On March 17, 1936, in the Kremlin, the country's leadership saw the first M-1 cars, which became the most massive military passenger car of the pre-war USSR
The M-1 staff vehicle is driving towards a column of German prisoners of war. Photo from the site
Today's troops are unthinkable without command vehicles. Command tanks, command armored personnel carriers, command vehicles … The latter came into practice earlier than anyone else - a little more than a century ago, as soon as the industry mastered the conveyor production of vehicles, and the army assessed their capabilities. Then it became clear that the usual command horse would gradually give way to the command vehicle.
But this did not happen immediately, but in the Soviet Union, which lost almost two decades to cope with the consequences of the First World War and the Civil War, and even later. Nevertheless, our army met the Great Patriotic War, having a very solid commander's vehicle fleet. As of June 22, 1941, fifteen thousand "emoks" were serving in it. It was under such an affectionate name that the first mass domestic passenger car was known among drivers. And it was under him that she forever entered Soviet history as one of the legendary symbols of the Great Patriotic War - along with the T-34 tank, Il-2 attack aircraft and the PPSh submachine gun.
Good, but not for our roads
However, the M-1 did not owe its birth to the army. The first domestic auto giant - the Nizhny Novgorod (later - Gorky) Automobile Plant - was a licensed building. The American automobile company Ford Motor Company played an active role in its creation. For the USSR in the late 20s - early 30s, this was a common practice: our country, which lost almost 90% of scientific, engineering and highly qualified workers in the first quarter of a century during wars and revolutions, needed such assistance from outside. Naturally, the first car models that rolled off the assembly line in Nizhny Novgorod in 1932 were licensed cars: the GAZ-AA truck - a reworked Ford-AA, and the passenger phaeton (as the car with an open passenger body was called in that time) GAZ-A - car Ford-A.
GAZ M-1 of the first issues in Moscow. Photo from the site
It was these two cars that became the first domestically produced cars, which replaced worn out pre-war cars or accidentally got into the USSR. And there were enough of them: there were also Russian-made cars, and numerous cars that were still in service with the Russian imperial army, and that ended up in the country during the intervention, and bought for gold for a country that badly needed vehicles … But they all had two significant drawbacks: extreme wear and tear and lack of spare parts, which were literally worth their weight in gold. The Red Army especially felt this in its own experience: the rapidly changing conditions of warfare required a serious vehicle fleet, and it was impossible to increase it without its own production. So both GAZ-AA - the predecessor of the "lorry", and GAZ-A came in handy.
But if a truck can be adapted to operate in any conditions, even the most severe, then an open car was not the best choice for Russia. In addition, it was rapidly becoming obsolete, and besides, it was very demanding on the qualifications of service personnel - which, alas, the country was not rich in. And therefore, a year later, the new chief designer of GAZ, an outstanding Soviet engineer, a graduate of the Moscow Higher Technical School, Andrei Lipgart, set himself and his subordinates a difficult task: to create their own model that would much better meet the requirements and capabilities of domestic operation.
Simple, reliable, strong
By that time, the much more modern Ford-B had replaced the well-proven, but already clearly obsolete Ford-A at the American factories of the company, and soon the Ford Model 18 with an eight-cylinder engine was created on its basis. These models received a much wider range of bodies, including completely closed ones - just what was required for Russian conditions.
It was a good moment in order, figuratively speaking, not to reinvent the wheel, but to master the already developed products, bringing them to conformity with domestic capabilities and operating conditions. And since the current license agreement implied the opportunity to get a novelty for development at GAZ, very soon it got there.
But it would be unfair to say that the "emka" is just a redesigned "Ford", even if it was produced at a Soviet factory. Before the car went into production, the stellar design staff of GAZ seriously worked on its design in the full sense of the word - starting with Andrey Lipgart, who held this position from 1933 to 1951 and during this time managed to launch 27 models into production. It was he who formulated the basic requirements for the development of the first mass-produced passenger car of domestic construction - the GAZ M-1. Moreover, he formulated them in such a way that they are not at all outdated today!
Drawings of the GAZ-M-1 car. Photo from the site
This is what Andrey Lipgart demanded from himself and his subordinates - designers Anatoly Krieger, Yuri Sorochkin, Lev Kostkin, Nikolai Mozokhin and their other colleagues. The new car had, firstly, to be strong and durable in all its parts when working in our road conditions; secondly, to have a high cross-country ability; thirdly, have good dynamics; fourthly, to be as economical as possible in the consumption of fuel; fifthly, in terms of comfort, appearance and decoration, they are not inferior to the latest best American models of the mass type; and finally, sixth, but far from the last, the design of the machine should be simple and understandable even for low-skilled personnel, and maintenance and adjustment should be simple and accessible to a driver of average qualification, without requiring specialist mechanics.
From such a list of requirements, it is completely clear: GAZ did not design a mass passenger car for private use, but a car for the national economy and the army. Hence the requirements for increased cross-country ability, and the emphasis on endurance (the operating conditions of "emoks" both in civilian life and in military service were difficult), and efficiency, and maintainability - as much as it was possible to achieve at that time and in those conditions.
Conscript car
Of all the above conditions, the "original", that is, the "Ford" model "B" and Model40, answered, perhaps, only two: good dynamics and comfort with trim. Everything else had to be re-invented, relying on the experience of operating cars in the Soviet Union, which American designers did not have. And the Soviets already had it. After all, behind the back of the same Andrey Lipgart were years of work in NAMI, which became an excellent design school and showed what any domestic car should prepare for.
Checking the documents of passengers and the driver of the M-1 staff car. Photo from www.drive2.ru
She had to be a "conscript" ready to go into active service at any time. And the "American" was a sissy. What were the transverse springs alone, because of which the suspension, in the case of operation not on asphalt (that is, almost always in Soviet conditions!), Became completely short-lived, weak friction shock absorbers and spoked wheels. The design of the front axle, and the steering, and the engine mount - "floating" instead of the rigid, short-lived when operating outside the asphalt, had to be different from the American model.
But the most important thing that the Soviet auto designers had to do was to create a new frame for their brainchild, which would provide the necessary rigidity and at the same time flexibility, because the car will have to drive in difficult conditions. As a result, the required frame rigidity was created by the spars of 150 mm profile, the reinforcing inserts of which created a box-shaped contour in the front of the car. And in the center of the frame, unlike the American prototype, a rigid cruciform cross member appeared - it allowed the car to "spin" around the longitudinal axis, which was inevitable off-road.
In a word, it would be most fair to say that the GAZ team of auto designers created their own car, taking as a basis an American one obtained under a license. And all the subsequent modifications of the "emka", primarily the army ones, were completely their own gas development, although they retained an external resemblance to the original model.
God grant everyone such a car
The experimental department of the Gorky Automobile Plant began work on adapting the new Fords to domestic conditions in the fall of 1933 - immediately after Andrei Lipgart came to the post of chief engineer. By January 1934, the first three experimental models of the car were assembled, which received the M-1 index, that is, "Molotovets-First". "Molotovets" - in honor of Vyacheslav Molotov, whose name was GAZ. And why the first - and so it is clear: in our country such machines were not made before the "emka". By the way, "emkoy", as the factory legend says, the car was nicknamed by the workers of GAZ, who assembled the first prototypes: they really liked what they were getting, and did not want to call the novelty an official index in their working conversations.
The next two years were spent to work out the resulting design and bring it to conveyor production. A lot had to be done, because the first three copies even outwardly differed from the familiar look of the "emka". Their wheels were still spoked, hatches were adorned on the sides of the hood, the radiator had a more labor-intensive and complex-shaped lining. All these "excesses" had to be eliminated in order to simplify and reduce the cost of mass production of the M-1 car. For the sake of this, they even went to make the body not completely metal. Above the frame with doors that opened backwards in the direction of travel, there were longitudinal wooden beams, on which a non-removable dermantine roof was stretched, which was painted at the same time with the entire body.
Finally, by the beginning of 1936, all preparations for the release of the "emka" were completed. A new engine went into production - a converted engine from GAZ-A: it became 10 "horses" more powerful, although it retained the same volume, received a lubrication system under pressure, a circulation (from the pump) cooling system, an automatic ignition timing advance, a new carburetor of the " Zenith "with an economizer and an automatic air damper valve, which ensured stable engine operation in all modes, a crankshaft with counterweights, and a contact-oil air filter. And on March 16, 1936, the first GAZ M-1 car rolled off the GAZ assembly line, it is also an "emka". And the next day, two brand new "emki" were already standing on one of the Kremlin squares: the plant's management decided to show the goods right away.
M-1 cars on the assembly line of the GAZ plant. Photo from the site
The "emki" were examined by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Joseph Stalin, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Vyacheslav Molotov, the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry Sergo Ordzhonikidze and the People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov. The calculation of the factory workers was simple: approval from the top Soviet leadership practically guaranteed a successful future for the new product. Two cars with more graceful than Ford, lines of footpegs and fenders, shiny black lacquer, with an inclined radiator grille, large vents and a thin red line along the side, emphasizing the closed body, clearly liked the first people of the country. In his memoirs, Andrei Lipgart writes that Stalin even summed up his acquaintance with the "emka" with the following words: "God grant everyone such a car!"
Well, about “everyone”, the all-powerful Soviet leader got a little excited: M-1s were not available for sale. Since the volume of production of the car was relatively small (if we estimate the potential Soviet domestic car market), it was not sold, but distributed. And to receive an “emka” for temporary use, and even more so for personal use, was the same reward as the Order or the Stalin Prize! Yes, they often walked hand in hand, and newly minted order bearers, especially those awarded for labor exploits, were often given a new M-1 - so that they, so to speak, by personal example emphasize the advantages of honest work for the good of the socialist Motherland.
"Emka" goes to the army
Among the options in which the M-1 was produced in the early years, there were also taxis: then the car received a pre-installed taximeter. Still, most of the cars that came off the assembly line were sent to the people's commissariats and distributed among the republican and regional administrations, and also "tried on tunics." It was the "emka" that became the first serial standard vehicle of the Red Army - the vehicle with which the army met the Great Patriotic War.
Most of all "emoks" played the role of command or staff vehicles in the rifle regiments of the Red Army. According to the pre-war staffing table of April 5, 1941, the regiment's transport list included one passenger car - this was the M-1. According to the same staffing table, but this time for the rifle division, the total number of cars it was entitled to was 19. Most of the cars - five pieces - were at the division headquarters, three of the howitzer artillery regiment that was part of the division had at its disposal, one was listed in the artillery regiment and in each rifle regiment, and the rest went to the transport departments of various units. Taking into account the fact that in total there were only 198 rifle divisions in the Red Army before the start of the war, it turns out that they included 3,762 passenger cars. And even if we assume that they were not always exactly "emki", which is unlikely, it turns out that the rifle divisions alone had at least three thousand GAZ M-1 vehicles. Although almost certainly all the counted cars were "emks" - there was simply nowhere else to come from, except to stay from ancient times.
M-1 car on the front road. Photo from the site
But the higher from the rifle division, the more cars - which is understandable. According to the state of the field office of the peacetime army on September 13, 1940, it was supposed to have 25 cars. The wartime mechanized corps management by the 1940 state - 12 cars, and the same number was supposed to have a separate motorized brigade in the staff. In a word, everywhere in the pre-war states of Soviet military units, where the item "cars" is found, you can confidently replace these words with the word "emka" without fear of making a big mistake.
But you will have to add here all sorts of military newspapers, starting with divisional and ending with district ones, plus central military publications, plus military academies and other military educational institutions, plus military justice authorities, and so on and so forth. In addition, air force units received "emki" units (for example, in the state of the wartime fighter air brigade from 1937 - 15 cars, and the heavy bomber - 20), and the same cars had at their disposal the headquarters and directorates of fleets and flotillas, where also the account in total went not to units, but to tens …
So it turns out that among the 10,500 vehicles - namely, this number of M-1 vehicles had the Red Army and the Red Fleet on the eve of the Great Patriotic War - there is nothing surprising. Indeed, for the military of that time, when it came to official vehicles, the word "emka" was synonymous with a passenger car.
