Research Catalog

Title

Cars for comrades : the life of the Soviet automobile / Lewis H. Siegelbaum.

Author

Siegelbaum, Lewis H.

Publication

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 309 pages : illustrations, map; 25 cm

Summary

"In this rich and often witty book, Lewis H. Siegelbaum recounts the life of the Soviet automobile and in the process gives us a fresh perspective on the history and fate of the USSR itself." "Based on sources ranging from official state archives to cartoons, car-enthusiast magazines, and popular films, Cars for Comrades takes us from the construction of the huge "Soviet Detroits," emblems of the Utopian phase of Soviet planning, to present-day Togliatti, where the fate of Russia's last auto plant hangs in the balance. The large role played by American businessmen and engineers in the checkered history of Soviet automobile manufacture is one of the book's surprises, and the author points up the ironic parallels between the Soviet story and the decline of the American Detroit." "Ultimately, Siegelbaum shows, the automobile epitomized and exacerbated the contradictions between what Soviet communism encouraged and what it provided. To need a car was a mark of support for industrial goals; to want a car for its own sake was something else entirely."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Automobile industry and trade > Soviet Union > History
• Automobiles > Soviet Union > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-302) and index.

Contents

1. AMO-ZIS-ZIL-AMO-ZIL: Detroit in Moscow -- 2. GAZ, Nizhni Novgorod-Gor'kii-Nizhni Novgorod -- 3. VAZ, Togliatti -- 4. Roads -- 5. One of the Most "Deficit" of Commodities -- 6. Cars, Cars, and More Cars.

ISBN

• 9780801446382 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0801446384 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

• 2007037036
• 99819985211

OCLC

• ocn171151930
• 171151930
• SCSB-5398508

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries