Lewis H. Siegelbaum

Although slightly dated, I found this this to be a worthwhile examination of the tortured relationship of the Soviet regime with the motorcar, as while the auto was too useful to overlook the logistical demands that cars made and the "anti-social" mentalities it bred tended to bring out the worst in the Soviet system. As for what's covered, the author devotes chapters to the main auto makers ZIL (producer of limousines for the Soviet elite), GAZ (producer of cars for the general run of Soviet drivers into the 1970s) and VAZ (meant to be a genuine people's car and one of the last expressions of the Soviet adventure of social transformation via production). This is before Siegelbaum considers the logistics and meaning of the automobile in the Soviet Union and into the Russia of the 2000s.… (mere)