The Volga () is an executive car that originated in the Soviet Union to replace the GAZ Pobeda in 1956. Their role in serving the Soviet nomenklatura made them a contemporary cultural icon. Several generations of the car have been produced.
Despite the continuous modernisations, GAZ found it increasingly difficult to keep the ageing design competitive in a market economy. GAZ CEO Bo Andersson decided to discontinue the Volga range in 2010.
First Generation, the GAZ-M-21
Development
The first Volga model was originally developed as a replacement for the GAZ-M20 Pobeda mid-size car which was produced from 1946. Despite its fastback design with Ponton body styling, the evolution of postwar automotive design and powertrain meant that in 1951 a brief was issued for its eventual replacement. In 1952 this matured into two projects: Zvezda ("Star"), an evolution of Pobeda's fastback contour with panoramic windows and large tailfins, and the Volga with its conventional styling, which was more realistically suited for production in the 1950s.
By the spring of 1954, the Volga prototypes were being test driven. The new car introduced a range of additions and advantages over the Pobeda. In addition to being larger, it had single panoramic forward and rear windscreens, a larger four-cylinder overhead-valve engine, central lubrication system of the main chassis elements, hypoid rear axle and an automatic hydromechanical gearbox. The car's exterior was designed by Lev Yeremeev and, though influenced by North American vehicles of the same period, the project was mostly independent, with an exception for the automatic transmission that was derived from the 3-speed Ford-O-Matic. After thorough testing of the car, which lasted for a further two years, a go-ahead was finally given by the state, and the first pre-production batch left GAZ on 10 October 1956.
Although there were many models and versions of the car, its production can nonetheless be split into three distinct generations and two derivatives. In total 639,478 Volgas were built from 1956 until 1970.
First series—the Star
The first prototype Volga appeared at a May 1955 trial from Moscow to the Crimea. While the Soviet leadership touted the speed of its development (begun 1954), only five cars were built in 1955. The first generation is easily identified by its characteristic chromed bar fascia with a central badge containing the five pointed star. Serial production began on 10 October 1956, with all vehicles being powered by a flathead engine modified to produce . These were used in much publicised promotion drives across the whole Soviet Union, where they notched up to 30,000 kilometres. Unlike the Pobeda, Volga's engines were now to be produced at a specialised motor factory in Zavolzhye. Despite its hasty construction, it only began engine production in summer 1957, which meant that the first thousand or so vehicles were equipped with the Pobeda's flathead engine. Other features of this transitional series included the Spur gear rear axle from the ZIM and the manual 3-speed gearbox from the Pobeda. Drag coefficient was a surprisingly low 0.42.
The chromed bars, being a decorative element, required excessive manual labour to assemble, which was not feasible for a mass-produced vehicle. Moreover, they reduced the supporting strength of the front body panels. Finally, as the Soviet Union had great aspirations for the vehicle in generating foreign currency, it became immediately apparent that the military connotation would scare potential western customers. At the Soviet pavilion Expo 58, which opened in April, the featured example was the facelift prototype with the 16-slit shark-mouth grille; it also had the originally intended ZMZ overhead valve inline four, the ZMZ-24. Now actually in mass production, priced at 5,400 rubles, the popularity and genuine interest in the vehicle sealed the fate of the "Star", and in November the "Star" was retired. In any case, in popular culture, the car's alternative nickname as "Zhukovka" survives to this date.