This man had several passionate passions that history remembered. But the main hobby and passion of the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev is high-class cars and fast driving. Today, cars from his collection sometimes appear at auctions. They cost fabulous money precisely thanks to their famous owner. About Brezhnev’s cars and the history of their appearance in the Central Committee’s garage, this article.
Leonid Ilyich
For the older generation, Brezhnev’s times are associated with confidence in the future and stability, scarcity and foreign exchange stores. Recall for young people - Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1906-1982) was the main person in the USSR, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1966 until his death. He went down in history thanks to his odious hobbies (hunting and racing around Moscow), a colorful appearance with thick eyebrows, a love of kisses and various orders, medals and titles. The number of awards from the Secretary General exceeded 200, “Indira Gandhi and Jimmy Carter were awarded the“ Triple Brezhnev ”(kiss on both cheeks and lips) . With the light hand of this mod, a black coat with an astrakhan collar and an astrakhan hat became the business card of the Soviet party worker. It was he who introduced the fashion for sunglasses, and his personal tailor was not the last figure in the country. But Leonid Brezhnev’s biggest passion is cars. He not only loved them, he adored them.
Garage of Leonid Ilyich
Although the Secretary General was a wonderful family man, legends circulated about his romance with women. But not the ladies were his treasured passion, but first-class cars. According to various machine data, Brezhnev had from 40 to 320. Moreover, almost all of them were gifts and did not belong to him personally. But this did not change anything - during his lifetime they were all at his full disposal. After Brezhnev’s death, only 10 remained. Of these, 4 were transferred to his granddaughters, while the rest were divided by representatives of the Central Committee and the KGB. Some of the "pearls" of the collection of the legendary Secretary General received a second life as exhibits in museums.
The birth of passion
According to the official version, the love of decent cars originated with Leonid Ilyich in the late 30s of the XX century, when he, as secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee of the CPSU, drove an American car Buick-90 Limited. In the past, American brands were generally honored, for example, Stalin had the Packard. Then came the captured cars. By the end of World War II, Major General Brezhnev became a real driver and connoisseur of high-speed cars. His enthusiastic reviews are known about the Opel Kapitan, who fell into part of Brezhnev's political instructor in 1944.
The beginning of the collection
The first official car was presented by N.S. Khrushchev Chevrolet Bel Air. This two-door machine appeared in the collection of Brezhnev cars in 1955, when he headed the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. Later, when he becomes the main person in the country, the diplomats, without hesitation, will tell their colleagues from the countries visited by the Secretary General what gift will please the cartridge. And Brezhnev loved his first Chevrolet and subsequently presented it to his daughter Galina.
The next personal car Brezhnev was in 1960, Opel Kapitan L, donated by the first husband of Galina - circus artist Evgeni Milaev. He acquired it during a tour in Germany.
First masterpieces
In 1966, the Secretary General’s fleet was replenished with the car with the tragic fate of the Chrysler 300. In 1986, this handsome man was bought from the fleet of the Maxim Gorky film studio Mukharbek Ezhiev and taken to Ossetia. During the Ossetian-Ingush conflict (1992), the looters were not able to steal it and burned it. From the rare car there were only keys and documents.
And then in the garage appeared Maserati Quattroporte, which was presented by Italian Communists in 1968. It was a car with record-breaking performance at that time - 290 “horses” under the hood and the ability to reach speeds of up to 240 km / h.
"Pearls" in the fleet
Many leaders of foreign countries noted their gifts for Brezhnev. Machines were made either in a single copy or in a limited batch. We list only a few of them.
A very rare model of a Mercedes 600 with a body "pulman-limousine" - a gift from German Chancellor Willy Brandt. Of these, only seven cars were made, of which two-door six. One went to the emperor of Japan, and the second to Brezhnev (a photo of this beauty is given below). On this car, the Secretary General once nearly fell into the abyss on the Crimean serpentine.
The President of the United States of America, Richard Nixon, alternately presented Brezhnev with three cars: Cadillac (1971), Cadillac Eldorado (1972), Lincoln Continental (1973). At the first, Brezhnev personally took the US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with a breeze in 1972 along the rural roads of the Moscow Region, about which the latter left impressive notes in his memoirs. Following Kissinger, Nixon was going to Moscow. Diplomats gently hinted to him that Leonid Ilyich really liked the Eldorado Cadillac model. The car was made in three days, and a transport airliner delivered it to Moscow.
A car like the president of the United States of America
Nixon himself traveled during his visit to the presidential Lincoln. Brezhnev expressed admiration for this machine. By the time the Secretary General’s visit to the United States in 1973, he received as a present an exclusive blue Lincoln Continental sedan with a black top and vinyl upholstery, and the inscription “Best wishes. For good memory. ” And in this car there was a climate control installation, electric seat adjustment and a music installation. Nixon presented this gift on behalf of American businessmen, who they bought for 10 thousand US dollars.
According to eyewitnesses, it was Brezhnev's favorite car. It was on it that a significant joint trip of the leaders of the two great powers along the roads of Camp David took place. It was after this trip with the dashing driver Brezhnev, who flew at a speed of at least 80 km / h on roads where Nixon himself did not drive at that speed even with a sports car, the latter said the famous phrase: "Diplomacy is not always an easy art."
Other gifts
It doesn’t matter what car Brezhnev drove, all of them were not a means of transportation for him, but an object of passionate love.
In the collection of Secretary General Brezhnev, there were three Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.
The first was presented to the Secretary General by the American businessman Armand Hammer in 1968. The second “Silver Shadow” was a gift from Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain in 1974. The fate of the car is amazing.
He was defeated on a road outside Moscow in 1980, either by Brezhnev, or by his driver. But in the case of this car, its cost only increased as a result of an accident - it was bought by the automobile museum in Riga, where it was not restored. And in the front seat on display is a wax figure of a scorcher general.
The third - Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit (Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith) was donated by the UK government in 1979. It Brezhnev went hunting.
Japanese note
In the list of cars of the Secretary General, the favorite car from Japan was Nissan President, donated in 1973 and had body number 000002. Number one was in the garage of the Japanese Prime Minister. And on this machine, Brezhnev personally drove Nixon and Kissinger around Moscow, after which an anecdote appeared with the key phrase "Look at who their driver is!" This heavyweight weighing two tons, an engine capacity of 4.4 liters and an automatic transmission accelerated to 190 km / h, and gasoline took 15 liters per 100 kilometers. That's what car Brezhnev was transported!
After the death of Leonid Ilyich, he was in the possession of Galina Leonidovna Brezhneva. She sold it to Patriarch Pimen, rector of the Pochaev Lavra. In 1992, at the All-Russian auction of rare and exotic cars, he was bought in a private collection for 160 thousand dollars.
Domestic Machines
The secretary general's collection was not only foreign-made cars. Brezhnev's love of cars, we can say, turned out to be a beneficial jet for the domestic automobile industry. In 1966, Brezhnev’s "Seagull" (GAZ-13) appeared in the fleet of the Kremlin. Three rows of seats, seats covered with elite wool or leather, electric windows and a radio with control from a remote control installed in the armrest of the rear seat - all for passenger comfort. After 10 years, the first new “Seagull” (GAZ-14), directly from the conveyor, hit the Kremlin garage as a gift for Leonid Ilyich’s 70th birthday. It is noteworthy that this is the only car in this series of cherry color. All other cars are exclusively black.
There were also Volga cars in the garage of the Secretary General. One (GAZ-24-95) was even equipped with all-wheel drive and was a domestic crossover of the time on which Leonid Ilyich went on a hunt.
There were Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and ZIL in the garage - cars with an armored limousine of executive class. From only one remained the seats (ZIL -115, destroyed), the fate of the second (ZIL-4105) is unknown.
Cars Brezhnev in our time
The fate of Brezhnev’s favorites was different. During the restructuring of the 90s of the last century, cars from the Kremlin garage spread around the world. As they said, the magnificent Maserati Quattroporte first came to Estonia in the possession of a security company from former KGB officers, and then was sold to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Broken Silver Ghost stands in a museum in Riga. Nixon’s gift Cadillac Eldorado can be seen in the Moscow exposition of the Autoamerica Club.
All over the world, cars from the Brezhnev garage pop up at various auctions. In Germany, his Mercedes was sold in a private collection, and the Nissan President was put up for auction at Sotheby's, however, no one bought it. And on the Russian Internet portal in April 2018, an announcement appeared about the sale of "The Seagulls" (GAZ-13) of the 1980 model from Brezhnev’s garage. The seller set a price of 30 million rubles, the history of the car is checked. But it is already clear that the equipment of the machine does not correspond to mass production.
Cars with history always become finds for true collectors who are willing to pay any amount for them. Cars from the collection of one of the most famous politicians of the twentieth century - Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev can become the decoration and pride of any collection.