page_title: Automotive industry in the Soviet Union
section_title: Early Soviet period
hierarchical_section_title: Automotive industry in the Soviet Union / History / Early Soviet period
caption_attribution_description: English: Motor vehicle production in the USSR 1929-1950 Data source: Russia's Soviet Economy page 348
context_page_description: The automotive industry in the Soviet Union spanned the history of the state from 1929 to 1991. It started with the establishment of large car manufacturing plants and reorganisation of the AMO Factory in Moscow in the late 1920s–early 1930s, during the first five-year plan, and continued until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991.
  Before its dissolution, the Soviet Union produced 2.1-2.3 million units per year of all types, and was the sixth largest automotive producer, ranking ninth place in cars, third in trucks, and first in buses.
  Soviet industry exported 300,000-400,000 cars annually, mainly to Soviet Union satellite countries, but also to Northern America, Central and Western Europe, and Latin America.
  There were substantial numbers of highway trucks in some quantities, construction trucks, delivery trucks and urban, intercity and tourist buses imported as well.
context_section_description: Russia had no automotive industry prior to the Soviet era. Automobiles were manufactured, but only in small quantity and by importing the main components from abroad.
  After the 1917 October Revolution, Russo-Balt was nationalised on August 15, 1918, and renamed to Prombron by the new leadership. It continued the production of Russo-Balt cars and launched a new model on October 8, 1922, while AMO built FIAT 15 Ter trucks under licence and released a more modern FIAT-derived truck developed by a team of AMO designers, the AMO-F-15. About 6,000–6,500 F-15s were built in the years 1924–1931.
  A Citroen plant built before the war was allowed to operate as a private business until 1921, when it was nationalized.
  The first fully Soviet-made vehicles were manufactured by the AMO plant in Moscow on 7 November 1924. In 1927, engineers from the Scientific Automobile & Motor Institute (NAMI) created the first original Soviet car NAMI-I, which was produced in small numbers by the Spartak State Automobile Factory in Moscow, between 1927 and 1931.
  In the early decades after the Revolution, Gorky and Moscow became the main centers of motor vehicle manufacturing. As in Western countries, components for the industry were produced in a large number of different places.
  Stalinist pressure for rapid industrialization and appreciation for economies of scale brought about the construction in the late 1920s and early 1930s of massive factories manufacturing highly standard vehicle and slowly changing product lines. Construction of the Moscow (ZIL), Gor‘kiy, and Yaroslavl' plants, partly or totally built by Western firms, increased production from a few thousand vehicles in 1928 to 200,000 vehicles in 1937, nearly all of them trucks.
  In 1929, due to a rapidly growing demand for automobiles and in cooperation with its trade partner, the Ford Motor Company, the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy established GAZ.
  A year later, a second automobile plant was founded in Moscow, which would become a major Soviet car maker after World War II and earn nationwide fame under the name Moskvitch. However, due to specific government aims and economic hardships of that time, cars were only a small share of all vehicles produced in the early years of Soviet production.
  In 1937, the Soviet Union produced over 200,000 vehicles, mostly trucks, putting the country in second place worldwide by production of trucks.
  Between 1932 and 1939 the amount of car production in the Soviet Union increased up to 844,6%.
caption: Motor vehicle production in the USSR, 1929-1950
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