THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY

ANDY THOMPSON

Publication: Out Now, RRP: £30.00Format: HB 270x210mm, 376pp, ISBN: 978 1 84425 483 5

Unique Cars from a Unique Era

This is the fascinating story of Soviet cars, from the birth of the Soviet Union in 1917 until its demise in 1991. When the Communist Party took control they inherited a country with virtually no motor industry. While Britain, Germany, America and France already had factories mass-producing cars, the Soviets had three tiny assembly plants and a large vehicle workshop in Moscow. However, by the time the Soviet Union dissolved, its engineers, designers and workers had created one of the world's largest motor industries.

The cars of the Soviet Union have a unique heritage: they were designed for a social purpose with every car and van having a place and a role to play in keeping the wheels of Soviet society turning. The vast natural environment also played its part as Soviet motorists were faced with driving huge distances across a landscape that included some of the coldest and hottest places on earth, a country that spanned Europe and Asia, the Arctic Circle and the Caucasus region. Service stations and motorways were few and far between in such a huge country, making reliability and serviceability far more important than chrome and carpets.

This definitive history is supported by hundreds of photographs, mostly in colour, and describes in astonishing detail the development of these cars, including a chapter dedicated to the post-Soviet era. Nearly two decades after the demise of the Soviet Union itself, its cars and vans are still to be found, living examples of what was a truly unique motor industry. Cars of the Soviet Union is the story of those vehicles.

The AuthorAndy Thompson has had a lifetime interest in the cars and vans that are the real backbone of the world's transport systems. He has owned more than 70 different cars and vans, all of them working vehicles, ranging from a 20-year-old Toyota Starlet used to travel across West Africa to a primer grey Morris Half-Ton Pickup used to haul washing machines around East Anglia. Brought up in the Midlands, he currently lives in West Cumbria with his family and dogs, and now drives a Humber Sceptre.