Moskvich

In 1938, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Council of People's Commissars and the Supreme Council of the National Economy decided to repurpose the KIM assembly plant for the production of small cars, for which a large-scale reconstruction of the enterprise was carried out in 1939-1941, which was led by a former AMO and ZIS engineer N V. Kuznetsov.

The plant never became a full-cycle enterprise. For example, it was planned to weld unpainted “metal” bodies using GAZ. Castings and forgings were also supplied from GAZ, ZIS and other factories. At KIM they only manufactured some of the chassis components and assembled the car. The development of the engine, chassis and electrical equipment of the small car was entrusted to the NATI Institute, where a powerful team of designers worked.

For comparative tests, foreign cars Opel, FIAT, Austin, Morris, German and English Ford were purchased. From these, NATI specialists had to choose an analogue of the future KIM-10. It is interesting that Opel and FIAT dropped out for political reasons, as they were produced in fascist countries. And Ford was recognized as a design more famous in the USSR than Austin and Morris. Thus, the English Ford Prefect was chosen as the prototype of the Soviet small car. As a result, the car received such unsuccessful technical solutions as a thermosiphon cooling system, dependent front and rear suspensions on one transverse spring each, and a mechanical drive for the working brake system. At NATI, designers A. N. Ostrovtsev, S. B. Chistozvonov, B. A. Glukh, M. K. Proshinsky, A. A. Osipyan, B. V. Shishkin, A. F. worked on engine, chassis and electrical equipment components Andronov and others.

It was decided not to copy the body, but to create an original design and original external shape. It was developed at GAZ according to the design of the artist V. Ya. Brodsky by designers N. I. Borisov, Yu. N. Sorochkin, A. M. Zheryadin. The design work was completed, some of the documentation was released, and production equipment was manufactured by Budd from the USA, which had previously developed the ZIS-101 limousine body for the Soviet order.

The KIM-10 car was produced in 1940-1941 in the amount of 381 copies with sedan and phaeton bodies.

In June 1945, after the display of new post-war models of domestic cars in the Kremlin, J.V. Stalin ordered the production of the German small car Opel Kadett at the KIM plant to replace the KIM-10 family. By August 1, 1945, the enterprise was renamed the Moscow Plant of Small Cars MZMA, and the new model was given the “Moskvich” brand. The Moskvich differed favorably from the KIM-10 car in such technical solutions as a monocoque body, independent front wheel suspension, a cooling system with a water pump, and a hydraulic brake drive.

Contrary to popular belief, neither technical documentation nor a set of factory equipment was received from Germany. The main work on preparing the production of the Moskvich car was carried out by MZMA designers and technologists. All documentation for the engine, chassis components and electrical equipment was released by the plant’s design team in the autumn-winter period of 1945. The body was also developed at the factory, but a duplicate set of documentation for the stamped body parts was prepared in Germany, in the SKB subordinate to the Soviet military administration. ZIS and GAZ also participated in the preparation of production, where at first almost all body and engine parts were produced. A number of components for the future Moskvich were developed by related plants: ATE-1, ATE-2, Red October, Red Etna, Moscow Carburetor Plant and others. MZMA's factory equipment was partly captured, partly obtained through Lend-Lease, and partly manufactured by Soviet enterprises.

The first 5 cars and 15 engines were built in December 1946 with extensive use of German-made Opel parts. These five vehicles were deemed unsuitable for sale and were left at the factory for testing and as official transport. The first 13 Moskvich commercial vehicles were released in January 1947. Over the course of the year, month after month, the production of “Muscovites” increased.

The basic model bore the designation “Moskvich-400−420”. The number 400 indicated the engine and chassis index, 420 – the body index. Already in 1946, work began on new components – the engine, gearbox, handbrake mechanism and others with index 401. New units were introduced into production in 1950-1952, and at the same time a number of measures were taken to strengthen the body. And in 1954, the Technical Specifications were reissued, and the base sedan received the name “Moskvich-401-420”.

The first generation Moskvich served as the basis for an entire family. It was produced in sedan, convertible, van and chassis form. A medical service vehicle and a modification for the disabled were considered separate models. In 1951, the APA-7 airfield mobile unit appeared on the Moskvich base. The station wagon, pickup truck and sedan with a modified body did not enter the series. The curb weight of the sedan is 955 kg, overall dimensions are 3855x1400x1555 mm, engine is 1074 cm³, 23 liters. With. Until 1956, 212,655 first-generation Moskvich vehicles were produced.

State tests of Moskvich cars, held in the spring and summer of 1949, revealed numerous problem areas of the existing model of a small car. First of all, this concerned the level of comfort in the cabin. In addition to the small width and lack of heating, there was insufficient protection of the driver and passengers from dust – the doorways were not airtight. For the post-war period, this was an acceptable compromise, but the prospects for a body of this design remained less and less. This was becoming a real problem, because the export of “Muscovites” had already begun, and to the saturated markets of Western countries. MZMA was faced with the problem of not losing the competitiveness of its products on the foreign market.

By September 1, 1949, Deputy Chief Designer of the plant A.F. Andronov raised the question of developing a completely new car. An approximate technical specification of the new model was drawn up, and solutions were proposed, such as a basic sedan body with a protruding trunk, an interior heater, solid-stamped doors instead of frame ones, and a lever-spring independent front suspension. With the support of Academician E. A. Chudakov, the project was approved by the Ministry of Automotive and Tractor Industry. The car received the index 402, and the body number 425.

The plant always tested analogous foreign cars, several cars at a time. But A.F. Andronov, who took the post of acting Chief Designer and then Chief Designer, decided not to copy any analogue, but to create an original design. This was especially true of the body and its external shape. The designers, led by the artist E.I. Mastbaum and the head of the body design bureau L.I. Belkin, began to prepare first large-scale and then full-scale models of the external shape of the body. In 1950, the director of the plant, V.N. Takhtarov, issued an order to the relevant divisions of the plant to assist the OGK in the construction of prototypes of a new car.

The first mention of a promising car "model 1962-1963" appeared in factory reports as early as 1958. But design and layout work on the new model could not begin. The OGK team worked with great effort on a minicar (the future ZAZ-965) and its components, units of experimental NAMI vehicles, the Moskvich-415/416 family of off-road vehicles, and finally, on the current modernization of the Moskvich-407, Moskvich- 410" and their new modifications.

The OGK designers managed to return to work on a promising model only in the second half of 1959. The first prototypes, built in the middle of 1960, did not even outwardly resemble the future production model. But they have already worked out ways to reduce metal consumption and weight, for which the bodies of the prototypes were disassembled in detail and each of the parts was weighed in comparison with the precisely disassembled body of the Moskvich-407 serial car. The new car of the 1963 model was supposed to be more technologically advanced, cheaper to manufacture than the Moskvich-407, designed for large production volumes.

The whole of 1961 was spent looking for an external body shape. For a painless transition to the new model, the wheelbase, track and dimensions were left as close as possible to the previous Moskvich 402/407 series, which made it possible to avoid costly rebuilding of the conveyor. Four series of prototypes were built with different variants of the search body shape. Three samples in the autumn of 1961 passed the State tests in comparison with serial "Moskvich" and foreign cars. When designing a new family, special attention was paid to the design of the exterior and interior. A. F. Andronov was the first to involve artists with professional education in the creation of a new model. By the summer of 1962, on the fifth series of prototypes, the external shape of the sedan body was finally determined, only decorative elements were further refined. The car of the 1963 model was planned with several types of bodies at once – a sedan, station wagon, van, sports "Grand Touring" with a removable top. The stamp equipment for the new body was ordered from the French company Chausson. For its acceptance, the head of the body design bureau S. D. Churazov went to France. However, the production and receipt of stamps dragged on for a whole year, so the plant produced the first thousand Moskvich-408 cars only in the fall of 1964.

Simultaneously with the design of the new model, WGC carried out work on the introduction of the front suspension, steering and pedal assembly of the promising car into the existing serial body. Therefore, in 1962-1965, the transitional Moskvich-403 with new nodes was the main model. It should be noted that in 1960 the "Prospective Plan for the Development of the MZMA until 1980" was adopted. It provided for the development of a family of models of 1963, its modernization in 1966-1967, the creation by 1970 of a fundamentally new engine of the 1.5-liter class, and a new family of cars, the construction of a new plant territory and an increase in annual output from 80 to 220 thousand cars. However, it took several years to master the serial production of a station wagon and a van, and the Grand Tourism (Moskvich-Tourist) included in the Long-Term Plan remained in the form of two prototypes.

After mastering the production of the basic Moskvich-408 sedan, Andronov threw the forces of the entire OGK to the speedy design of a new engine, first bearing the index 409, then 412. However, its production was mastered by an allied plant in Ufa, subordinate to another ministry. In addition, in 1965, WGC unexpectedly received a new task – to prepare a set of documentation and equipment for the backup plant in Izhevsk, to distribute documentation for Moskvich units and units to machine-building plants in different cities. On the one hand, this made it possible to saturate the domestic and export markets and sharply reduce the shortage of spare parts for Moskvich. On the other hand, the plant did not have enough strength and funds for a new car of the 1969-1970 model.

Within the period stipulated by the 1961 plan, only the modernized car of the 1967 model with a new engine, Moskvich-412, was mastered. In addition, a significant part of the new 412 engines began to go to Izhevsk, which did not allow Moskvich-408 to be discontinued in the early 70s. Due to difficult relations with the Ufa Motor Plant (UMZ), MZMA (later AZLK) lost control over the further modernization of the engine and the development of the production of its modifications.

In September 1971, the production of "Moskviches" was transferred to the new territory of the AZLK put into operation, where over time it grew to 180 thousand cars a year. In the 70s, the Moskvich-412 family of cars, thanks to the combined production of AZLK and Izhmash, became the second in the USSR in terms of mass production after the Zhiguli. In October 1968, the plant was renamed the Lenin Komsomol Automobile Plant – AZLK, and in 1971 it became the head enterprise of the Moskvich Production Association, which included the "old" and "new" territories of the plant in Moscow, the Avtoagregat plant in Kineshma and a radiator factory in Likhoslavl.

"Moskvich" series 3-5 first appeared in the 1961 MZMA perspective plan as a "1970 model". In 1965, the first prototypes of this car were created, and by the end of 1968, the first prototype was made. By that time, the designation 3-5 appeared, indicating that the model should enter the production line in 1973-1975.

In the spring of 1972, AZLK began to develop the modernized Moskvich-412N car. It was obviously easier to put it into production than the Moskvich-2141 series 3-5. It was expected that the car would receive a new suspension, a new gearbox, and an engine with an increased volume was also considered, but these innovations did not reach the production line. The plant managed to master a new design for the front part of the body, a new design for the rear part of the body (for sedans), and a new interior.

In 1974, AZLK engineer Rostislav Lipgart requested the allocation of indices for new models according to the industry standard of 1966: “Moskvich-412N” was renamed to “Moskvich-2140”, “Moskvich-408N” to “Moskvich-2138”. Station wagons received indexes “2137” and “2136”, respectively, vans received indexes “2734” and “2733”.

Only by the beginning of 1976, AZLK, with some difficulty, switched to producing cars of new families. Cars with the M-412 engine had the trade name “Moskvich-1500”, cars with the M-408 engine had the trade name “Moskvich-1360”. Vans in the family were produced individually, station wagons were discontinued in 1985, and sedans lasted until 1988.