electronic carburettor (that’s “feedback carburettor” for you Americans) would start acting up and the folks at the local independent repair shop would take turns looking at the Rube-Goldberg apparatus and marvel at its complexity before eventually giving up and telling you to go to the dealership to be fleeced.
In countries like Greece where Soviet imports had a considerable footprint, we were half-sad to see them go. On the bright side, we were introduced to amenities such as power steering, disc brakes and air-conditioning (not to say that many Western cars had them before the 1990s, but no Lada ever did), on the not-so-bright side we had to rely on the official dealership more for parts and repairs.
This was their big point…a blacksmith could fix them. They had tool kits included, and no high-tech or exotic parts. A lot of classic American bodies in Cuba are hiding Russian cars underneath.
Re the Samara TV ad, I recall seeing very similar publicity images in car magazines when the Samara was launched. I didn’t think the photos were real, but now I’ve seen the ad above I really can’t decide…!
Racing legend Peter Brock did the pre delivery inspections on Samaras in Ozzy including signature models it didnt help
I doubt that helped them any. With so many other choices, very few people took a chance on buying one. And he didn’t have a whole lot of cred in those post-polariser days.
Huh? I’m flabbergasted car ads, let alone ANY ads existed in the USSR – capitalist pigs, all of them!
I really don’t know what else to say!…
UAZ 2269, I neeed one
Only if you like your cars static. By the time you end up fixing its endless list of problems (from factory) the dreaded thing will rust through…
The TV ad is probably real. Keep in mind, however, that the mark of a really good parody is that you’re never quite sure.
So it’s both a floor wax and a whipped topping?
I see the Zazzies offered the fake grilles from the factory; I think early Corvair owners had to go to JC Whitney for theirs. Just goes to show you how well the Communist system met every need of the proletariat.
If that’s the closest I’ll come to seeing an NSU today, it’s still a good day. And if you want to see a ZAZ playing the villain on the big screen, go see “Cars 2.”
ZAZ had a name Zaporozhets that often was twisted into Zhopa – Rozhets (ass-face). It was the only personal transportation tool (I do not dare call this “car”) readily available. No need to line up. Mind you, the sheer humiliation of driving this thing was so high that supply has always balanced or exceeded demand.
The green Lada ad (2nd from end) was shot in Finland (note the number plate), hence the quality.
Also, a common knowledge (and a fact) was that the highest quality Ladas were from the first year or two (1970-71…), when they still had plenty of Italian content. That says a lot about the Lada “quality”…
There’s also a Volvo 245 in the background of the Finnish Lada ad.
The last Samara gig is very true, a perfect example of atrocity that was the local advertisement market in late 80’s – early 90’s.
My. most. hated. period of time. In all respects.
I’ve got a Zapo parked outside my house in England right now. I drive it at almost every opportunity. A motorway cruise is a punishment for both the car and the driver due to its low top speed, but anything up to 50mph is a joy, the turbine-like engine note making back road driving a great experience. Ride and handling are superb, especially on the rough country roads around here. Cornering and braking are safe, twisty roads are a real joy and the engine is a fantastic slogger, grunting up the steepest incline with less than 2000rpm on the clock. No scrabbling for the gears, though the gearbox is a pleasure too. Bad points? Only one. Assembly quality was poor and subsequent maintenance even worse – but with a small amount of mechanical skill and a bit of patience, the Zapo can be a rugged workhorse that won’t let you down. bring it up to scratch and it’ll look after itself between services… and 40 miles to the (English) gallon isn’t to be sneezed at, either. Look on it as a way to own a Tatra without the expense or expanse.
Thank you – that’s the first review I’ve read or watched that doesn’t automatically slag the car because its Russian.
The Volgas aren’t that bad, either. They were tough enough for winter-bruised Russian roads, and according to the owners I talked to (I lived there in the 90s), quite reliable, especially the vintage in the ads above. They had heaters worthy of their locale, and decent seats for the bumps in the roads.
Owners of Zhigulis (Ladas ala Fiat) were also always very proud of their rides, especially if they were built during the round headlight years.
I never met, however, a proud owner of a 70s-80s Moskvitch. Mainly because they were all to broken down because of overheating every time there was a sunny day over 75…
Never road in a ZAZ.
The UAZ suv was my favorite. I’d have one if I could.
Volgas were traditionally for “upscale” customers or motorists in the old Soviet Union. I think one had to be something like an senior cadre or boss to rate one for a ride.
My grandfather owned a 1987 Izh 2125 Kombi (a 5 door hatchback variant of the 412 Moskvitch, built in Izhevsk) since new, selling the car a few years ago for a meager 5000 rubles (in very worn condition) to a distant relative in a nearby village in the Altai region of Siberia.
Moskvitches had excellent slant 4 engines that I believe were BMW 1500 copies. 75 hp would keep them abreast with lesser Ladas no problem. I think they are generally regarded as being sturdier and handle overloading better (a given in rural settings where your family car is your potato and hay hauler). Leaf spring rear axle vs the lada’s rear coils. I personally preferred the Kombi to rides in Zhiguli, the Moskvitch’s perforated leather(?) shift boot and soft dash pad struck me as luxurious at the time. His also had this nifty factory stereo that easily detached and had a carry handle to use as a portable radio for picnics! When my grandfather got it my dad had also just purchased his 1972 ZAZ 966. He said he was very enamored with my grandfather’s “luxury car.”
The legend in Russia is that when you drive out on forest roads to go mushroom picking, the hierarchy of off road capabilities has the Zhiguli (rwd lada) stopping first, Moskvitchi make it farther out, and finally the Zaporozhets make it deepest into the woods. Above that is only UAZ and Niva, oh and those awesome LuAZ jeeplets.
Cool contemporary Russian review of the 2125:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s68Qb8hjHYo
This guy is very positive and enthusiastic about the old Soviet stuff, unlike just about every other younger reviewer that view these old cars with nothing but derision.
A couple of those Volgas look awfully Opel-like to me.
I wonder if anyone tried selling the Studebaker tooling to the Russians in 1966? Probably not. But it would finally have found a market where it would have been the object of everyone’s desire.
It would have fallen into pieces all too early even to be considered as a middle-class car (Volga) replacement. Just like most US cars tested here (according to the test report, 1954 Ford Mainline did so after 50000 kms / 30000 miles; the frame and front fenders had several fatigue cracks, and one of the front suspension ball joints just fell off; the result ? no ball joints on Soviet production cars until maybe mid-60s). Of course, that is still better than the Mini, rubber block suspension of which lasted AFAIR only several thousand kilometers… The Fiat was very flimsy, too, but it was never intended to be used in taxicab role in the first place, which lowered the plank significantly.
Your perspective is very interesting and welcome. I only mentioned the Studebaker because it was so old fashioned by 1966. I believe that the front suspension was still kingpins. It would have been interesting to go back into time and test one under Russian conditions. Here in the U.S., their biggest enemy was road salt which led to severe body rust.
Sa-ma-ra. Wow!
The rusky in the Lada photo is hotter than the Su-Bar-U girl.
Waiting period for the Zaz measuring in… decades ? That piece reminded me of early 1980s “Voice of America” propaganda show (a notably laughable one for the Soviet audience, the laugh being worth the efforts to surpass the Government’s jamming), with all the Soviet children going to Concentration Camps (sic!) for Summer. Maybe you are mixing it with the Trabant, which was unfortunate to be only a fraction more expensive than a motorcycle and a helmet; the original intent was of course to make it available to everyone – but that didn’t look like a good idea when *everyone* *actually* added himself to the waiting list, stretching it all but infinitely.
That was not the case with the Zaz, which was relatively pricey, at about 20 average annual wages. I’m unaware of the 1960s and early 70s, but as far as I know there were no waiting list for the Zaporozhetses since maybe mid-70s. People wanted something more substantial for their money, and opted for waiting for several months or even years rather than buying a cheap, but unpractical (2 doors, virtually no cargo area), unprestigious and not very reliable/durable car.
The “old model” Moskvitch 1360 (with the old OHV engine) was somewhat more expensive (R4900 vs. R3500 in circa 1975) but still a much better car, especially for rural areas, where its incredibly robust chassis and engine were a major advantage. It was available without waiting lists or with minimal waiting terms in most areas, too. The ZAZ also found many buyers from rural areas, but lack of doors and luggage space was still a critical drawback (many of them got their backseat and passenger’s seat removed to create some cargo area, but it still was not fun).
Eventually, waiting list for low-end car models were eliminated completely. In 1984, only 30% of the Moskvitches produced that year found their owners – people opted for Ladas, some of which (elder models directly based on Fiat 124) became relatively affordable. At the same time, 50% of the ZAZ production was being leased or sold with great discounts via social care (SOBES) system to disabled people – apparently, few wanted to buy them any more.
That is actually funny, because in today Russia there are waiting lists (usually 3 to 7 months) for some of the *cheapest* cars available (some Ladas, base model Renault/Dacia, cheapest Hyundais, etc.), which are constantly in short supply – *exactly the opposite*. A good illustration of the key difference between the Soviet era and today – back then, most people had enough money to buy almost any car, but could not or didn’t want to; today, you can buy any car and usually want one badly, but most people don’t have the money for anything but the most basic ones, almost ubiquitously with credit involved.
Of cource, in
“about 20 average annual wages”
it was meant MONTHLY WAGES, not ANNUAL (per year)…
Here’s what I remember from the seventies and eighties driving around here and made behind the Iron Curtain:
Cars: Skoda, Lada, Yugo, FSO.
Trucks: Tatra. (6×6 off-road trucks, they were everywhere in the seventies)
Farm tractors: Belarus, Zetor.
Around 1980 a Lada was a very common sight. Here’s an old Lada ad. Only 9,999 guilders for a very complete (look at all the text !) family car….
From the days “we didn’t have speed bumps, only potholes…” (to quote an old TV commercial)
OMG! That car ad with the red police! Funny, And seriously, what the heck is up with the Mexican mariachis advertising Russian cars?
Reminds me of this awesome cold war Russian parody, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKO9h-gG4Qg
And now for something completely different. From Minsk, with love, a Belarus tractor. Still officially imported into my country. (Photo: F.S. Andela, Belarus importer)
It’s still imported to Norway, but It has been outdated for about 30 years. But , if you have a small farm, and only need a basic tractor, I think it’s actually a good and reliable, simple tractor.
That “fetching beauty to get Westerners excited about the mini-Corvair ZAZ” actually looks like a male, crossdressing…
Sorry…
I don’t think that went on behind the iron curtain.
That was a process of the decadant west.And J Edgar Hoover.
Besides not so easy to get coupons for pantyhose. many red faces.
Probably a similar percentage of cross dressing in Russia as anywhere else,just not as open about it.
The ZAZ looking like an NSU??
What is it based on?
NSU i like them a lot!
Russia selling to the homosexual market would be an oxymoron these days (Putin! Putin!).
One of my college buddies in Germany had a Lada. It was a plastic and vinyl brick that sold cheaply. He was embarrassed to drive it, while I was very interested in it. This was way back in 1996, but the Lada looked more at home in the 1980s – VW Golf kind of way. Very square, very firm and very different.
Oh – I forgot.
Looking at the ads I realized that what you can’t experience with these ads were how these people smelled. Being an American made it tough to hang around most folks from places east of Hamburg. I know that before we got all indoor-plumbing, Ivory soap, Old Spice deodorized, we were just like them – but all us Americans really struggled with our olfactory challenges. God bless them, but holy cow – you like them ripe? We would literally hold our breaths bolting into the lecture halls to rip open the windows and air them out before the other students would shut them all complaining about the drafts.
I spent a lot of time in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the early 1980’s and do not recall any disagreeable odors coming from people in significant numbers. They appeared to be as clean as any Europeans.
The rear view mirror in the ZAZ has been knocked askew. Is there a subliminal message with two back seat beauties?
The grille of the Zaz 966 in the second picture reminds me of a 1966 International pickup. The twins in the first picture remind me of “The Shining”. “Come play with us Danny!”
The first pic is the best. A little box with some high subsonic air intakes on the side. Was it powered with a MiG-15 engine? 🙂
I saw quite a few UAZ 2269’s while living in Angola West Africa. They were a pretty rugged van well suited to the driving conditions. A unique feature of the ones I rode in was the 4 across seating. The van was wider than most vans of the era, but shoulder room was still tight.
Pretty sure car in picture number 2 is stuck in the snow. Gave up after spinning the tires for a while for a selfie?
You’d be wrong! My uncle had one of those, it was unstoppable with those narrow tires, rear engine and RWD!