The Garage

For Soviet Man, the garage was a special place.

Guys gathered here after work to discuss their most pressing problems and maybe play a bit of chess. Sometimes, it was also a place to tie one on.

In the Soviet era, having a personal car was a widely held dream, and a garage even more so. Those who possessed the latter were known as “the lucky ones.”

But there was one Soviet garage no ordinary citizen dared dream of visiting. It was the country’s top garage: The Kremlin’s Garage of Special Purpose (Гараж особого назначения), abbreviated as GON. For over 95 years, GON has served the country’s leaders. If these cars could talk, what secrets they would reveal, what trips they would describe!

 

Red carpets, a stream of journalists, and a Kremlin orchestra. This is the 95th anniversary celebration of the Garage of Special Purpose. Its cars are far more than simple artifacts of their era. They are symbols of the pinnacles of Soviet power, embodying the finest engineering achievements of their age. For almost a century, these Pobedas, ZILs, ZISes, and Chaykas were witnesses to the most important international events, keeping those who decided the fate of the nation safe.

GON automobiles served Stalin, Molotov, and Voroshilov at the 1943 Tehran Conference, and then, in 1945, they carried Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt and Molotov around Yalta. They even saw service at the last meeting of the Big Three – Stalin, Churchill, and Truman – in Potsdam.

GON is a closed facility and the oldest division of the Federal Service for the Protection of the Russian Federation. A simple state worker cannot gain entry here, much less your average citizen. According to the May 27, 1996, Law 57-FZ, “On the State Protective Service,” GON personnel are responsible for the safe automotive transport of the Russian Federation’s President, Prime Minister, the heads of both houses of the Federation Council, and other persons requiring protection, including heads of state traveling to Russia on official and working visits. Russian heads of state also use the services of GON when traveling abroad.

 

One twentieth-century guest at the anniversary celebration was the Delaunay-Belleville Belvalette 24HP motorcar, taking visitors back to where it all began. GON owes its founding to the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, who became interested in “motors” (as he called them).

Around 1895, the future tsar was introduced to Millet motorcycles (designed in 1892), although he did not yet have much faith in technology. His introduction to other “motors” occurred the following year, in the fall, when Nicholas was in Germany, the homeland of his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna. There he took various automobile rides around Frankfurt and the outskirts of Darmstadt with his brother-in-law, Duke Ernst. Alexandra also decided to take her first ever car ride while there.

Automobiles started to appear in aristocratic circles in Petersburg at the dawn of the twentieth century. However, Count Vladimir Frederiks, the Imperial Household Minister – whose relationship to automobiles was rather important – acquired a steam-powered Serpollet earlier still, at the end of the nineteenth century. The count invited Nicholas out for a spin, and the tsar agreed, but “without particular enthusiasm” (as General Alexander Mosolov noted in his diary). They barely had gotten underway when the car broke down. Frederiks became the object of court ridicule, and he never again proposed that the tsar join him on a ride, although he continued to follow the development of automobiles with great interest.

That interest, apparently, was sparked in 1904 (or, by some accounts, in 1903), when a Delauney-Belleville first pulled up to the gates of Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. Count Vladimir Orlov sat behind the wheel, and it is believed that it was largely thanks to him that cars subsequently entered the imperial family’s daily life. But of course it was a Frenchman, Louis Delaunay, who really opened the door.

Immediately after breakfast Nicholas II asked Orlov to give him a ride in the car. The emperor was ecstatic. Soon there were daily rides, and the Delaunay-Belleville became the emperor’s favorite “motor.”

Nicholas began to regularly use cars in 1905. His diaries include numerous entries like this one from June 22, 1905: “Headed out in Orlov’s motor through Ropsha and Kipen to Gatchina, arriving in one hour, twenty-five minutes.”

At first, Orlov was required to serve as Nicholas’ personal chauffeur, for reasons of security. In his diary in 1905, the count wrote, “His Highness loved the car and decided to acquire a few for himself as well.” But the tsar’s order officially establishing a royal garage did not come right away. Not until February 18, 1907, did he approve an order on “Organization of an Automotive Unit.” This is therefore considered to be the date of the official founding of His Imperial Highness’ Private Garage. Delaunay cars were among the first to appear there, and a personal chauffeur was hired for the tsar, the French mechanic Adolph Kégresse.* At first, Orlov rode along as well, to oversee things. After all, such a luxury automobile was far from easy to drive: the Delaunay had nine pedals.

Prior to the First World War, the Delaunay-Belleville was one of the world’s most prestigious cars. King George I of Greece and King Alfonso XIII of Spain both owned them. Purchases by the Russian Emperor also contributed to the firm’s prestige. So in 1909 Delaunay manufactured a special version of its car, a four-ton limousine with the inscription, SMT, which is the French acronym for His Imperial Highness.

By 1910 the Imperial Garage housed some 22 cars of various makes, four of them Delaunay-Bellevilles. Vladimir Orlov was personally in charge of the purchase and selection of all cars, and the Imperial Household Ministry paid for them all. In fact, Orlov’s power was such that, when it came to acquiring expensive spare parts or cars, the ministry was not given a say in the matter. It is also worth noting that the count was a friend of the emperor. Not surprisingly, many at court did not like Orlov. One insider, Alexandra Bogdanovich, wrote in her diary on August 16, 1906, “The current favorite is Count Orlov, who gives the tsarist couple rides in his car every day. It is now their singular hobby and entertainment.”

According to historians, Nicholas loved open-top cars of the Landau variety, because he felt that the people should see their tsar. Those in charge of his safety, however, insisted on closed sedans.

During the First World War the garage continued to expand, as did its importance. It grew to also include cars for driving to inspect the front. In early 1916 there were 56 cars, nine of which were Nicholas’ personal cars while 19 were for the use of his retinue. The fleet comprised Rolls Royces, Peugeots, Brasiers, Renaults, and, of course, Mercedes Benzes. The retinue were supplied with the latter.

The history of the Imperial Garage was cut short on March 2, 1917, when his Imperial Highness Nicholas II signed his order of abdication. Not a single one of the cars from his garage has survived to our present day.

 

After the February Revolution of 1917, the property in the Imperial Garage was transferred to the Provisional Government; after the October Revolution it went to the Soviet government. Then, in 1918, the Soviet government moved its headquarters to Moscow, where several automotive units were established to serve the central bodies of state power. Vladimir Lenin’s garage was part of the fleet of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR.

In accordance with a Council decree dated December 31, 1920, Lenin’s garage was organizationally removed from the Council’s fleet and became a separate entity on January 1, 1921. This is generally considered to be the date of the founding of the Kremlin GON. The first person to head it was Stepan Gil, Lenin’s personal driver (a Pole, he had also worked in the Imperial Garage before the Revolution). At the time of its formation, GON comprised 10 workers and five automobiles.

Beginning in the mid-1920s, GON became a top-secret institution. Whereas the garage’s activities are well documented and studied from 1904-1924, after that point all scholarly papers on the period that followed were, as a rule, written by officials of the Federal Guard Service.

Furthermore, after 1917 drivers working in the garage were military personnel. This placed special obligations on them in guaranteeing the security of the head of state. Yet up until March 1918, Lenin categorically refused to travel with guards, and he did not like weapons. This, despite the fact that, as Gil wrote in his memoirs (Six Years with Lenin), Ilyich’s life was in danger several times each day.

One of the most famous attempts on Lenin’s life took place after a meeting on August 30, 1918. Lenin was heading to his car, surrounded by a crowd of people, and was speaking to several women. When he was just three meters from the vehicle, a shot rang out. Ilyich fell face down on the ground, seriously wounded.

After a few moments of confusion and fear, Gil helped Lenin into the car and sat him in the rear seat. He quickly decided to drive straight to the Kremlin, rather than the nearest hospital. It is believed that Gil’s actions saved Lenin’s life.

Meanwhile, the woman who had made the attempt on Lenin’s life – a former prisoner and SR revolutionary named Fanny Kaplan – was shot four days later in the Kremlin. Her assassination attempt set in motion the Red Terror and exacerbated the Civil War.

Lenin continued to travel around quite a bit by car, but the cars that GON had inherited from the tsar were slowly falling into disrepair. So in 1919 Lenin ordered three Packards.

First and foremost, Lenin demanded punctuality from his drivers. If a car was stolen, he insisted that it be found at any price. Yet at the same time, when cars broke down, as inevitably happened, Lenin acted like a real comrade. As Gil remembers it in his memoirs: “Vladimir Ilyich got out of the car, came up to me and said, ‘Let me help.’ Despite my refusals and attempts to talk him out of it, Vladimir Ilyich without fail participated in the repair of the car or the restarting of the motor.”

Lenin’s standby car from 1921 to 1923 was a 1914 Rolls Royce. He also rode in Delaunays and Turcat Merys, but insisted that his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya only ride in closed-top cars, “in order to protect against colds.” Her health was very weak and she had a heart condition.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, GON purchased the finest cars for official purposes: Cadillacs, Lincolns, Fords, Rolls Royces and Packards. Comrade Stalin, for his part, was particularly fond of Packards, especially the armored ones.

 

The country’s first mass-produced limousine was the ZIS-101, in which ZIS stood for Zavod Imeni Stalina (Factory Named for Stalin); the seven-seater was produced from 1936 to 1941. There of course was no way in that era that such cars would be sold for personal use, but they were on occasion awarded to academicians, scientists, artists and writers who had made a special contribution to the fatherland, and a few three-ton ZIS-101s were won in lotteries. They were the first Soviet made cars to have heaters and radios.

The ZIS-101 closely resembled several American cars, and it was patterned after the Buicks of 1932-34. The body was engineered by the American firm Budd, according to Soviet designs, and the finishing touches were added in the Soviet Union. The car could reach speeds of up to 115-120 kph (70-75 mph), and its engine was considered to be one of the best of its era. Some 8,752 of this model were produced in various configurations.

“It is truly a very large output,” explained car expert and former ZIL car factory engineer Alexander Lazarev. “The country needed a large car for official purposes, and it was built at the Stalin Factory.”

Originally the ZIS-101 was conceived as Stalin’s Car. A prototype was given to him personally, and in April 1936 the first two cars off the line – one black, one cherry red – were presented to Stalin in the Kremlin. The country’s top leadership – Molotov, Ordzhonokidze, Mikoyan – also closely scrutinized the new car. At that time, every new model off the line was driven to the Kremlin and shown to Stalin personally.

“All of them [the cars] underwent the same inspection – an inspection by Stalin,” said Lazarev, “and therefore the cars were prepared in the most thorough manner; every detail was carefully studied.”

The Leader gave the car his approval, but after he inspected the ZIS-101, the factory still got “10 comments from Comrade Stalin.”

“Stalin did not like the flag [hood ornament]...” Lazarev said. “He said that the flag should be there, but it should be simpler and more understated. The Leader also added that the windshield wipers should be fixed at the bottom, as on other modern cars, and demanded that they install a barrier with a one-way mirror between the chauffeur and passengers.

The ZIS-101 did not, in the direct sense of the word, become Stalin’s Car. Yet it did ferry his daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, to and from school. The cars also did not make it into the GON, being used as ambulances and taxis instead. Beginning in 1937, the garage began to add some domestic cars made by ZIS and GAZ, yet the majority of cars were still Buicks and Packards.

Stalin continued to use a Packard Twelve. According to historians, he generally had a hard time giving up old things. But in 1949 he nonetheless began to trust his life to another car, the armored ZIS-115 – the first Soviet armored passenger vehicle, produced from 1947 to 1955. At the 95th anniversary, this “monster” (as journalists dubbed it) had the most cameras aimed at it.

The six-meter-long limousine was created specially for Stalin, although the top party elite – Molotov and Beria, say – also used it. Just 32 of the model were built, and its parts (built throughout the USSR) were brought together in a separate assembly line, or, to be precise, in a separate section of the assembly line, accessible only to those with a special pass. From a technical standpoint, the engineers were given a very specific stipulation: the car should not look any different, on the outside, from its non-armored brethren.

“They say that Stalin really did not like to sweat,” Lazarev said. “And in order that he not, his car was trimmed out with camel leather. And yet the Leader preferred to sit on the fold-down seat behind the driver rather than on the luxurious back seat. Someone who was not in the know might not even notice it folded up there. Yet this is where Joseph Stalin would sit when he was riding around in his ZIS-115.

“When he was just out and around his dachas, he did not need an armored car, but when he went somewhere into the city, or further out, he used the armored version, because he lived in fear of assassination attempts.”

The windows are 70 mm (almost 3 inches) thick, and the car weighs in at over six and a half tons, thanks to its armored carcass, encased in metal panels (initially it was even more heavily armored and the glass was even thicker, but it proved to be just too heavy). As a result, the doors do not close easily; it takes a bit of force. And the sound when they do close is exactly like that of a safe door. The unbelievably soft camel-leather upholstery – the limo seats six – is stuffed with eider down.

The production of these cars was a strictly one-at-a-time process: on every car part, even the tiniest piece, was imprinted the car’s unique number. And, as for the armor, it was first tested on a firing range.

“When you close the door and drive off,” Lazarev continued, “you don’t feel like you are driving. You have the sensation that the Earth is spinning, but you are sitting still.”

The suspicious Leader rarely used the same car twice in a row. And right before any departure from the Kremlin, he would unexpectedly change his route, including even the gate through which the cortege would exit.

To the end, the Packard Twelve remained Stalin’s favorite car, yet on what would be the Boss’ final car ride, the job fell to the “monster.” On February 19, 1953, a ZIL-115 drove Stalin for the last time from the Kremlin to his near dacha in Kuntsevo, where he died several days later.

To this day, just 8-10 armored ZIS-115s remain “alive,” some having been sent to Eastern Europe in the Soviet era, some given to communist party leaders of other countries. The rest have all been destroyed.

 

After 1953, armored cars were no longer in favor. Under Nikita Khrushchev, it was felt that power ought to be closer to the people. And Nikita Sergeyevich himself liked a different sort of car, in particular cabriolets, especially grey ones. It was under Khrushchev that a new generation of official cars appeared: the ZIL-111, echoing the American tailfin-bedecked cars of the era.

The ZIL-111A convertible was Russia’s first air-conditioned car and had a new 200 liter/second motor (about 27 horsepower). Beginning with this model, all ZILs also had automatic transmissions. The leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries all rode around in these cars, as did Khrushchev. Yet it was the ZIL-111B that gained true international fame. Because on April 14, 1961, it was this model that met cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at Vnukovo Airport, in order to drive him to the Kremlin to deliver his report to Khrushchev. Gagarin rode through Moscow in celebratory fashion: the entire country rejoiced, for the USSR had conquered the cosmos.

The ZIL-111B was brought out for special occasions: military parades and to escort VIPs on special occasions. All the cars produced in this series, which was inaugurated in 1960, were special orders. “These cars were very expensive,” Lazarev said. “The fact is that each of these cars was a one-off. Each one was manufactured and assembled by hand.” The ZIL-111B was only in production for two years; only five were made in black, and seven in grey-blue.

Gagarin rode a ZIL-111B in most of his parades. After returning to Earth, he was driven around in a GAZ-13 “Chayka.” Of course it was far from the only car in his life.

The Chaykas – produced from 1959 to 1981 – were very popular in the GON. These were the preferred vehicles for Obkom [Oblast Party Committee] First Secretaries and heads of institutions and ministries in the Soviet Union’s various republics. Of the 3,000 first-generation Chaykas produced, only three ended up in private hands, after being given to the writer Mikhail Sholokhov, the first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova, and the ballerina Galina Ulyanova.

 

Under Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the main domestically produced workhorses at the GON were the severe and proper ZIL-114 and ZIL-117. Leonid Ilyich knew his way around cars and loved to get behind the wheel. But everyone in the GON knew about the general secretary’s passion for foreign cars.* Yet he only rode in them when not on official business; for the latter he got around in ZILs.

The ZIL-114 was released in 1967. At the time it was the pinnacle of domestic automobile manufacturing. The model broke with the tradition of directly copying American cars and was the first official Soviet car that had a shortened sedan version. The car could reach a top speed of 190 kph (118 mph), and its interior was often equipped according to special orders. For the General Secretary, for instance, the cabin was upholstered in maroon velvet with golden threads; for Minister of Defense Dmitry Ustinov, the interior was entirely yellow.

The ZIL-117 was built specially for Brezhnev (later it was used by the KGB). It came in just two colors: grey, for parades through Red Square; and black, for chauffeuring around Soviet leaders when they vacationed in Crimea. For casual use, or to go hunting, Leonid Ilyich drove another car made especially for him, a GAZ-2495 Volga.

1969 arrived, and on January 22 a deranged soldier made an attempt on the life of Brezhnev (see inset, below), wounding several astronauts and killing a GON driver. As a result, the ZILs began to be modernized and armored. By the end of the next decade, the main official vehicles populating the GON were the ZIL-4104 and 4105 – heavy, armored vehicles that had no comparable counterpart anywhere in the world.

After Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power, the ZIL-41047 appeared. For a long time it reigned as the world’s longest assembly line car. Each one cost around a million dollars to manufacture, and the color and texture of the upholstery was chosen by Gorbachev personally. The interior was done in dark blue tones; the forward row of seats were made of leather, while the rear seats were covered with wool.

By the early 1990s, the ZIL-41047 was the leading domestic car and the only limousine in its class. But in terms of reliability and safety, it was light-years behind what was available in the West.

With the collapse of the USSR, production at ZIL fell apart. Even privatization could not save the factory. The safety of the country’s leaders demanded the sort of regular technical service that is only possible with mass-produced cars. Yet ZIL’s official vehicles were never mass-produced – they had always been made one at a time. “It was impossible to put the door from one automobile onto another,” one technical expert (who asked that his name not be used) explained.

As a result, in 1995 President Boris Yeltsin made the move to Mercedes. To this day, the reliable German brand has formed the core of the presidential motorcade.

 

The bar is set very high at the GON, not just for drivers, but also for cars. Any car with a scratch or torn upholstery is considered defective. Every section and major part of each car is listed in the vehicle’s passport, which notes where and when the part was manufactured. Mechanics look over every car daily, and in more detail twice monthly. And after any serious repair, the car must undergo testing by GON leadership. Only then does a driver take his place in the vehicle. This is considered to be intellectual work, and drivers, as a rule, have higher education. They must also demonstrate politeness and tact.

A GON vehicle cannot be left unguarded or without its driver for even a single minute. One minute without oversight can result in an end-to-end test in the Kremlin with x-ray and biological testing equipment.

A GON driver is also always armed and is forbidden from driving one-handed – considered a serious violation of safety protocols. And of course a car in this garage should never be in an accident, whether because of the driver’s fault or anyone else’s.

“We are often compared with cosmonauts for the importance and degree of difficulty of our work,” said a driver who is a member of the Alliance of GON Veterans and Workers, and who also refused to give his name.

 

The centerpiece on display for the 95th anniversary celebration is the presidential motorcade. Its standard composition includes five vehicles, all Mercedes. The main car drives surrounded by two external security vehicles; there is also a communications car, and a reserve car. These cars comprise a protective bubble, within which the VIP is transported from one place to another.

Several unique Mercedes Benz cars were manufactured specially for the GON: Sprinter, S-600 Grand Pullman, and G-500. According to experts, just one of each of these cars exists anywhere in the world.

If motorcycles are included in the motorcade, this is a sign that it is a celebratory or ceremonial motorcade. The motorcycles show up when greeting foreign leaders or when, for example, the president is driving to his inauguration.

“We can only see or not see the motorcycles,” said one of the anniversary gala’s guests, an auto expert. “And only they know if something is happening or not. We normally only find out that someone arrived for a visit from the news.” RL

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* In 1972, President Richard Nixon gifted Brezhnev with a blue Lincoln Continental; in return Nixon received a Soviet hydrofoil.

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On January 22, 1969, four cosmonauts arrived in Moscow after completing the first-ever docking of two spacecraft in orbit (Soyuz 4 and 5) and the transfer of a crew member from one ship to another through only the second-ever space walk. The mission was a test of part of the plan for bringing a cosmonaut back from a Soviet moon landing.

The cosmonauts were greeted at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport by General Secretary Brezhnev and other Politburo members, as well as cosmonaut luminaries like Valentina Tereshkova and Alexey Leonov. But then, en route to the Kremlin, a lone gunman, Victor Ilyin, opened fire on the barricade just outside Borovitsky Gate. The assassin – an AWOL army lieutenant upset over his forced conscription and the previous year’s Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia – unloaded 14 shots, aiming for Brezhnev, whom he assumed was in the second car. But that car was filled with cosmonaut VIPs, some of whom were injured by the gunfire; the driver was killed. The gunman was subsequently declared insane and spent the next 20 years in an asylum.

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Anastasia Osipova interviewed a retired driver with 40 years experience at the GON. He requested that his name not be used.

Your profession is often compared with that of a cosmonaut. Why is that?

I cannot, of course, compare it to the profession of cosmonaut. But with the profession of pilot, yes. Why? Because you need to have quick reactions and good knowledge of the technology that you oversee…

But the most important thing is safety. The safety of your passenger is number one. And we know that, no matter what happens, all safety precautions come down to the fact that the GON chauffeur should know how to, and be able to, fore see events.

We have exercises for this. It is a constant process for us. We have our own test track, where we work through all sorts of unpredictable situations that might occur on the road. And in various vehicles…

Safety is not just about driving, but we also have physical training… cross-country skiing in winter, running in the summer. And there has been swimming too.

And, no less important, we also work with guns, and have our own firing range. GON chauffeurs should always get “excellent” marks for shooting. Of course, when he is behind the wheel, that is not his main task. The main task is to be on the alert, to be able to extract a passenger from various situations that might arise en route… without creating any sort of difficulties.

They teach us to work with every type of wheeled vehicle, military or otherwise. A Chauffeur of Special Purpose is trained in a particular way. He cannot ever say: “Oh, I’ve never driven that, I can’t do it.” I must be able to drive any vehicle.

What is forbidden for a GON driver?

It is absolutely forbidden to make personal requests. That’s number one. Second, one should never insert oneself in a conversation a passenger is having with someone else.

It is forbidden to smoke in the car. Even if the passenger smokes, you cannot smoke even with his permission. It distracts you from the road, it strains you somehow, and weakens you. When we are in traffic, we do not have the opportunity to think about our own problems, because we are constantly (and now more than ever, because of how much traffic there is) thinking only about work, only about what one is doing now and about what is happening in front of you. Before it was easier: there were fewer cars. But now I must look three cars ahead… and look to the side… only work should be in your head, in order to get to the destination, to get there without an accident or any sort of incident.

How important is the moral make-up of a chauffeur? Can he be a fine specialist in his work, but a brawler at home?

That should never happen. And even if something happened at home, a GON chauffeur would be helped out, so that he only thought about work.

…Once we had a young worker who had only just started with us (this was a long time ago, in the 1980s), and he arrived at work looking really down. And our boss back then was a psychologist of sorts and worried about us. We were his primary concern. He always said: “I will always help you, but you need to help me, so that everything will be good for you.” And so he noticed this young co-worker. He called him in and asked, “What happened?” And this one said that he had three kids, that his wife doesn’t work, and the youngest needs to be in kindergarten. But there’s a waiting list there. And there’s not enough money… Because his wife can’t go and get a job. They chatted, and the conversation came to an end. Then, a week later, the young fellow comes running in and says, “Yuri Pavlovich, they gave us a place in the kindergarten!” And the boss of course acted surprised: “You don’t say!” Of course, he had made a call, worked things out, and they gave the driver a spot in the kindergarten. Yeah, there were lots of cases like that, where the bosses helped out so that the chauffeurs would only have to think about work.

How have demands on GON chauffeurs changed since Soviet times?

In essence, nothing has really changed. It’s the same tasks, the same conditions. You have the same attitude toward work, toward safety. What has changed is there is more new technology; it is more modern, more complex, but also to some degree more reliable. And that adds certain difficulties – you have to learn to drive [the new car], you need to study theory, to learn what is new in this car. And then, you well know what kind of traffic we have (I’m talking about Moscow, not all of Russia). Our traffic is very heavy, and people need to be even more on the alert. When you are constantly driving around Moscow roads and streets, you need to be in top shape.