The car with a beautiful and symbolic name "Victory" has become one of the symbols of the Soviet Union, without losing its charm and charm over the decades. This passenger car was mass-produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1946 to 1958. The first "Pobeda" (factory index of the M-20 model) rolled off the GAZ assembly line on June 28, 1946, on this day 70 years ago the serial production of this model started.

The GAZ-M-20 became the first Soviet passenger car with a monocoque body and one of the world's first large-volume vehicles produced with a monocoque 4-door pontoon body that did not have separate fenders, headlights and footrests. In our country, "Pobeda" has become truly cult, and today thousands of fans of the model are chasing the now preserved retro cars. On the territory of the USSR "Pobeda" became the first mass passenger car. Before her, cars for personal use were considered in the country only as a government award.

A well-known anecdote is also associated with the car. When Joseph Stalin was shown the car and offered its first name, "Motherland", he frowned and asked with a smile: "Well, how much will we have a Motherland?" On the same day, the name was changed to Pobeda, under which the car went down in history forever. However, all of the above is nothing more than a beautiful legend. The car was originally planned to be named "Victory" in honor of the upcoming victory in the war with Nazi Germany, and the name "Motherland" was just an internal plant.

Work on the creation of the GAZ-M-20 "Pobeda" car began during the war years. The government assignment for the design and preparation for the serial production of a new passenger car that would meet all modern trends in the global automotive industry and have better performance characteristics compared to the GAZ-M1 was received by the GAZ management back in December 1941. Surprisingly, this was not an order for a truck, not for a tractor for cannons, and not even for an ambulance, but for an ordinary passenger car, which was very symbolic. But at that point in time, the plant was completely focused on the production of military equipment and the project was simply postponed. At the same time, at the very end of 1941, a captured German Opel Kapitan of 1938 was delivered to Gorky. It was decided to choose this car as a prototype, since it best corresponded to the requirements of the received terms of reference and the ideas of Soviet designers about exactly what a modern passenger car should be.

In practice, work on the creation of a new passenger car began at the Molotov Automobile Plant in Gorky only in 1943 after the victory that the Red Army won at Stalingrad. According to the sketches of the artist Veniamin Samoilov, plaster models of the future car were made on a scale of 1 to 5, and according to the most successful model, a life-size model of mahogany was made. Work on the passenger car was not interrupted even after the large-scale bombing of GAZ by German aircraft in June 1943.

It was the artist Samoilov who created the unique and recognizable appearance of the car to this day. Unlike the final version of "Victory", the rear doors of Samoilov's car were hung on the rear pillar of the body and opened in the same way as in the German Opel Kapitan backwards, against the course of the car. Unfortunately, the artist himself never saw his brainchild in metal: he died tragically after finishing work on the model's sketches.

The first prototype of "Pobeda" was assembled on November 6, 1944, and Andrey Aleksandrovich Lipgart, chief designer of the Gorky Automobile Plant, personally brought the sample outside the gates of the plant to the test site. Soon two more cars came for testing. Unlike the serial GAZ-M-20 cars, they differed in the presence of a 6-cylinder engine from the GAZ 11-73 car (a modernized version of the GAZ-M1, which was produced during the war years). This engine was produced under license from the American company Dodge. The line of future cars "Pobeda" should have found a place for both cars with a 6-cylinder engine (modernized Dodge D5) and with a 4-cylinder engine.

At the same time, the first modification with a 6-cylinder engine was to become the main one, and the second was originally developed for taxi companies. However, later it was decided to abandon the version with a 6-cylinder engine in favor of a 4-cylinder version. This was done in connection with considerations of fuel economy, in the post-war years in the country there was simply not enough of it, as well as the simplification of the car design. The 4-cylinder GAZ engine was unified in detail with another more powerful version, representing a "six" truncated by a third, which was later widely used on ZIM machines and GAZ trucks, in particular the famous GAZ-51.

For the mid-1940s, Pobeda was a fully revolutionary machine. Borrowing from the German Opel Kapitan of 1938 the structure of the load-bearing body (load-bearing elements and internal panels), the designers of the Gorky Automobile Plant were able to completely rethink the appearance of the car and were able to adopt a number of such innovations, which would become widespread in the West only a few years later. The German Opel Kapitan had 4 doors, with the front doors opening in the direction of the car, and the rear ones in the opposite direction. On the GAZ-M-20, all 4 doors opened in the direction of the car - in a traditional way today. The modern (at that time) appearance of the Soviet car acquired thanks to the presence of a belt line, the combination of the front and rear fenders with the body, as well as the absence of decorative steps, a memorable alligator-type hood, headlights mounted in the front of the body and other characteristic details, which in the middle of 1940 -s were not yet familiar.

For the first time in the practice of the Soviet automotive industry on the GAZ-M-20 Pobeda, independent suspension of the front wheels, hydraulic brake drive, electric brake lights and direction indicators, hinged all doors on the front hinges, an alligator-type hood, two electric windshield wipers were serially used and a thermostat in the cooling system. For the first time on a domestic passenger car of this class, an interior heater with blowing the windshield was installed as standard equipment.

The working volume of the 4-cylinder engine chosen for "Victory" was 2,112 liters, it developed a maximum power of 50 hp. This motor provided maximum torque at 3600 rpm. The engine has earned a reputation for being reliable, high-torque and durable. However, the Pobeda engine clearly lacked power, which was also noted by foreign journalists in their reviews of the car (the car was also exported). Up to a speed of 50 km / h, the car accelerated quite quickly, but then a failure was indicated in acceleration. Pobeda reached speeds of 100 km / h in only 45 seconds, and the maximum speed of the car was limited to 105 km / h. It is curious that for its time the GAZ-M-20 was a fairly economical car, but by modern standards, the fuel consumption for an engine of such a working volume was high. According to technical data, the car consumed 11 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, the operating consumption was 13.5 liters, and the actual fuel consumption was from 13 to 15 liters per 100 kilometers. The compression ratio of the engine of the GAZ M-20 "Pobeda" car allowed it to work normally on the lowest-grade, "66" gasoline.

The effective lever shock absorbers could also be highlighted - the car was distinguished by good smoothness, as well as hydraulic drum brakes with general all-wheel drive. The latter were used for the first time in the Soviet automobile industry. The mechanism of the brakes implemented was very simple - the pads were spread by one hydraulic cylinder in each of the 4 brake drums.

At the time of the start of serial production, "Pobeda" favorably distinguished itself by its advanced design and modern construction, but by the beginning of the 1950s, a number of design flaws of the car had become obvious - first of all, the low functionality of the selected fastback body type (very low headroom above the rear seat, almost complete lack of rearward visibility, a rather modest trunk volume, a nasty aerodynamic effect, which was associated with the appearance of lift when driving at high speed, as well as a strong susceptibility to side wind drift. with a fastback body did not take root anywhere in the world.By the mid-1950s, the aggregate part of the car ceased to correspond to the world level (first of all, we are talking about the low-valve engine) .From 1952-1954, on most American and many new European car models began to install overhead valve engines, bent st ekla, hypoid rear axles, etc.

Although the serial production of "Victory" started in Gorky on June 28, 1946, by the end of 1946, only 23 cars were assembled at GAZ. Truly mass production of cars was only launched on April 28, 1947. It is noteworthy that the GAZ-M-20 became the first passenger car in the USSR, which, in addition to the factory index, had its own name - "Victory". The letter "M" in the factory index of the car meant the word "Molotovets" - from 1935 to 1957 the Gorky Automobile Plant bore the name of the People's Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov. The number “20” meant that the car belonged to a new model range, which was distinguished by a reduced engine displacement (up to “two liters”). Models of the senior line of GAZ were designated as "1x" - GAZ-12 "ZIM" and GAZ-13 "Chaika". In subsequent years, this indexation at the plant was retained - GAZ-21 "Volga" and Gaz-24 "Volga"

The first cars "Pobeda" were distributed exclusively according to instructions "from above" and signed by Molotov himself. At the initial stage, there were not enough cars even for the heroes of the country and laureates of Stalin's prizes. And yet Pobeda became a car that was available to consumers. In the first Soviet motor show, located in Moscow, wealthy citizens had a choice between Moskvich-401 (9,000 rubles), Pobeda (16,000 rubles) and the mind-blowingly expensive ZIM for the Soviet Union (40,000 rubles). It should be noted that at that time, the salary of an experienced qualified engineer was approximately 600 rubles. "Pobeda" already then enjoyed great love among Soviet motorists, but for many it was a pipe dream. Due to the high price, there was no rush demand for GAZ M-20 in the country. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that the "Moskvichs" 400 and 401, which were sold for 8 and 9 thousand rubles, respectively, were not in great demand from Soviet citizens. Despite this, GAZ was able to produce and sell 241,497 Pobeda vehicles.

The car went well for export. Mainly "Pobeda" were exported to Finland, where taxi drivers loved the car very much, to the Scandinavian countries, as well as to Belgium, where many Soviet cars were always sold. It should be noted that the taxi in Finland as a mass phenomenon arose largely thanks to the Soviet "Victory". Until this moment, all local taxi companies were equipped with various pre-war models. In the 1950s, the first "Victories" appeared in Great Britain, where they were sold by Belgian dealers of the Gorky Automobile Plant, as well as in the USA, where private individuals imported cars from Europe, mainly out of curiosity. At the same time, initially this Soviet car received rather favorable and positive reviews in the West.

Pobeda was also produced under license in other countries. So, since 1951, the car was produced in Poland under the Warszawa brand, the cars were produced at the FSO plant (Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych). In Poland, this car was produced much longer than in the USSR. Production of "Warsaw" continued until 1973, however, the car has undergone major upgrades. In particular, the later releases of the car received an overhead valve engine and new bodies: "sedan", "pickup" and "station wagon". At the same time, starting from 1956, the car was assembled exclusively from Polish-made components. In total, 254,372 cars of this type were assembled in Poland - more than in the Soviet Union the original "Victories" were collected.

Work on the creation of a fundamentally new passenger car began at the Gorky Automobile Plant during the war years. Supervised the design of the car, which was originally planned to be called GAZ-25 "Rodina", chief designer Andrey Alexandrovich Lipgart. It was assumed that the car would have two options: with a four-cylinder and six-cylinder engine, but in the end, it was decided to leave only the version with four cylinders, as simpler and more economical. In June 1945, the finished prototype was demonstrated to Joseph Stalin, at this demonstration the launch of the model into production was approved, and the name GAZ-M-20 Pobeda was assigned to it.

The official launch of the conveyor took place, as planned, in June 1946, but it was, in fact, piece production using a bypass technology. The development of the mass production of "Pobeda" went very slowly, largely due to the fact that the car was significantly different from everything that was produced by the Soviet auto industry until now. In 1946, 23 were made, in 1947 - 601, and in 1948 - 4549 cars. For some time in 1948, production was even suspended to finalize the design of the machine.

GAZ-M-20 Pobeda had a load-bearing body (the first among Soviet cars) of the fastback type with a sloping rear end. It was one of the first bodies of the so-called "pontoon" type in the world - without protruding fenders and steps. Under the hood of the car was a four-cylinder engine with a volume of 2.1 liters and a capacity of 50 liters. from. It was combined with a three-speed unsynchronized gearbox, which received second and third gear synchronizers in 1950.

The cost of the car was about 16,000 rubles, "Moskvich-400", for example, cost half the price.

In 1948, the production of the modernized "Pobeda" of the second series was launched. She had an improved suspension, and a heater appeared in the cabin.

In 1949, a cabriolet version with an opening fabric roof top appeared; it was 500 rubles cheaper than a closed car. At the same time, specifically for taxi companies, they began to make a modification of the GAZ-20A.

The car of the third series (GAZ-20V "Pobeda") entered the conveyor in 1955. This car could be recognized by a different design of the radiator grille. The modernized engine became a little more powerful (52 hp), and a radio was installed on the car.

The production of the GAZ-M-20 ended in 1958. A total of 241,497 cars were made, including the all-wheel drive GAZ-M72 (4677 cars) and a convertible (14222 cars). "Pobeda" was exported to Finland (where it was very popular with taxi drivers), other Scandinavian countries, Belgium, Great Britain. In 1951, a licensed version of the car under the Warszawa brand was produced in Poland.

The need for comfortable four-wheel drive vehicles did not disappear after the war - both the army and the national economy needed a car with a closed heated body, like the Pobeda, which would have the same cross-country ability as the GAZ-69 car that appeared in 1953. Therefore, when the Gorky Automobile Plant was entrusted with the design of such a car, the designers, without hesitation, decided to create a hybrid of Pobeda and GAZ-69. It took literally three days for all the design work to design the M-72. It took another month to assemble a prototype. As a result, on February 24, the M-72 came out of the gates of the Gorky Automobile Plant and became the world's first four-wheel drive passenger car with a frameless monocoque body. The changes in the Victory body were very minimal.

A group of designers led by Grigory Moiseevich Wasserman simply strengthened the weak parts of the Pobedovsky body and increased the ground clearance. For this, it was decided to install the rear springs not under the rear axle beam, as on the M-20, but above it. In this case, the body has risen by 150 mm. In addition, instead of the front independent suspension on coil springs, front springs were installed. The length of the car with a 2712 mm wheelbase (12 mm more than that of the "Pobeda") was 4665 mm. The width was 1695 mm. The equipment of the M-72's cabin was the same as that of the M-20: soft upholstery, a heater, a clock, a dual-band (long and medium wave) radio receiver. New levers have been added to control the all-wheel drive transmission. Under the instrument cluster, a plate with a driver's memo was reinforced - on it a demultiplier control circuit and a table of maximum speeds in each gear. Taking into account the need to work on dirty roads, for the first time in the USSR, a windshield washer was used on the M-72 - a mechanical pump that worked by pressing a special pedal naked.

Despite the initial plans to put on the car a 3.485-liter GAZ-11 engine, which was installed at that time on the ZiM and on the GAZ-51, at the last moment they decided to still leave the standard 2.112-liter engine, which was installed on Pobeda and for GAZ-69. Its cylinder bore was still 82 mm, and the piston stroke was 100 mm. True, this engine acquired a different cylinder head, as a result of which, instead of a 6.2-fold compression ratio, it acquired a 6.5-fold compression ratio. At the same time, it was recommended to operate the car on B-70 aviation gasoline. However, when installing the late ignition, it was possible to use the 66th gasoline, however, the fuel consumption increased somewhat. I must say that this very head was originally intended to be installed on the very first "Victories", but then, in order to use cheaper gasoline, a 6.2-fold compression head was installed. Increasing the compression ratio, changing the carburetor jets and improving the intake system gave an increase in torque at high revs and an increase in power to 55 hp. Only at the end of the release of the M-72, the engine cylinders were bored to 88 mm, the working volume increased to 2433 cu cm, and the power increased to 65 horsepower. An oil cooler was included in the oil system. Oil got into it from the coarse filter, and cooled in the radiator, flowed into the oil filler pipe. When the body was lifted, gaps formed between it and the wheels. They were covered behind with shields, and in front, the depth of the cutouts in the wings was reduced.

The electrical equipment of the car was 12 volts. 1.7 hp starter was the most powerful of all Soviet starters. The starter was powered by a 6 STE-54 battery, which had a capacity of 54 ampere-hours. The rear axle, specially designed for this machine, had semi-balanced axle shafts, which were supported by single-row ball bearings. There were no removable hubs, and the wheels were attached directly to the flanges of the axle shafts. The main gear of the rear axle had the same gear ratio as that of "Pobeda" - 5.125. The drive gear had 8 teeth, and the driven gear had 41 teeth. From the GAZ-69, the car received only a transfer case. Since this unit did not have a direct transmission - even the top gear of the transfer case had a gear ratio of 1: 1.15, and the lower one - 1: 2.78. Therefore, the maximum speed of the M-72 was lower than that of Pobeda.

Road tests of the M-72 prototype showed its high cross-country ability and driving performance. The car confidently moved along dirty, broken roads, on sand, arable land, snow-covered terrain, took ascents up to 30 degrees. Due to the streamlined body, the speed on the highway reached 100 km / h, and the fuel consumption was less than that of the GAZ-69. By the way, about the expense. Fuel consumption per 100 km of track on asphalt roads was 14.5-15.5 liters, on unpaved roads - 17-19 liters, and in off-road conditions - 25-32 liters. In the spring of 1955, the prototype traveled more than 40 thousand kilometers, which made it possible to identify some weak points and eliminate deficiencies. In May, the car was tested in the mountains of Crimea, and in June, mass production of the M-72 at GAZ began. Despite its considerable width, the car had a very small turning radius for those years - 6.5 meters, which allowed it to successfully turn around in narrow lanes.

Serial production of Pobeda cars began on June 28, 1946 and lasted until May 31, 1958. During this time, 241 497 cars were produced, of which 14 222 convertibles and 37 492 taxis.

GAZ "Pobeda" is the first Soviet passenger car with a fully pontoon-type load-carrying body, i.e. without protruding steps, headlights, fenders and their rudiments.

The model received the factory index M-20. Produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant, serially in 1946-1958.

How the GAZ M20 was created

The level of development of the Soviet automotive industry by the end of the thirties made it possible to move from the production of foreign models to its own development of original designs.

By that time, GAZ already had a full-fledged engineering school, and the design school used in its work modern methods of designing the appearance of a car, using artistic prototyping and using a graphoplastic method for constructing complex surfaces of body panels.

The designers of the plant have accumulated a lot of experience while working on adapting foreign models to domestic conditions, as well as their modernization.

The production base also began to form, experiments on the manufacture of stamping and pressing equipment for the production of bodies were successfully carried out at the car plant.

In accordance with the plan for the III-IV five-year plans, in 1938 AvtoGAZ began to form a promising type of its products.

The following were planned for development: a GAZ-11-51 truck and a middle-class passenger car with a GAZ-11 six-cylinder 78 hp engine. from.

To obtain information about the latest trends in the global automotive industry, a number of foreign middle class passenger models were purchased, with which comparative tests were carried out, which made it possible to formulate the basic requirements for the body shape and dynamic performance of its own promising "passenger car".

Based on the data obtained, the designers decided on the main structural elements of the future car, which included:

• bearing body;
• hydraulic brakes;
• independent front suspension.

The history of the GAZ M20 Pobeda began in 1938, after the first sketches of a passenger car with a streamlined teardrop-shaped body and a flat sidewall without protruding wings were made by the factory designer Valentin Brodsky.

This body shape made it possible, without changing the external dimensions of the car, to increase its streamlining and the width of the passenger compartment.

Foreign manufacturers, fearing to scare off buyers by too radical change in the appearance of the car, moved in this direction very reluctantly, therefore, in cars with such bodies, very few were produced in the pre-war years, only a few experimental or small-scale models.

At GAZ, working on the car, which was created for a more or less distant future, they believed that the use of an advanced body shape would give it a greater "margin of safety" against obsolescence - which was brilliantly confirmed later.

Working on improving visibility from the driver's seat and at the same time giving the car a more streamlined shape, Brodsky envisaged the use of a panoramic windshield in his project, but in those years there was still no technology that would make it possible to produce large curved glass with high optical qualities.

In this regard, instead of one curved glass, it was necessary to use four flat ones - two large medium ones, installed in the form of the letter V, and two small ones were located on either side of them.

The headlights were completely drowned in the wings, while maintaining the semicircular radiator mask as an independent element of the architecture of the front of the car.

Moskovsky, a young artist Vladimir Aryamov in 1940 presented his version of a promising car from the Gorky plant.

Its two-door fastback sedan, designated GAZ-11-80, also had a very advanced body shape, with a flat sidewall and no protruding fenders, with a flat front end without a protruding grille.

At that time, the design of a passenger car was of less national economic importance, and besides, it was more complicated than the priority truck GAZ-11-51, so work on the creation of a new passenger car was delayed. This was also affected by the call in 1940 for the war with Finland V. Brodsky, and of course the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

After the Battle of Stalingrad, the plant had a full-fledged opportunity to work on passenger cars.

On February 3, 1943, at a meeting of the People's Commissariat for Medium Industry, the promising type of the post-war model range presented by the plant was approved.

As a result of the meeting, the plant received a government assignment, which was essentially a formality and repeated its own proposals.

The main work on the design of the car was entrusted to the chief designer of the plant A.A. Lipgart. Development of the chassis for A. M. Krieger, the body for A. N. Kirillov.

The car was originally designed in two versions: the M-25, which fully corresponded to the assignment and had a 2.7-liter six-cylinder engine, and a 2.1-liter four-cylinder, created at the initiative of Lipgart M-20.

The numbers "25" and "20" in the designations of the cars spoke of their belonging to the new line of GAZ models, with engines that had a reduced working volume compared to pre-war models - in the future, the successors of the model were GAZ-21 and GAZ-24.

The designations of multi-displacement passenger cars began with one - GAZ-11, ZIM (GAZ-12), GAZ-13 and GAZ-14 "Chaika".

In terms of dynamic qualities, "Pobeda" with a four-cylinder engine approximately corresponded to "Emka" M-1, the replacement of which in the national economy was the main task of the new model.

Having a more advanced engine design, which made it possible to reduce its working volume from 3.5 to 2.1 liters without losing power, the GAZ 20 Pobeda car was noticeably more economical.

The GAZ M25 with a six-cylinder engine had the dynamics corresponding to similar European models of that time, as well as the six-cylinder GAZ-11-73, but had a relatively lower efficiency. Subsequently, work on the six-cylinder version of the "Victory" was curtailed for a number of reasons.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union gained extensive experience in the operation and maintenance of a variety of foreign automotive equipment, both captured German and American lend-lease - in those years Germany and the United States were recognized leaders in the design and production of cars.

That allowed the Soviet automobile designers to study the latest achievements of the world automobile industry "on full-scale copies".

Also during the war years, the Gorky Automobile Plant assembled Chevrolet cars.

Long-term operation of foreign models of cars made it possible to highlight design solutions that were most acceptable for the specific climatic, road and operational conditions of the USSR.

Considering this valuable experience, technical assignments were drawn up and the first and passenger cars were designed.

To compensate for the time lost due to the war and a general lack of experience in the design of modern cars, the designers of the Gorky Automobile Plant used the information obtained in this case - in particular, the general plan of the front suspension design, many elements of the sub-engine frame and the load-bearing elements of the bottom were borrowed from the German model Opel Kapitan model of 1938, which had a modern monocoque body and similar mass-dimensional characteristics to the car designed at AvtoGAZ.

But the rest of the body of the Soviet car was quite original in design and technological design, and due to the design that was non-standard for its time, a number of unique solutions were applied that were not found anywhere else.

Yuri Dolmatovsky, an employee of the People's Commissariat for Medium Machine Building, who worked on the design of a promising model, took Brodsky's pre-war developments as a basis, but made his own changes, removed additional sections of the windshield, changed the radiator mask from convex to flat, which continued the surface of the front wings, with placed in them headlights.

The final look of the future GAZ M20 "Pobeda" was made by the designer Veniamin Samoilov - it was he who in his sketches made the original design of the front end with widely spaced headlights and the characteristic horizontal-strip "three-story" front end covering overlapping the front fenders.

By the beginning of the summer of 1944, the preparation of the plaza drawings was completed, a master model for the manufacture of the body was made (from hardwood, a blank was made, which exactly repeated the shape of the body surface, later templates for making stamps were removed from it) and a demo car model was made from wood.

In the same year, on November 6, they tested the first running model of the car in a six-cylinder version (M-25), with a two-color, black and gray, color.

With the rear doors hinged on the rear hinges and opening forward, like in the later model ZIM GAZ-12, with a sidewall decorated with chrome molding, later, on production cars, both of these solutions were abandoned.

The four-cylinder prototype M-20, beige, was ready only by the beginning of 1945 and had the design of the doorways already like a production car.

Both chassis layouts had common features of differences from the production cars that followed them:

• "Three-story" radiator grill, which has two moldings of the first "floor", which went under the sidelights (there is data that was saved on the very first production cars); a more complex shape of the sidelights themselves;
• two-piece front fenders - the fender itself and the spacer between it and the front door;
• wheels from "Emka", which are given a characteristic disk shape, with imitation of individual spokes.

The slowest was the car interior decoration. In order to speed up the work, on the first running models, ready-made appliances and interior trim parts of foreign production were installed, which came to the USSR under Lend-Lease and were available in factory warehouses (during the war years, GAZ assembled Chevrolet cars).

And only in the first quarter of 1945, the Laboratory for external and internal decoration was created at GAZ, which was engaged in the development of original design interior design, nameplates, emblems and other small details, the selection of plastics, fabrics and other materials.

During the creation of the GAZ M-20 "Pobeda" car, Soviet car factories did not yet have established emblems, and therefore, for almost every model, their own original nameplates were created.

The pedestal of "Victory" had the letter "M", which at the same time hinted at the battlement of the wall of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin and at the symbol of the Volga - a soaring seagull.

In fact, the letter spoke of the name "Molotovets" (from the beginning of the 1930s to the end of the 1950s, the plant bore the name of People's Commissar V.M. Molotov).

Officially, the car was recorded as M-20 - "Molotovets, twentieth model" (the internal plant designation was written on the nameplate: GAZ-20 car).

The emblem, of course, was red - the color of the USSR banner.

After the war, the plant resumed production of the last pre-war production model, the GAZ-11-73, and at the same time began active preparations for the serial production of a fundamentally new car.

Demonstration to the highest state and party leadership, headed by I. Stalin, of pre-production copies of "Victory", took place after the completion of state acceptance tests, on June 19, 1945 in Moscow.

It was decided to launch the four-cylinder version into serial production as it was cheaper and more economical, and the final designation of the model was M-20 "Pobeda".

It should be noted that the six-cylinder car based on the M-20 went into a small series, but later, and had the designation M-20G / M-26, albeit with a different engine - 90-horsepower from ZIM (GAZ-12), with an increased with prototypes "Victory" with a working volume of 3.5 liters instead of 2.7.

There is a version that at first they wanted to call the car "Motherland", but when Stalin, in June 1944, was shown a sample of the future production car, he asked: "And how much will we have a Motherland?"

After that, Stalin was offered a second version of the name, which was approved. But, in fact, this is just a beautiful myth, because the official name "Victory" was laid in it from the very beginning of the car's design, in honor of the imminent Victory over Nazi Germany.

The name "Rodina", according to I. Paderin, was proposed for the next model, M-21, and never went beyond the walls of the plant.

The GKO decree "On the restoration and development of the automotive industry", issued on August 26, 1945, ordered from June 28, 1946 to master the production of a new model of a middle class passenger car.

During the post-war devastation and lack of raw materials, the development of the car was associated with the development of a large number of new and complex products for the Soviet industry.

The body of the "Victory" GAZ M20 is the first fully designed and prepared for mass production in the USSR. Until that time, even for relatively independently developed models (KIM-10), production equipment was ordered from foreign, more often American, firms.

So the equipment for the ZIS-110 model was made in the USSR, but it was not suitable for mass production, because the dies cast from a zinc-aluminum alloy withstood only a limited number of working cycles. The political pressure exerted at the same time forced the factory workers to rush to launch the new model into the series.

The result of which was that the first conditionally serial machines of the Pobeda brand, produced in 1946, from June 28 (and, as some sources say, it was released ahead of schedule, from June 21), were made using a bypass technology, manually. The production of such cars in 1946 was only 23 cars.

In 1947, on April 28, a large-scale production was announced. Stalin, in the same month, was shown a conveyor assembly machine, but the car was still very "raw", with not developed technology for its production.

In February 1948, the thousandth car rolled off the assembly line of the plant. The factory photographer immortalized these events, thanks to him we have the opportunity to see the details of the finishing of the cars produced during this period.

The photo shows the car - already with a "two-story" radiator grille, but still has headlight rims, which are painted in the body color, and not chrome, as on cars of the later release of the second production series.

During the release of the first production series until August (according to some sources - October) of 1948, 1,700 machines were assembled, which were of poor build quality and had manufacturing defects, which caused a huge number of complaints from consumers, most of whom were responsible workers, as well as government officials. and public institutions of a fairly high rank.

In October 1948, based on the complaints received, it was decided to stop the conveyor to eliminate the deficiencies found.

Ivan Kuzmich Loskutov, was relieved of his post as director of GAZ, despite his previous merits, and the chief designer of the plant Lipgart managed to retain his place only because of his participation in the development of the next model of the ZIM GAZ-12 passenger car.

In a hurry to put the car into production, the tests of Pobeda were carried out according to an accelerated program, which did not allow revealing all defects in its design.

The forced pause in production made it possible for the car to be fully tested. In NAMI we have carried out studies of cross-country ability and dynamic properties, measurement of body stiffness, its fatigue strength on a vibration stand. As a result, all the necessary changes were made to the design of the car.

After the forced stop of the conveyor, a number of works were carried out, as a result of which 346 parts and more than 2000 tools and devices involved in production were changed, which included the stamps used for the manufacture of the body, all the design documentation for the car was completely reissued.

The design and manufacturing technology of many units were revised, in most cases, the focus was on modern, highly efficient production methods. As a result, the plant has mastered electric spot welding, high-speed metal cutting, hardening by high-frequency currents.

The workshops of the former 446th aircraft plant were transferred to GAZ, which had more advanced conductor conveyors rather than belt conveyors, where they mounted a new production line for assembling a modernized car. As a result, it was possible to sharply raise the level of production culture.

Thus, in fact, a completely new, much more perfect technological process was created for the existing industrial design.

The conveyor of the plant, from 1948-1949, began to produce "Pobeda" of the second production series. From November 1, 1949, the machines were produced in modern equipped, new buildings. As a result, the scale of production increased sharply, and the previously produced machines with discovered defects were returned to the plant to eliminate them.

In 1949, the M-20 car and its creators were awarded the Stalin Prize. At the same time, they mastered the production of an open-body modification M-20B.

Since October 1950, they began to install a new gearbox (based on the ZIM GAZ-12 unit) with a control lever installed on the side of the steering shaft and synchronized top gears.

In 1955, the production of the modernized "Pobeda" of the third production series began, which received its own designation M-20V.

The main modifications of GAZ M - 20

M-20 "Victory"

Produced from 1946 to 1955

The first series (from 1946 to 1948).

Second series:

• from November 1, 1948, a heater and windshield blower were added;
• from October 1948 added new parabolic springs;
• a new thermostat was installed from October 1949;
• since 1950, new, more reliable watches have been installed;
• assembly on a new conveyor began on November 1, 1949;
• from October 1950 it was equipped with a new gearbox from ZIM with a lever on the steering wheel and at about the same time - with a new water pump - a fastback sedan body, 4-cylinder engine, 50 hp. from.;
• since 1955 - 52 y.p. from. (M-20), mass production (184,285 copies, including the GAZ M20V Pobeda and about 160 thousand of all modifications up to the M-20V).

M-20V

Produced from 1955 to 1958

The third series of the modernized "Victory", with a 52 hp engine. sec., radio, new design of the radiator lining.

M-20A "Victory"

Produced from 1949 to 1958

Fastback sedan body, four-cylinder engine, 52 HP from. (М-20), modification of GAZ М20 taxi, mass production (37,492 copies).

"Victory" - convertible

There is a version that this modification had its own index "M-20B".

Produced from 1949 to 1953

The body is a sedan - (with rigid safety arcs) four-cylinder engine, 52 hp. from. (GAZ-M-20), modification with an open top, mass production (14,222 copies).

Small-scale and experimental modifications

M-20D

Produced from 1956 to 1958

It had a forced engine with a capacity of 57-62 hp. from. by increasing the piston diameter to 88 mm.

M-20G or GAZ-M26

Produced from 1956 to 1958

A high-speed version for the MGB / KGB, which had a 90-horsepower six-cylinder engine from ZIM.

M-20E

Produced in 1956

For life tests of the GAZ-21 engine.

Van

The project, the body after the B-pillar, was made of bakelite plywood with a timber frame.

GAZ M20 pickup

GAZ Pobeda pickup trucks were built at the repair factories from sedans.

Sedan "Victory-NAMI"

Produced in 1948

Two prototypes were released.

Stretch

An insert is welded into the body - the carrier of the units, it was used in the development of ZIM.

Four-door parade convertible

Small-scale production of GAZ PAMS for the Ministry of Defense (front doors, with a welded left rear door, an X-shaped amplifier on the bottom and missing door frames).

Sports modification

She - "GAZ-Torpedo", "Pobeda-Sport" - a sports factory rework with a forced engine, fairings and a two-door body.

Specifications

common data

• Manufacturer: GAZ
• Prospect Island years: 1946-1958
• Assembly: USSR
• Class: middle I group

Body

• 4dv. fastback (5 seats)
• 4dv. convertible (5 seats)
• Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel drive

Engines

• Manufacturer: GAZ
• Brand: M-20
• Type: carburetor
• Volume: 2 112 cm3
• Maximum power: 52 hp sec., at 3600 rpm
• Maximum torque: 125 Nm at 2000-2200 rpm
• Configuration: in-line, 4-cylinder.
• Cylinders: 4
• Valves: 8
• Max. speed: 105 km / h
• Acceleration to 100 km / h: 46 s

Combined fuel consumption:

• 11 p. (control);
• 13.5 l. (operational) l / 100 km

• Cylinder diameter: 82mm
• Piston stroke: 100 mm
• Compression ratio: 6.2

Supply system:

carburetor K-22E (until mid-1955 - K22A)

• Cooling: liquid
• Valve train: SV
• Cylinder block material: cast iron
• Cylinder head material: aluminum
• Cycle (number of measures): 4
• The order of the cylinders: 1-2-4-3

Transmission

• Switching: by lever in the floor
• Synchronizers: no ("easy engagement clutch")
• Reverse gear: 3.383
• Gear ratios:
  1st gear: 2,820
  2nd gear: 1.604
  3rd gear: 1.00
• Number of steps: 3
• Type: mechanical
• Model: with shafts from M-1 (up to 1951)
• Manufacturer: GAZ
• mechanical 3-speed
• mechanical 3-speed
• Manufacturer: GAZ
• Model: with sync. (since 1951), similar to the GAZ-21 and ZIM gearboxes
• Type: mechanical
• Number of steps: 3
• Gear ratios:
  1st gear: 3.115
  2nd gear: 1,772
  3rd gear: 1.00
  Reverse gear: 3.738
• Synchronizers: in II-III gears
• Shifting: lever on the steering wheel

Characteristics

• Length: 4665 mm
• Width: 1695 mm
• Height: 1590-1640 mm
• Clearance: 200 mm
• Wheel base: 2700 mm
• Back track: 1362 mm
• Front track: 1364 mm
• Weight:
  1460kg sedan
  1490 kg convertible
• Tank volume: 55 l

More detailed technical characteristics of GAZ M20 "Pobeda"

Technical features of Victory

The body of "Victory", in addition to the original "wingless" shape, differed in height reduced to 1600 mm (against 1750-1800 in most mass models of that time, similar in class), as well as the associated lower location of the floor line, waist line and pillow level seats.

This markedly changed the location of the center of gravity and mass distribution, and also made it possible to abandon the landing steps.

The engine brought forward, in the space above the independent front suspension beam, allowed to make the hood and the car as a whole lower.

At the beginning of the release of "Victory" (1946), this layout was considered advanced. There is an opportunity for a more rational arrangement of passengers in the body, improving the stability and controllability of the car by lowering the center of gravity, significantly reducing the aerodynamic air resistance due to the smaller area of \u200b\u200bthe midsection of the body, reducing shaking in the cabin when driving on bad roads, by reducing the height of the pillows seats are relatively expensive.

"Victory" at the start of its production, according to these indicators, was on a par with the latest foreign models - Kaiser-Frazer model 1946 and Studebaker model 1947, and it overtook the bulk of the first post-war cars by several years.

Many foreign firms came to similar stylistic and layout decisions on mass models later, for example, American Hudson and Packard, English Standard - in the 1948 model year, Chevrolet and Ford - in 1949, while such a transition in those years was considered revolutionary and was accompanied by powerful advertising campaign.

Having the same engine power as the four-cylinder GAZ-M1 (50 hp), the maximum speed developed by Pobeda was the same as that of the six-cylinder, 76-horsepower GAZ-11, and with uniform movement the fuel consumption was only 10-11 liters per 100 kilometers - instead of 15 for the GAZ-11 and 13 for the M-1. This became possible due to the body, which received a more aerodynamic shape and a reduced frontal area.

"Pobeda" was much more comfortable than its predecessor, due to the use of a soft spring independent suspension in front, which was more than three times softer, and the forward-moving passenger compartment, located low between the axles - in the zone of greatest comfort.

And of course, a significant improvement in handling became possible due to the low center of gravity and independent suspension at the front, which were combined with an almost ideal distribution of the car's weight along the axles (49% front, 51% rear).

By arranging passengers and cargo more rationally, the designers received an increase in the volume of the cabin from 2.84 to 3.38 cubic meters. m, with a decrease in the overall dimensions of the width and height in comparison with the "Emka", and for the first time to make a trunk, however, it was not very large and most of it was occupied by a spare wheel and a driving tool.

Power unit

When designing the car, two engine options were provided - six and four-cylinder.

Both engines are modifications of the 3.5-liter six-cylinder GAZ-11 engine, which was an analogue of the American Dodge D5; the plant acquired production documentation for it in 1937.

The inline six had a working volume of 2.7 liters and a power of 62 liters. sec., four-cylinder engine - 2.1 liters and 50 liters. from..

The engines were variants of the same design, and similar in their characteristics - the difference in power did not exceed 12 hp.

The only advantage of a six-cylinder engine over a four-cylinder is smooth operation. But all the parts of the cylinder-piston group of the four-cylinder engine were completely unified with the GAZ-11, and the six-cylinder had a reduced cylinder diameter in comparison with it, therefore, for its release, it would be required to put into production a whole range of unique, only for this engine, parts - pistons, " dry ”cylinder liners, a complete set of piston rings, etc.

The only advantage of a six-cylinder engine over a four-cylinder is smooth operation. But the parts of the four-cylinder engine were completely unified with the GAZ-11, while the diameter of the six-cylinder engines was reduced in comparison with it, so its production would require the production of a whole range of unique parts used only in this engine - Dry cylinder liners, pistons, a complete set of piston rings, and so on.

Increased efficiency and a greater degree of unification with the GAZ-11 engine, which was planned for use on promising GAZ trucks, a four-cylinder power unit was chosen for mass production.

The engine was low-valve and was unified in many details with the GAZ-51 and ZIM, was installed on the GAZ-69 jeep; also about two thousand first cars of the Volga 21B and GAZ-21G models had this engine, which was boosted to 65 hp. from. boring cylinders with an increase in diameter from 82 to 88 mm - this version of the GAZ-21 ("with a star and with a lower valve") is currently one of the rarest and most desirable for the collector.

The engine had a working volume of 2112 cc. cm, and the maximum power (depending on the modification) of 50-52 liters. with., which was achieved only at 3600 rpm.

The engine "Pobeda" had such a compression ratio that it could work "66" gasoline, while it was the lowest grade gasoline.

"Pobeda" had good dynamic qualities, by the standards of that time, although the car accelerated to 100 km / h in 46 seconds, it had good throttle response at speeds up to 50-60 km / h, this made it possible for confident movement in the then city traffic ; the speed of 50 km / h was reached in 12 seconds, which was twice as fast as the small-displacement Moskvich.

In those years, the congestion of suburban highways was not great, so the ability to quickly overtake and rebuild while driving on the highway was not given much attention.

And yet, if we evaluate the engine as a whole, then it was the weak point of "Victory" for its reliability and durability.

For a heavy car, it was rather weak, as a result of which, even by the standards of those years, the dynamics of the GAZ M20 "Pobeda" was insufficient.

The reason for choosing an engine was the difficult fuel situation in a country that had just survived the Great Patriotic War.

Power transmission

The "Pobeda" gearbox was three-speed, based on the "Emka" gearbox, which did not have synchronizers (partly their functions were performed by the so-called "easy engagement clutches"), with a floor-mounted lever.

Gearbox GAZ M20 Pobeda

Subsequently, in the early 1950s, the production and installation of a gearbox from ZIM with synchronizers in II and III gears and a steering column lever began.

The rear axle was developed specifically for "Victory" and was installed only on this machine.

Its design features were spiral-bevel gears of the main drive and loaded axle shafts. It was possible to remove the axle shafts only after complete disassembly of the main gear housing. Hubs were mounted on the tapered neck of the semiaxis, which were fixed with a key from turning and were attracted by a nut.

Chassis

According to the general design plan, the front suspension repeated the corresponding unit of the Opel Kapiten model.

Threaded bushings, shock absorbers with upper arms and some other suspension parts are interchangeable, but the design of the pivot assembly and the rack is very different.

The steering, which had a front steering link instead of a rear one, was completely different in design.

The rear suspension was made according to the Hotchkiss type scheme, which at that time became almost standard on new models - with a rigid axle beam and longitudinal springs, in contrast to the outdated Torque tube rear axle with a jet tube, which rested against a bronze ball on the gearbox and further, through him, transmitted longitudinal forces from the rear axle to the power unit, such a scheme was typical for the first post-war Fords (up to 1948 inclusive) and Emka. The shock absorbers were hydraulic, as in the front.

The wheels had an unusually large width for those years and forged discs without holes, the wheels were fastened with five nuts on hairpins with a bolt pattern of 5 × 5 1/2 ", that is, 5 × 139.7 mm (the American system, originating from from the first GAZ cars). The size of car tires is 6.00-16.

For the first time in Soviet practice, the brake system on a mass model was made hydraulic, without circuit separators and servo drives.

Drum brakes were used, having one hydraulic cylinder in each brake drum, which acted immediately on both brake pads.

Body and its equipment

"Pobeda" has an all-metal, load-bearing body of the "fastback" or "convertible" type. Made from frame, amplifiers and overhead panels. As a material for the body, steel grade 08 was used with a thickness of 1.0 mm to 2.0 mm (on side members and amplifiers more than 2.0 mm). A short spar frame (subframe) is bolted to the body, in front, on which: the power unit, steering and front suspension are installed.

GAZ M20 salon

The body of "Pobeda", for its time, had a magnificent finish and equipment, which was repeatedly noted by foreign experts who studied the car.

In Pobeda, many elements of standard equipment were not used before, not only on mass Soviet car models, but also on many analogs of foreign manufacturers, or were installed as an option, for an additional fee.

According to the tradition of those years, soft, pastel colors were used for interior decoration. The color palette included gray, beige, brown.

Artificial materials prevailed, with a minimum amount of chrome parts.

The use of a wingless body shape made it possible to maximize the interior space, create a more comfortable cabin, with a freer arrangement of passengers.

The moderate body height and center of gravity, independent front suspension and effective double-acting hydraulic shock absorbers made the car more comfortable than its pre-war counterparts. The car's comfort was especially felt when driving on bad roads.

However, the use of a specific roof profile of the car made less clearance above the rear seat cushion, this was very noticeable on cars of the first industrial series.

Since the second series (1949), the height of the back seat cushion has been reduced, which adds comfort to the ride for passengers sitting in the back, especially if they were wearing a headdress.

One of the features of the cabin is the widespread use of plastics for the dashboard trim. The installation of massive plastic overlays gave the panel a neat and modern look.

The plastic used was gray, brown or ivory. The same plastic was used for the steering wheel, various handles and buttons.

The panel was stamped from sheet steel and painted to match the body color. A complete set of instruments was installed: a gasoline level indicator, an ammeter, an oil pressure gauge, a thermometer, a speedometer, a self-winding watch and separate (left and right) indicator lamps for direction indicators.

The door panels were covered with leatherette, most often brown-beige (like natural tanned leather) or gray, and crossed out by three shiny horizontal moldings (two just below the window and one in the lower part).

Inside the car, two sofas with springs and soft padding were installed, which were covered with high-quality woolen fabrics.

The front sofa had the ability to move in the longitudinal direction and fix it in a position convenient for the driver, depending on his height. Taxi cars had sofas with hygienic washable leatherette upholstery.

All the glasses had internal edging, finished according to the original technology, at GAZ they invented a special method of painting the metal, which created a surface that was practically indistinguishable in appearance from the Karelian birch - a valuable wood species.

Another advantageous difference between the car, from previous Soviet ones, and from most foreign models of those years, is a trunk separate from the passenger compartment, which was accessed from the outside, through a lifting lid. Its purpose was mainly to store the driver's tool and spare wheel, and only a small top shelf was allocated for the luggage itself.

The interior equipment consisted of two sun visors, two ashtrays, a cigarette lighter, a ceiling lamp with automatic switching on, an engine compartment lamp, a portable lamp, a trunk lamp with automatic switching on, a rear-view mirror, and a two-tone sound signal.

From the second series, they began to routinely install a heater with a windshield defroster, and from the third series, a regular radio receiver with an antenna was added, which was located above the windshield.

Electrical equipment GAZ M20 "Pobeda"

Although in those years, most cars used a very capricious and unreliable 6-volt wiring, the electrical equipment of "Victory" was made 12-volt.

Significantly, in comparison with the previous GAZ models, the range of electrical equipment has expanded. A sufficiently powerful generator was installed on Pobeda, which could charge the battery even if many electrical appliances were turned on (at that time, the power of the generators of most cars did not exceed 100 watts, which greatly complicated operation in winter and at night).

On a Soviet car of this class, for the first time as standard equipment, a cabin heater was provided (installed from the second production series), combined with windshield blowing. In the heater, the fan supplied air only to the windshield, and the interior flowed by gravity, this greatly reduced the heating efficiency when parked and at low speeds.

All "Pobeda" rear lights differed from the usual ones: two side lights combined with direction indicators (two-filament lamps) were located on the fenders of the car, and a single brake light was installed in the middle of the trunk lid, in a block with a license plate light.

This was the difference between the "Victory" from the mass Soviet cars of those years (Moskvich-400, ZIS-5, GAZ-AA, etc.), which had only one left lamp, and from the ZIS-110, equipped with two full-fledged taillights.

This arrangement of lighting devices was later repeated on the ZIM car.

The first batches of "Victory" did not have an interrupter relay, therefore, when the direction indicators of such cars were turned on, they burned constantly.

It was interesting to turn on the front side lights, at the "Victory", they burned only in the middle position of the central light switch, and when the headlights were turned on, the dimensions went out. This was done most likely to make it easier to distinguish the unblinking front direction indicators, which were combined with the side lights, in which case their light is not so lost against the background of bright headlights.

Of the devices GAZ-M20 had:

• • speedometer with odometer and high beam warning lamp;
  • fuel level indicator;
  • ammeter;
  • a coolant thermometer (for this device, the arrow deviated to the left with increasing temperature);
  • oil pressure gauge;
  • indicator lamps for direction indicators,
  • an overheating indicator lamp (it could be connected to a relay-regulator, in which case, in addition to overheating, it also showed a lack of charge).

Modernization projects

From the beginning of the production of "Pobeda" it had a modern design and advanced design, but by the beginning of the 1950s a large number of design flaws of the car were revealed, the body had too low a ceiling height above the rear seat, there was almost no rearward view, too little trunk volume, in addition, not a good aerodynamic effect appeared - the appearance of lift when driving at high speed, a strong susceptibility of the car to side wind drift (due to these design flaws, the fastback body has not taken root anywhere in the world on general purpose cars).

By the mid-50s, the aggregate part also did not correspond to the world level, primarily this concerned the lower-valve engine, most of the American and many new European models from 1952-1954 were equipped with overhead valve engines, hypoid rear axles, bent glass, etc.

"Victory-NAMI"

During a temporary shutdown of the GAZ conveyor, in 1948, the specialists of NAMI L. Terentyev Y. and Dolmatovsky proposed an alternative version of the modernization of Pobeda.

In this project, a large number of changes were proposed, first of all, this is the “sedan” body, which clearly has three volumes (instead of two for the fastback sedan), the exterior design and interior have been changed.

The interior of the project received an improved finish. Instead of the front couch, it was supposed to install two separate seats with bucket-shaped, thin backs, which would give an increase in the usable interior space.

In addition, the Pobedy-NAMI project had several design options for the front end, which was made by the designer Vladimir Ivanovich Aryamov and which included the traditional symbol of the city of Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) - the motif of the head and antlers of a deer.

Also, in the future, it was planned to create a number of prototypes of hydromechanical automatic transmission for Pobeda (NAMI D2).

Several samples were built, which had some differences in design, one of them had a two-tone color.

The modernization project, in general, was quite consistent with the level of its time, and outwardly resembled the most advanced mass-produced models of those years, such as the 1948 Kaiser (USA) and other three-volume sedans with a pronounced pontoon and a clear division of volumes, while successfully corrected some of Pobeda's flaws.

However, the complexity of reconfiguring production and other problems (there were many difficulties with the development of the existing model, which did not go as smoothly as it should have), this proposal was not accepted.

A sedan based on "Pobeda", subsequently produced in Poland, but under the designation "Warsaw" (later modification). This machine was developed independently of Pobeda-NAMI and had a different external design.

Project "Victory" GAZ M20 second generation

A group of designers of the GAZ automobile plant, since 1951, has been working on a project called the M-21 "Pobeda".

The above-mentioned works by NAMI were taken as the basis of the technical task, and the external appearance of the machine developed by L. Eremeev was very much reminiscent of his ZIM, only in a reduced form. But the design of ZIM itself, by that time, had already begun to become outdated, and therefore the matter did not go beyond the plaster model.

The next-generation middle-class GAZ vehicles, which began to be developed in 1952-1953, no longer had the name "Pobeda": their development was carried out under the slogans "Zvezda" and "Volga". But, in the design of the "Volga", nevertheless, a lot of developments were implemented on the second generation "Victory" project.

Currently, the retro car GAZ M20 Pobeda is very popular with collectors.

"Victory" M-20

Another article in the cycle about the predecessor models of the Volga GAZ-24 is devoted to the M-20 Pobeda - or GAZ-20, if you call it by the in-plant model index - a car remarkable not only on a domestic scale, but, perhaps, in what -to the least, and the global automotive industry.

Despite the huge amount of information available today (suffice it to mention the very benign site of Artyom Alekseenko), "Victory" is still surrounded by a whole layer of mythology, both positive and negative. Without setting itself as the main goal of this article to debunk the myths about this car or, on the contrary, to find confirmation for it, it would be advisable to touch on the question of the plausibility of at least the most widely replicated of them - as well as to cite a number of curious ones concerning Victory on the contrary, facts not widely known.

Speaking about the history of the development of "Victory", in general, it should be noted that, despite the large number of publications devoted to it, it still cannot be considered definitively written: every year such details and new facts "emerge" that force us to discard much of the usual view on her. Worse, it has become overgrown with a multitude of misconceptions, misinterpretations and unreliable, but ingrained opinions of individual researchers. As practice has shown, the original version of this article, written in 2012, also turned out to be far from free of them, and there is no guarantee that in the current one in the near future it will not be necessary to make the most radical changes.

Traditionally, even, apparently, from the time of Shugurov, the creation of "Victory" is usually counted from the meeting of the People's Commissariat of Medium Machine Building on February 3, 1943 - which took place in the midst of hostilities, the Battle of Stalingrad ended on February 2 - with which a task was sent to the Gorky Automobile Plant design, among others, and a new passenger car.

Meanwhile, by this time the plant already had a ready-made promising type for post-war cars, including a middle-class passenger car, so work in this direction was clearly underway before the February 3 meeting. The government assignment essentially repeated the proposals of the plant itself, made on the basis of pre-war developments.

In fact, a promising model of the middle class at the plant began to be designed even before the war, and even then the main elements of the future car were chosen - a streamlined monocoque body, an independent front suspension, and so on. The mastering of the new model in production was planned around 1943.

We began, as usual, with an acquaintance with the level of foreign automotive industry achieved in recent years, for which in 1938, the purchase of foreign analogues was carried out - the best models of the middle class at that time, aimed at comparative tests in order to determine the design solutions most suitable for domestic conditions ... At the same time, the task of choosing a specific prototype for licensed or unlicensed copying was not posed - the task of the factory workers was, on the basis of the data obtained as a result of comparative tests, to formulate requirements for their own design, which not only should not be inferior to foreign ones in terms of basic indicators, but also, if possible, outstrip them. on the technical level, based on a long production period without obsolescence.

In terms of layout and design, this idea was fully implemented - according to these indicators, the project of a new GAZ car did not look outdated even ten years after the start of work on it. Alas, on other points, the situation did not look so rosy: the difficult circumstances of the emergence of a new "passenger car" forced to "drag" into its design a lot of outdated, if not completely archaic for that time, constructive solutions ...

In the same 1938, Valentin Brodsky, who was at that time at the plant as an artist-consultant, completed the first search sketches of the future car:

In general, this sketch looks like a kind of "alloy" of the then latest achievements of the Germans in the field of aerodynamics and the Americans in the field of "styling". Today it makes a strange impression - as if the front and rear of a car of the late thirties were attached to the body with a sidewall of a clearly post-war look. The additional sections on the sides of the windshield, also made according to the pre-war fashion, also look unusual. Nevertheless, it already contains all the basic design elements of the future "Victory". In those years, many of these machines were painted, some were even built in single copies, but they did not go into series.

Sometimes this sketch dates from 1943. This is completely incorrect, since by that time Brodsky had been fighting on the fronts of the Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars for the fourth year already ...

And the design of the front end with a semicircular radiator mask, reminiscent of the "Emka" GAZ-11-73, clearly gives out the style of the late thirties. In the early forties, "this was no longer worn" - flat radiator masks, completely "recessed" into the front and continuing the surface of the front fenders, came into fashion.

The similarity of many elements of the body shape with post-war cars is nothing more than an accidental (or prophetic - as you like ...) coincidence; in general, the car is framed completely within the framework of pre-war trends.

However, apparently, along with this radical one, more conservative design options were considered:

Work on mock-ups of promising cars at KEO GAZ. 1939 year.

Another perspective of the layout from the top photo. It could just as well have been built in a design studio of an American firm.

Unfortunately, the normal course of work on a passenger car was interrupted first by the war with Finland (1939-1940), and then by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Already from the end of the 1930s, promising work on the topic of passenger cars in the USSR began to curtail, the entire industry was transferred to a war footing. True, during a short peaceful respite at the end of 1940 - beginning of 1941 in Moscow, it was possible to start production of the "people's" small car KIM, but in general the situation was not very conducive to updating the model range of automotive enterprises. We were destined to meet the new big war with obsolete, but well-developed in production "lorry" and "emka", since history did not release time and resources for fine-tuning and mastering new models.

And if the GAZ-51 truck, which was developed almost in parallel, was still brought to the stage of running samples, which were tested during the war years (and its all-wheel drive version of the GAZ-63 was even formally adopted by the Red Army in 1939; after the war, both cars were completely redesigned), then the passenger car for June 1941 was still "on paper".

The same thing happened with American cars with a similar body shape, on which work was carried out in 1941-1942 and which were supposed to go into production by about 1943-1944 model year: shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, mass production of passenger cars in the USA was discontinued until further notice, only separate series of pre-war models were assembled for the needs of the army and government departments. And behind the closed doors of design studios, at the same time, models of cars were molded for a still so distant peaceful future ...

Unlike Pobeda, most of these cars were unlucky enough to go into production. The fact is that when at the end of 1945 - 1946 American car manufacturers got the opportunity to resume production of "cars", in the bulk they simply took out of the warehouses practically unworn molds for the bodies of the last pre-war models of 1942 that had been lying there throughout the war and resumed their production with minimal restyling.

And by the time the first really developed "from scratch" post-war cars went into production in 1947-1949, their design was no longer based on pre-war developments. Moreover, the firms that nevertheless put their promising pre-war developments on the conveyor turned out to be a loser, since the design of American cars in the post-war period began to develop in a completely different direction that was considered promising before Pearl Harbor.

It was possible to fully resume work on a promising passenger car at GAZ only after the aforementioned meeting and receiving an official assignment for it. The main work on the design of the car was carried out by the chief designer of the plant A.A. Lipgart. A. M. Krieger was responsible for the development of the chassis, and A. N. Kirillov for the body.

Naturally, the three years lost due to the war had to somehow be compensated for: the full development cycle "from scratch", say, of a fundamentally new type of suspension, including long-term life tests of prototypes and development of production technology, takes more than one year, with the right to make a mistake the plant did not have it - all the main units should have basically “turned out” from the first attempt, because in the post-war devastation, it simply would not have had the opportunity to correct fundamental errors in the design of the car after the start of its mass production.

The world leader of the automotive industry of those years, General Motors, took more than three years to develop an independent suspension of the KneeAction type (see below for it), and only one and a half million miles of the total mileage of test cars took only field tests of prototypes. As of 1943, GAZ did not have the opportunity to carry out such large-scale development work.

The continued dependence of the Soviet automobile industry on foreign technologies also affected. By that time, in Western countries with long traditions of the automotive industry, not only production, but also the design of automobiles was put on stream, and the needs of the automotive industry were served by a multitude of subcontractors that accumulated vast experience in the development and production of auto components, and independent design bureaus that provided services for the development of car design and its technological design.

For example, almost all car manufacturers in those years ordered all-metal bodies to an American company Budd company, which, in fact, was the first to develop the technology for their production (or to its branches: the German Ambi-Buddor British Pressed Steel Company;french firm Bliss,providing bodies Citroënand the French subsidiary of Ford ", was a license holder Budd, and for each body released according to her technology, she paid royalties).

In particular, it was the specialists of the Budd Company or its branches that developed and put into production the supporting bodies of the models Citroën TA and Opel kapitan.

Almost all of Europe bought electrical products from the company Bosch; clutches and shock absorbers on a good half of European cars used brands Komet-Mecano(company branch Fichtel & Sachs) , and braking mechanisms - ATE-Lockheed... And so on.

In order to design and launch a new car in a series, they only needed an idea and money for its implementation - all the necessary “tools” were already “at hand”.

Before the war, the USSR used this opportunity quite actively, ordering abroad technological design and production equipment for its automotive projects (ZIS-101, KIM-10 and others). But, for obvious reasons, there is no way to order in 1943-44 the development of the most complex structural elements of a new car, such as a front suspension and a monocoque body, or in 1944-45 - the manufacture of tooling for the production of a body, abroad, as was done for some pre-war there were no Soviet models - all countries that had the opportunity to fulfill such an order were also involved in the world war and practically stopped the development and production of cars, even for their own use.

In the pre-war USSR itself, a truly serious design school in this area was just beginning to take shape, professional automobile designers were literally in short supply, and the experience of creating "from scratch" the technology for the production of a modern passenger car was completely absent, since such a task was set before the industry in essence for the first time.

However, in assessing the current situation, it is important not to go too far. Recently, one often hears arguments about the fact that a breakthrough in the Soviet automotive industry in the post-war years became possible mainly, if not entirely due to the study of samples of captured and lend-lease equipment, as well as documentation and production facilities on the territory of the Soviet zone of occupation. in Germany. In general - "there was no happiness, but misfortune helped" the stupid Soviet engineers. But if in relation to the first "Moskvich" and, in part, the first post-war trucks GAZ and ZIS, this train of thought still contains a certain amount of truth, then in relation to "Victory" it cannot but cause some surprise.

Even if you do not recall the pre-war period of the development of this car, one should not forget that the main design work on it took place in 1943-1944 - that is, it was carried out long before Soviet specialists got access to any enterprises, documentation or specialists on the territory of Germany, and the assortment of technology that was available in those years for studying did not differ much from the range of structures already known from the pre-war years (in fact, the same German and American cars, which for the most part had already been carefully studied by the plant at the end of the 1930s; at best, individual models that had not previously attracted the attention of factory workers, or newer modifications already known to them).

The foundation of the post-war leap in the Soviet automotive industry was laid even before the war, and first of all it concerns the personnel trained in those years who were able to “pull out” this leap, and the production potential accumulated by the end of the thirties, which exceeded the capabilities of the USSR at the end of 1920 by an order of magnitude. x, when the country's automotive industry was just beginning the transition from the supply of spare parts and overhaul of foreign cars to the production of a full cycle.

The war to a large extent slowed down the processes that had already been going on in the Soviet automotive industry since the late 1930s, and forced many problems to be solved in an emergency, distorted the process of updating the model series of car plants, sometimes beyond recognition. But she was not the reason and the motivating factor for this renewal, and in its course she played a negative role rather than a positive one. In those years, we had to take foreign models as the basis for our cars not because we were so lucky with the prospects that opened up as a result of the war, but because we were unlucky enough to lose more than five years of normal development of this industry due to the war.

If you hypothetically imagine the course of events in which the war never took place (which, given the then foreign policy situation, is an absolute fantasy, but still), then we have to admit that the process of updating the model range of Soviet automobile plants would have gone on as usual and without such "shakes". It is difficult to consider a serious progress, for example, the release of the Opel Kadett instead of the KIM-10-52 (despite the fact that the latter car was considered by many experts to be more suitable for Soviet conditions) or the external stylization of the post-war cargo lineup for American Lend-Lease technology, adopted instead of more " civilian design options developed before the war.

This, of course, does not mean that the war did not bring any benefit to the industry at all - take at least the production of light high-speed diesels, analogues of GMC 4-71 and 6-71, established for the first time in the country. However, in this case, it is worth noting that these engines were chosen for production in the USSR back in 1939, and the deployment of their licensed production in those years was prevented only by the US trade embargo, which was a reaction to the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish war, which turned out to be a dress rehearsal for the Great Patriotic War. and is inextricably linked with the already underway at that time World War II. As a result, in order to obtain a set of documentation and production equipment for the diesel engines needed by the national economy, it was necessary to take a "detour" (they were obtained under the pretext of the need to produce spare parts for diesel Lend-Lease vehicles; see details)... As you can see, there was rather a slowdown in the pace of development - if it were not for the need to move the border away from Leningrad in the light of the approaching war with Germany, the Soviet national economy would have received diesel engines already in 1940-41, and not in 1947-49. I think that asking which of these tasks was of higher priority at that time is rather strange, because everything is already obvious.

In the case of "Victory" specifically, a close examination of the course of events also gives the impression that the war rather damaged than helped this car to be born. In a hypothetical version of the peaceful forties, an alternative "Victory", for the development and refinement of which there would have been an opportunity to spend more time and resources, would most likely be a car with a higher technical level, as well as a more powerful six-cylinder engine, which before the war, as then it seemed, seriously and for a long time "registered" under the hood of cars of the Molotov plant. Of course, in this case, this car would have had a different name ...

One way or another, we have to admit the fact that it was impossible to do in the current situation with only one’s own original ideas and possibilities. In the absence of time for expensive and lengthy experiments on stuffing their own cones, the factory workers had only to choose from among the available for study a foreign analogue, close in size and weight, already worked out in mass production and in practice proved its suitability for operation in domestic conditions, and take from it (directly or indirectly) those constructive solutions, the independent development of which caused the greatest difficulties, which, accordingly, could entail the greatest problems in the process of mastering in production.

And here we just came to the first of the legends associated with the "Victory" - the one that says that the Soviet car was a more or less reworked version of the very "Opel Capiten". So, I had no idea, but the "opelevskaya" "genetics" can still be traced in the design of a number of nodes quite clearly.

In particular, this applies to the front suspension - here it is enough to look at their drawings placed next to them (collage from the site of Artyom Alekseenko):

As you can see, we have before us different, but still made clearly according to the same scheme of the suspension with a structure typical for the family of suspensions General Motors Knee-Action... The constructive differences between them are not fundamental in nature and are mainly explained by differences in production technology, the desire of Soviet engineers to strengthen the suspension for operation on bad roads, and also by unification with previous GAZ models.

Thus, the pivot assembly of the suspension strut at Pobeda has been completely redesigned using a number of parts from the pre-war GAZ-11-73 and has a completely different configuration: at Opel, the pivot knuckle is attached by a pivot to two tides on the rack, upper and lower, while , as in "Pobeda" everything is quite the opposite - two tides of the steering knuckle cover the only protrusion of the steering column. Such a stand is clearly stronger than the openwork opelevskaya. The hubs and brakes of "Victory" are also completely their own, the bolt pattern of the wheel studs - "Ford" 5 × 5.5 inches (5 × 139.7 mm) - where it came from, I think there is no need to explain.

According to the owner of "Opel", many of the front suspension parts are even interchangeable - shock absorbers (lever), threaded bushings, perhaps even the lower arms.

The difference, however - I repeat - is also quite obvious, and to call the Victory suspension accurate a copy can be well, except that absolutely irrepressible adherents of the theory "blew everything off." The release technology was also clearly developed from scratch, under the existing production equipment.

Here, however, first of all, it must be said that this design was quite advanced for those years, and of course, no one in the USSR had any experience in designing such suspensions - the top of the technologies mastered by GAZ by that time was the dependent suspension " Emki "on longitudinal springs, although it differed favorably from the original" Ford "on one transverse spring, but still no less archaic by the standards of those years. Gorky residents should have been quite familiar with Opel even before the war, not to mention the presence of large numbers of captured Kapitenov - it was impossible to miss the opportunity to use as a prototype of one of the most advanced front suspensions in the world at that time.

Practice has shown that such a step was fully justified - no serious problems with the front suspension, a fundamentally new type not only for the plant, but also for the entire automotive industry of the country, was not revealed during operation, even on extremely "raw" cars of the first series it worked without any significant complaints. Developing our own completely original suspension on a tight schedule would not have gone so smoothly without experience.

Let's not forget that the USSR, under reparation agreements, had the right to the documentation and technological equipment of the plant. Adam Opel AG in Rüsselheim. And even if the formal side of the agreements did not imply the ability to dispose of the technical achievements of this company as our own (and even "post-factum" - after all, as mentioned above, the main work on the design of "Victory" was completed even before the end of hostilities), not to understand the inevitability of such a development of events on the part of the Allies would be at least naive. The presence in this case of some kind of informal agreement can be indicated by the fact that neither from Opel itself nor from its "parent" company - the American General motors - no claims to the USSR arose during the entire production and sales of "Pobeda" and cars made on its modified platform on the international market.

With some changes, variants of the same suspension were also used on ZIM-e and Volga GAZ-21 of the first and most of the second series - before the introduction of telescopic shock absorbers, which forced a serious change in the suspension design. For the GAZ-24, a completely new suspension was developed, which, although it retained the pivots as a structural element, was a completely different design, not related to the "Pobedovskaya" one either in terms of design or technology.

The steering of the "Victory" was already significantly different from the "Opel": its steering gear was located in front of the suspension beam, and the "German" - behind it, respectively, the steering gear and the steering linkage had a completely different design.

The braking system for the first time in domestic practice on a mass model was made hydraulic - the solution at that time was no longer advanced, but slowly being introduced into practice (so, "Ford" switched to them just before the war, in 1939)... At the same time, the braking mechanisms themselves remained quite primitive, with one leading block, and in fact differed little from the very first GAZ cars (significantly more efficient front brakes with two leading pads will be introduced on the GAZ-21).

The wiring system was 12-volt - despite the fact that in those years, many cars still used more capricious 6-volt wiring, for example, the same Fords retained it until the mid-1950s.

The three-speed gearbox originally used on the car was made on the basis of the M-1 gearbox and did not have synchronizers (their functions were partially performed by the so-called "easy engagement clutches", which did not cancel the need for double squeezing and rebasing when switching). The gear lever was located on the floor, which by the standards of those years was “low calm”. In the early 1950s, it was replaced by a gearbox from ZIM-a - with a more modern steering column lever and synchronizers in 2nd and 3rd gears, much more perfect and easy to use at that time.

The rear axle of "Victory", in general outline, repeated the bridge from the army off-road vehicle GAZ-67 and had a design that in general dates back to the Ford Model A / GAZ-A and after that has never been repeated in the domestic (and, apparently, world) automotive industry. - with axle shafts made integrally with the differential gears and connected to the hub by means of a cone with a key. Such axle shafts are called "three-quarters unloaded", that is, one end of the axle shaft (from the side of the differential) is completely unloaded from bending forces, and the other (from the side of the wheel) is partially unloaded, while most of the efforts are taken by the axle housing itself:

And although formally the semi-axle in this design works under more favorable conditions than in a modern bridge with a semi-unloaded semi-axle, in practice the design turned out to be not very successful in terms of operation and maintenance. So, in order to pull out the axle shaft, it was necessary to completely disassemble the bridge, for which its crankcase was made split. Particular problems were created by the keyed connection of the axle shaft with the hub - if you did not follow the tightening of the hub nut, you could be left without a wheel right on the move due to breaking off the axle shaft in the thinnest part of the cone.

On modern passenger cars, the axle shafts are usually semi-unloaded, made integrally with the hub flange and connected to the differential gears by means of a splined connection, which also relieves the axle shaft from lateral force transmission.

It is worth noting that the topic of classifying the types of semiaxes is extremely confusing, and in different sources the same design may have different names. To a certain extent, it sheds light on this issue of the engineer comrade Dumoulin from "Behind the Wheel" as early as 1937. Reading more than curious - I recommend it.

The gears of the main pair had spiral teeth, but their engagement was tapered, and not offset hypoid, as on most modern cars. Such gears could work successfully even on "nigrol" - thick waste from the distillation of naphthenic Baku oils.

Starting with the second production series at Pobeda, for the first time in the mass Soviet automobile industry, a cabin heater coupled with a windshield blower was provided as standard equipment. Moreover, in fact, these were two completely separate systems with a common radiator.

The interior was heated only by air supplied by gravity into the body from the outside through the retractable "bucket" of the air intake located in front of the windshield:

The air was supplied to the windshield by a fan, but at the same time only in recirculation mode - with the intake of already heated air from the passenger compartment.

In other words, the interior was fully heated only in motion with an open air intake, and when the car was stationary, warm air almost did not enter it, since there was no backwater supplying it, only glass blowing worked fully. It was also not possible to switch the heater to recirculation mode to quickly warm up the passenger compartment. But on "Pobeda" there was a cabin filter that purified the air coming from outside. As far as I know, such a heater design has not been used anywhere else.

Naturally, there was no question of any deflectors that allow directing the air flow, which, however, was quite normal for those years - even on the GAZ-21 the stove, although it received a normal fan that works to heat the passenger compartment, simply pumped it into hot air through the nozzles located on the shield of the engine compartment under the dashboard. Deflectors, however, appeared only on the GAZ-24, but immediately the most convenient type, located on the front of the dashboard, and not like on the Zhiguli - from the top in the middle, equally poorly coping with both interior heating and windshield heating.

I note that in the forties, the heater on many cars was an additional equipment installed by order or as a tuning procedure, and usually looked like a separate box located under the dashboard:

There were no established schemes for the operation of the "climate control system" yet, which explains the abundance of oddities in the heating systems of cars of those years, including "Pobeda".

In general, much in Pobeda was done for the first time in the domestic automotive industry. To the extent that it, in fact, was the first Soviet car, the production of which was prepared entirely on its own. The body of "Pobeda" was the first fully designed and prepared for mass production in the USSR - before that, even for models developed in-house (for example, KIM-10), equipment for production was ordered for a lot of money from foreign - American - firms. For the ZIS-110 model, the tooling was made in the USSR, but it was not suitable for mass production, since the dies were cast from zinc-aluminum alloy (TsAM) and could withstand only a limited number of working cycles (which was quite acceptable for a small-scale ZIS-a) ... Now GAZ has its own production of stamps and molds, which soon began to supply its products to factories under construction in Minsk (MAZ) and Kutaisi (KAZ), and equipment for stamping body elements of the first independently developed model was also made there. "Moskvich" ("Moskvich-402/407").

It is worth noting that the origin of the molds on which the Pobeda body was produced is to a certain extent a mystery. In any case, I have never seen any definite and unambiguously reliable information on this matter.

Before the war, the USSR did not have its own production of molds of this size for car bodies; its sudden appearance during the war years or in the first months after its end also looks like a rather unlikely phenomenon. We will probably never know in detail where, by whom and how these molds were made. At the moment, I am ready to accept any option, up to the fact that their production was ordered abroad, for example, to some enterprise located in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany.

In particular, the already mentioned Ambi-Budd enterprise, which was located in the suburbs of Berlin and ended up in the Soviet zone of occupation after the war, was very suitable for such a task. Subsequently, part of the equipment from it "surfaced" in the East German Eisenach at the Avtovelo plant, which produced cars and bicycles for reparation deliveries to the USSR, part of it was transferred to the Ford firm and installed at its production facilities. And some - “disappeared in an unknown direction” ...

Similar questions arise in relation to the molds on which the Moskvich-400 was produced - in respect of which it has already been quite reliably proven that practically all the work on its design was carried out in Germany by joint Soviet-German design bureaus. Dolmatovsky's rather vague phrases that the equipment for its production was "supplied by Soviet factories" nowadays sound somewhat ambiguous in light of the fact that enterprises subordinate to the Soviet occupation administration were formally considered Soviet from the point of view of state ownership (for example, those produced by the same by the Avtovelo plant, BMW cars were formally considered domestically produced for reparation deliveries to the USSR).

However, there is no reason to write off the possibility of making molds in the USSR itself - one should not forget that very similar equipment is used, in particular, at aircraft factories for the production of large-sized aluminum cladding parts, so some experience in the manufacture of similar products should still was there.

Of course, it was not without the "lumpy first pancake": in comparison with the later GAZ cars, the supporting body of the "Victory" turned out to be very weak, which is perfectly visible from the state of the specimens that looked good on our roads. A particularly serious drawback in our climatic conditions was that almost the entire body was stamped from sheet metal of the same thickness. (apparently, the post-war shortage of any rolled steel affected - and there was no question of setting its thickness individually for each element in accordance with the load): this forced the designers to use metal in two or even three layers in loaded places to ensure strength - a "layer cake", inside which corrosion developed magnificently.

The abundance of "double" and even "triple" sections and parts connected by "overlapping" welding points was a problem for all cars on this platform, but it was especially noticeable on "Pobeda".

Largely in connection with this, on the next model, the Volga GAZ-21, we observe such an abundance of thick metal and a sharp jump in the quality of anti-corrosion treatment. The manufacturing technology of the "Pobedovsky" body was generally very imperfect, associated with many adjustments and extensive use of unproductive manual labor. However, one should not forget that this "first pancake" was a very valuable experience, without which there would be no ZIM seven-seat monocoque body, unique for its time, nor very successful GAZ-21 and GAZ-24 bodies.

Subsequently, since 1955, the already modernized "Pobeda" - M-20V, or "third series", went into production. She had a modified design of the front end, interior and many other improvements.

Now the time has come to analyze one more, not just a legend, but simply interesting information related to Pobeda.

Was "Pobeda" the world's first large-scale car with a "pontoon", "wingless" body characteristic of the post-war era? No, it wasn't! But the gap with the really first car with such a body shape was only about a month.

They were American cars produced by the same brand Kaiserand Frazer:

It is curious that in some domestic sources one can find information that the pontoon has already appeared on the "Kaiser" after "Victory". And, apparently, this is not a "postscript" from an excess of patriotic feelings - just the researchers of the issue were misled by the advertising ploy used by the Kaiser-Fraser company when launching this car in series.

Although production actually started on May 29 calendar 1946, the vehicle was declared "Model 1947" - despite the fact that model the year usually starts around the fall of the previous calendar (when the production equipment starts maintenance and it becomes possible to reconfigure it for a new model); that is, "according to the rules" the model launched in May had to refer back to 1946, well - at least - "1946 and a half" (1946 ½) model year. The hint that the creators of "Kaiser" wanted to throw to the public is quite understandable - "Car from tomorrow today"... But, unfortunately, a person who is not familiar with the concept of the model year adopted in the West can be very confused.

The Kaisers themselves were very interesting cars.

Later, however, the low functionality of such a body became clear; in particular, due to the sloping roof, the ceiling height above the rear seat was underestimated, the backward view was very poor due to the small, highly inclined rear window, and at relatively high speeds, bad aerodynamic effects associated with the occurrence of lift for the wing-shaped profile of a car and a strong susceptibility to its drift by a side wind, which in those years, even before the use of blowing in wind tunnels in the automotive industry, they did not know how to fight.

In addition, fastbacks were of two "varieties" - with an ugly humpbacked tailgate, but having a full-fledged trunk, and with an elegant teardrop-shaped tailgate, but practically without a trunk. "Victory" was approximately halfway between these extremes, and the situation with it can be described as an "unfortunate compromise": her rear end was not as elegant as, say, the Chevrolet-Aerosedan, and the trunk was more than modest volume, mainly serving to store a spare wheel and a set of tools - the remaining space was only enough for a couple of small suitcases.

Because of all this, the fastback body did not take root anywhere in the world on general-purpose cars, and by the mid-1950s it was almost completely replaced by a three-compartment sedan.

To this were added the changing tastes of buyers: if at the end of the thirties and forties torpedo-shaped, "licked" forms were popular - a style that was embodied in "fastbacks" - then in the fifties a direction appeared and began to rapidly develop, which later led to the famous " fin style ". With the cheap fuel prices and the increased demands of American consumers for the car's appearance, style began to clearly triumph over aerodynamics. Distribution received design findings that looked "cool", but completely killed any attempts to give the body a streamlined shape - like the same fins or visors over the headlights, playing the role of huge "brake parachutes". In this style, "fastbacks" no longer fit, as a result of which by the 1954-55 model years in the United States, they finally died out ( although attempts to revive them did not stop until it actually took place in the mid-sixties - but already within the framework of a completely different style).

The last fastback in that era was the 1954 Hudson Wasp, which had a transitional style, having received small fins at the stern:

The main shortcomings of this type of body were fixed on it, in particular, the backward view was improved due to the introduction of a strongly curved rear window and two small additional windows behind the doors, the volume of the trunk was increased due to the "hump" on its lid, which gave the car a certain resemblance to the usual three-volume sedan. It is impossible not to note the amazing modernity the shape of this body: the vast majority of large sedans of the 2010s have a very similar wedge-shaped profile, with a short high trunk and a strongly extended rear roof. However, in those years, even in this form, the body was unpopular, losing the competition to the three-volume sedan, which became the de facto standard for decades to come.

Pobeda modernization project. Lev Eremeev, 1951.

At one time, they also tried to update the Pobeda body in a similar way at GAZ, changing the shape of the rear fenders, but, for obvious enough reasons, this option did not go into the series - it did not give any increase in the technical qualities of the car, and it won the vision of giving the body more modern contours was already small in the early fifties. The GAZ-20V, which went into production in 1955, had the same rear end as the previous modification.

By the way, one of the cars designed in Gorky to replace Pobeda, the Star designed by John Williams, was also a fastback with large fins at the stern, but the Volga with a three-volume body also won in the USSR.

Some surge in the popularity of "fastbacks", and only two-door, came in the United States later, in the mid-sixties, now - in connection with the fashion for pseudo-sports cars, such as the first generation Dodge Charger, which had just such a body; but it ended very quickly, this time already in view of the fact that by the early 1970s, two-door fastbacks, like other traditional types of two-door bodies, such as two-door sedans and coupes, quickly began to be replaced by more practical three-door hatchbacks with a third door in the rear wall body. After that, the use of this type of body was only episodic.

Actually, in the USSR, apparently, already in the first years of the release of a new car, they well understood that they miscalculated a little with the type of body, but because of their "busyness" and relatively high cost, none of the options for converting into a sedan was implemented - about them described in the article about.

True, thanks to the ever-memorable irrepressible creative energy of our compatriots, we still have the opportunity "in metal" to see how a sedan based on "Victory" might look like. Moreover, such an opportunity was not provided to us by professional designers and constructors, but by some unknown, but clearly very handy Master, who welded to the convertible (!) A narrowed ass from ZIM. And after that, some Sinepisalochniks still say that in the USSR, de, there was no tuning! There was, gentlemen, and what, look, this is not for you "Dviglo from behi to stick"; the combination of scarcity with numerous freebies available for work and a lot of free time is a terrible force.

In addition, much later a sedan based on the "Victory" clone - "Warsaw" - was produced in Poland:

Moreover, as one would expect from the restyling of the model of the mid-1940s, it looked very strange, if not to say otherwise: to the front of the "Victory" and its lower part of the body, minimally changed due to the wide plastic "mouth" of the radiator grill were attached an angular roof in the characteristic style of the sixties (the doors and frames of the side windows remained old, Victory) and an eerie-looking long and high coffin-like tail with vertical lanterns. In this form, the car was produced right up to 1973 (!), And in total, "Warsaw" made even more than the original "Victories", apparently not because the Poles liked it so much (which is very unlikely, knowing them " love "to everything Russian), but because, well, they lacked something to launch" their "more modern car into the series, although there were plenty of such projects.

For example, there was an even more creepy restyling project into a sedan with an extremely eclectic modified front, most of all resembling the front of a ZIL truck - fortunately, it did not go into production. And in 1959, the Poles still had the sense to turn to the Italians from Ghia, who knew a lot about design, who created for them quite a decent design project for the new generation of Warsaw, although in some places they clearly gave away Lanci, - however, in the series also and did not go. Subsequently, in 1964, the Poles themselves, but, obviously, still taking the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Italians as a basis, as can be seen from a number of design details, such as the rear lights, created their own prototype - Warszawa 210, by the way, also quite decent look (in a certain degree reminiscent of the Ford Taunus that went into series later, in the mid-seventies) - but it was not launched into the series either.

Later, at the same plant, they began to make an initially licensed (and subsequently produced without any license) clone of Fiat, model 125 (but with units from the older model 1300/1500). It was quite close externally to the Fiat-124 / VAZ-2101 we produced, even unified with a “penny” in a number of details (like door handles, which at the same time differed from those on the original Fiats), but at the same time a little larger and more archaic in design - in particular, it had a spring suspension at the rear and an old lower shaft motor.

However, let's get back directly to "Victory".

Having dealt with the basic fastback sedan, let's move on to a more interesting modification with a convertible body, produced from 1949 to 1953:

In principle, calling this car a convertible is not entirely correct, because, as a rule, in our time, this term means a car, with the awning raised and the windows lowered, completely devoid of any protrusions above the belt line, with the exception of the windshield. The open "Pobeda" (index - M-20B) had rigid sidewalls of the body and door frames with glass.

Such, as in the open "Pobeda", the body type is correctly called "cabriolimousine" (in the German manner), or cabrio coach / semi-convertible, "semi-cabriolet" (in English). In fact, it is a kind of sunroof, covered with a fabric awning. In Germany, a lot of such cars were produced, both before and after the war, although in the post-war years these were usually piece alterations of serial models by various small-scale private body shops and firms (of which the most famous was Webasto, which still exists and producing, in particular, pre-heaters for automobile engines). In addition, in the vast majority of cases, only two-door cars were altered in this way, especially in the case of a monocoque body. GAZ took a difficult path, but it made it possible to preserve the serial doors and doorways of the four-door "Victory".

This decision made it possible not only to prevent a significant decrease in the strength of the car (which had, let me remind you, a load-bearing body), but also to avoid the extremely busy alteration of doors and side windows for a real convertible, which promised to be another job, especially considering the presence of four doors. Indeed, on a full-fledged convertible, the glasses pass their way from the extremely lower to the extremely upper position along a complex trajectory, due to which in the upper position they “converge”, forming a solid surface, and on the way to the lower position, they diverge, besides, the glass frames are made lightweight and removed together with the glasses themselves, or simply absent. Actually, after the war, four-door convertibles were practically not made at all, and almost all open models had two doors.

It is very interesting that the creators of the four-door convertible, which was an exception to this rule, based on the more expensive version of the already mentioned Kaiser - the 1950 Frazer Manhattan car - followed essentially the same path as the designers of the M-20B, leaving the non-retractable door frames :

In fairness, it must be said that the Americans nevertheless designed the car more aesthetically, completely cutting off all the roof rudiments and using elegant chrome glass frames instead of massive standard ones, in addition to which they had to introduce additional glass between them, which took the place of the central pillar. But the Kaiser was a frame machine, and they had the ability to convert its body almost completely open, simply by using a reinforced frame with an X-shaped insert for increased rigidity; and at the "Victory" it was necessary to leave also the sidewall arcs, which played the role of important power elements in its load-bearing body.

The folding of this "super-hat" is described on the website of Artyom Alekseenko, and it was not a very simple procedure. Apparently because of this, and also - the obvious impracticality in the climate of most of the USSR, despite the 14,222 produced copies, convertibles were not particularly popular, except perhaps in some of the southern republics. Only a few copies have survived to this day. It is very interesting that some convertibles have acquired a hardtop from a conventional sedan during operation. In our time, on the contrary, sedans are sawn for convertibles ...

By the way, the retail price of the convertible was lower than the sedan - apparently, this was done to attract buyers to this body type. Despite the seeming logic at first glance, there is no roof! - in fact, it was almost the only case in the history of the post-war world automotive industry. But the buyer “wasn’t led to this,” so mass convertibles based on serial cars in the USSR were no longer made after that (the only thing was that a convertible was also produced in the same years, more precisely - the same convertible, based on “Moskvich-400”; disabled women "S-1L and S-3A, as well as GAZ-69, UAZ, LuAZ and similar cars with a clearly simplified utilitarian body, I do not include here).

For a long time, the existing version that the release of the convertible was associated with a shortage of sheet metal, I perceived as legendary. It is in this form that it really is nonsense - the mass of "Victory" - a convertible morethan the sedan, by 30 ... 35 kg (due to the numerous amplifiers added to its design to compensate for the lack of a roof), that is, in order to save metal, it was necessary to produce sedans.

However, such facts as the massive deliveries of cabrio-cabriolets to taxi fleets in Novosibirsk (!) And other very “southern” places still make us think at least about the presence of rational grain in it.

However, with a proviso: we should not talk about rolled steel "in general", but about a specific product - a sheet of special soft, well-stretched steel that has a non-standard, very large width, which is used for stamping roof panels. Before the war, due to the lack of such a brand of rental and the technology of large-sized stamping, sometimes a roof was made with an insert of leatherette ("Emka"), or even completely leatherette on a wooden frame. In general, as mentioned, the metal consumption of the convertible "by weight" was higher than the base sedan - due to the strengthening of the body.

Along with the factory version, there was a small-scale version of the open "Victory" for military parades in provincial districts - ordinary serial convertibles were not very convenient for this because of the door glass frames that thoroughly closed the officer receiving the parade. She generally had no roof, no glass frames, no side windows themselves, no normal awning. The left rear door was welded tightly to reinforce the body. The military NII-21 in the city of Bronnitsy produced such machines. He also did something similar on the basis of GAZ-21 and GAZ-24, and already in our time we had to see photos of similar cars even on the basis of GAZ-3110.

Another interesting car based on Pobeda is the all-wheel drive M-72 from 1955-58 (this car did not have a personal name, in particular, it was never called Pobeda):

Often referred to as the world's first comfortable SUV. Well, in fact, in about the same years, similar cars were created in other countries, for example, since 1940, the American company Marmon-Herrington on indorders assembled on the basis of passenger cars Ford and Mercury comfortable all-wheel drive vehicles with sedan, station wagon and van ", like these:

But still, these were originally frame cars, which made them more of a conceptual analogue of the earlier Soviet GAZ-61-73 based on Emka. Moreover, the single scale of their release makes it possible to talk more about tuning.

More massive was the all-wheel drive version of the French model Renault Colorale Tout Terrain, produced in 1952-1956, but in this case we have a frame car, moreover, it was originally created with a frame chassis, and even more reminiscent of a truck chassis rather than a frame passenger car. Suburban vehicles with all-wheel drive, similar in concept, were also produced in the USA - and also on a purely cargo frame chassis.

The residents of Gorky have created a similar car on the basis of "Pobeda", retaining its load-bearing body, albeit in a reinforced version. And although such a decision was to some extent forced, it is this decision that allows us to consider this model outstanding not only in the framework of the Soviet automobile industry, but also at the world level.

A total of 4,677 copies of the M-72 were produced, which were successfully operated mainly in collective and state farms and "on the virgin lands" (and there, mostly, and ended their life).

It should be noted that the M-72 was neither a simple modification of the serial "Victory" with a front drive axle, nor its body mounted on units from the GAZ-69. In fact, it was a design largely made "from scratch", albeit with wide unification with the existing models of the plant, including, of course, the M-20 and GAZ-69. At the same time, almost all units he has his own or, at least, noticeably modified.

So, the M-72 engine was equipped with a K-22D carburetor, instead of K-22A on the M-20 and K-22I on the GAZ-69, and had an oil cooler in the lubrication system, providing additional cooling when driving off-road, as well as a number of other small differences.

The M-72 gearbox is similar to the "Victory", and differs from the GAZ-69 with a side cover designed to drive the gear change from the steering column lever.

In the transfer case, which is generally identical in design to the GAZ-69, the shift levers were changed, which were performed not straight, but curved - enveloping the front sofa-type seat, which switched to the M-72 from Pobeda.

The main thing is that the M-72 bridges were by no means taken directly from the GAZ-69, but are unique for this particular car.

Front axle, with a generally similar "goat" design (In the M-72 Operation Manual, even an illustration of its partial section along the constant velocity hinge was taken from the GAZ-69 Operation Manual without changes) was shortened by several centimeters at the expense of crankcase stockings in order to adjust the wheel track to the width of the Pobeda body (track reduced from 1440 mm to 1355 mm).

The rear axle is completely original design, somewhat reminiscent of the bridge of the future "Volga" GAZ-21 with flanged semi-unloaded semi-axles, but with a conical main pair from GAZ-69. The track of its wheels is also smaller than that of the GAZ-69. (1380 mm)... They say that the same or very similar bridge was also put on the Polish vans "Nysa" and "Zhuk" (on the units of the Polish "Victory" - "Warsaw").

For comparison, in "Pobeda" the axle shafts of the rear axle are unloaded by ¾ and have a keyed connection with the hub - not the most reliable solution even for a road car, not to mention an all-terrain vehicle. And on the GAZ-69, the axle shafts are completely unloaded, their flanges come out of the hub and are bolted to it from the outside (like in the UAZ), which allows you to remove the axle shaft for inspection or replacement without disassembling the bridge itself or even jacking up the cars (a nice opportunity for field repair army all-terrain vehicle, but, perhaps, not so useful for a more "civilized" machine, and hardly compensating for the complexity of the design).

In cars with owners installed bridges from GAZ-69, the wheels noticeably protrude from the wheel arches and the rear arches flaps are not worn without trimming.

At the same time, the wheelbase of the M-72 is, on the contrary, somewhat larger than that of the "Pobeda" (and much more than that of the GAZ-69).

The body, of course, has been significantly strengthened, and has many characteristic features that are not characteristic of "Pobeda". In fact, we can talk about the presence of a frame integrated into the body of the M-72, somewhat similar to that of the Niva and many modern SUVs.

A little-known fact - even the front and rear fenders of this car differed from the serial "Pobedov" fenders, although they were made partly using the same stamps: the front fenders of the M-72 have a lower wheel arch cutout and a reinforced flange in the form of a wing protruding beyond the surface roller, at the rear - the profile of the cutout flange has also been changed and there are holes for installing a mud flap (in more detail about the differences in bodywork "Victory" of different issues and M-72 cm.).

In the end, it turned out to be an interesting, but, alas, too complicated and expensive machine to manufacture, which largely undermined the original idea of \u200b\u200bobtaining a relatively inexpensive and maximally unified with a serial "passenger car" comfortable all-terrain vehicle.

The point was, in particular, that the assembly technology of the M-72 was seriously different from the usual "Victory". So, if during the assembly of the latter, the front suspension and the power unit, previously assembled on the beam, were installed on its body in one technological step, then the M-72 front suspension looked like a bridge on springs, without a fixed beam carrying the power unit, and the engine was fastened through special brackets directly on the side members of the body, which forced them to be installed in several separate operations, to which were also added operations to install a transfer case and additional propeller shafts separate from the gearbox.

In view of such significant technological differences, it was not possible to assemble these cars in the general flow - a significant part of the time the M-72 was carried out at a separate production site, which greatly complicated and slowed down the process of their manufacture.

It is for this reason that this line of Gorky cars, unfortunately, did not have to continue - although it is worth noting that equipping GAZ cars with all-wheel drive remained a very popular topic and later, it is enough to recall the all-wheel drive station wagon GAZ-22 or built directly at the GAZ-24-95 plant ...

Export sales of Pobeda are a very interesting topic.

In principle, it was generally one of the first massively exported Soviet passenger cars.

There are two directions of export - east and west.

The first was mainly represented by China and North Korea (pictured above is Stalin Street in Pyongyang in 1959; note the newest Volga M-21 and the M-72 SUV).

As they say, a batch of cars for Chinese comrades had a blue plastic interior, traditionally considered a symbol of good luck in the Celestial Empire. Perhaps, of course, this is a bike.

In North Korea, they even wanted to establish local production, but apparently things did not go beyond the release of several prototypes. By the way, given that the situation with passenger cars is rather tight there even today, the question arises: would not the production of Pobeda continue there in our time, would the Koreans be able to establish it in due time? ..

In Europe outside the socialist bloc, the bulk of Victory deliveries came to Finland, Sweden, Norway and other Scandinavian countries, in which climatic and road conditions were very similar to those for which the car was created.

In Finland, "Pobedy" have long been the basis of the taxi fleet. For the first time, a batch of them was purchased before the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, after which Soviet cars quickly ousted motley old American models from taxi fleets, and later they were ousted by 21 Volgas themselves. Until the late fifties, probably in the early sixties, the following scenes were not uncommon on the streets of Helsinki: