The rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union in the early thirties gave an impetus to the creation of an enterprise that became a symbol of its era. This is the famous GAZ - an automobile plant on the banks of the Volga. It is impossible to imagine the roads of our country without the cars coming off its assembly line. The working history of the giant of the domestic automobile industry is dedicated to the history museum of GAZ OJSC, created in the premises of the factory training center. What are its exhibits talking about?
Museum of History and Labor Glory GAZ
The museum occupying two floors of the factory training center gives its guests the opportunity to see a rich collection of exhibits representing the long-term path of the enterprise. There are more than thirty-five thousand of them. On the top floor, from which it is recommended to start the tour, documents are placed that give an idea of the stages of the plant's development from the beginning of the thirties to the present.
The birth of a future giant plant
Visitors to this exhibition will learn about how, in 1929, the country's government entered into an agreement with the Americans - leaders in the automobile industry of those years, according to which overseas partners took upon themselves the obligation to provide all possible assistance in arranging the mass production of cars of various classes in our country.
Nizhny Novgorod, which was named after A.M. Gorky in those years, was determined the construction site. The work carried out, as it was then accepted, at an accelerated pace, took a record short time, and already in 1932 the country received the first truck - a one and a half ton NAZ-AA, made on the model of the American prototype Ford-AA.
The pre-war period in the life of the enterprise
In the same period, the Gorky Automobile Plant began production of the first-born passenger car - the GAZ-A model. It was quite comfortable at that time "chaise" with an open five-seater body. Despite the fact that he also had his American twin, it should be noted that from the first days, the designers of the plant began work on the modernization of American designs and, making changes to the drawings, created their own developments based on them.
Until the outbreak of the war, the Gorky Plant developed its facilities and mastered new product designs. In 1935, he became the first automobile company in the USSR to produce a hundred thousandth car, and a year before the war, a novelty of the world automobile industry - the GAZ-61-73 passenger SUV, which was distinguished by increased comfort, left its gates. In the prewar years, the design bureau of the enterprise developed a number of models of transport equipment for the needs of the army.
The GAZ Museum of History presents to its guests exhibits dedicated to the war period of the plant. During these years, its products were mainly focused on the needs of the front, and, along with army-style cars, armored vehicles came off the assembly lines of the enterprise.
The first T-60 and T-70 light tanks were released in October and December 1941, supplemented by several modifications, and later the T-80. Over the four war years, the Gorky Automobile Plant gave the army more than twelve thousand tanks, nine thousand self-propelled guns, as well as a huge number of mortars and shells for the famous Katyusha guns.
Legend cars after the war
Further, the history museum of GAZ OJSC acquaints its visitors with how the product line of previous years completely changed in the first post-war years. Replaced obsolete samples came a new technique. In 1946, the company mastered the production of the famous Victory M-20 and a GAZ-51 truck with a carrying capacity of two and a half tons. With the beginning of their production, a new era of Soviet automobile industry was opened.
The model “Volga GAZ-21” and all its subsequent modifications, many of which until today are often found on Russian roads, as well as the GAZ-63 truck, became truly epochal. There is no need to list everything with which the plant on the banks of the Volga enriched the country's automobile fleet. Everyone knows its products, and the history museum of GAZ OJSC gives its guests the opportunity to see again, along with cars well known from childhood, those that have been heard or read about in books.
If you look at the reviews of visitors, it can be seen from them that in this part of the museum the most interesting are genuine documents received from various archives of the country. They are witnesses of the past plant, talk about its labor glory. In addition, judging by the reviews, the attention of museum guests is attracted to military uniforms that are also exhibited at the exhibition.
Of particular interest is a fragment of a German aerial bomb that fell on the territory of the plant and did not fully explode. In general, the entries left in the visitors' book and on the museum’s website indicate that this exhibition leaves no one indifferent.
Cars are witnesses of the past
Having finished familiarizing themselves with the exposition of the museum’s upper floor, visitors go downstairs where the history museum of GAZ OJSC (Nizhny Novgorod) has placed its full collection of genuine cars assembled in the shops of the enterprise for the entire period of its existence. Here are twenty-nine cars found and restored by museum workers.
All of them are in working condition and are ready, even now, to leave the gates of the enterprise. Among them there are samples that are very rare these days and are rightfully the pride of the museum. The lower hall is a lively illustration of what the exposition of the upper floor told about. A visit to it will bring great pleasure to both adults and children. Photos of individual exhibits of this exhibition are given on our page.
Museum on the Volga awaits its guests
Those who are interested in the history of Soviet and Russian automotive industry and who are going to visit Nizhny Novgorod will undoubtedly benefit from visiting the history museum of GAZ OJSC. Its working hours are as follows: from Monday to Thursday it is open from 9.00 to 18.00, and closes an hour earlier on Fridays. In the old days, he had a five-day work schedule, which created great inconvenience for visitors. Currently, it can be viewed on Saturdays, from 9.00 to 16.00.