In 2004, near the Kyiv Transport and Economic College, a monument to the Soviet small car ZAZ-965 (popularly simply “Zaporozhets”) was erected – it was fixed on metal slats and raised to a height of a couple of meters near the entrance to the educational institution. There is a superstition among college students that if you rub the left headlight of a car before an exam or test, then everything will go “like clockwork” (and, apparently, in this case, a car).
What did this car do to deserve the honor of being erected as a monument? In the second half of the 1950s, the standard of living of the population of the USSR began to grow rapidly: incomes increased, mass housing construction began, and the range and volume of production of consumer goods expanded significantly. Meanwhile, the main type of individual transport in the country remained two-wheeled – personal cars had very little distribution compared to Western Europe, where mass motorization was already beginning at that time. Against this background, the question arose about the mass production of a compact and affordable car for sale for personal use – lightweight, designed for 2-4 people, inexpensive, easy to manufacture, convenient and economical to operate.
In accordance with this, the state economic planning authorities included in the promising type of passenger cars planned for development in the period 1959-1965 a type of four-seater minicar weighing about 600 kg and with an engine power of up to 30 horsepower. It had to have a modern and rational design, be convenient for mass production, designed for fairly long-term operation in domestic conditions and maintenance mainly by the owner himself. “Zaporozhets” has come a long way from design, first prototype and mass production, more than 5 years, after which it was produced from 1960 to 1963, and its modification ZAZ-965A was produced from November 1962 to 1969. With average wages in the USSR in the early 1960s, a Zaporozhets could be purchased for about 20 times the national average wage.
Where is the monument to ZAZ-965 (“Zaporozhets”)?
Vasilkivska street, 20