"Victory" GAZ-M72 - the pride of the Soviet car industry

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:41

Listen to how proudly “Victory” sounds. Nikita Khrushchev played a role in the history of the creation of this legendary Soviet car GAZ M 72. In 1954, he proposed to modernize the GAZ-69. That is, the car should have become more comfortable. As a result, the secretaries of the rural regional committees of the CPSU, as well as the chairmen of the advanced collective farms, were able to get service SUVs. But the military also had an interest in this car. So, the comfortable and highly passable GAZ-M 72, the photo of which you see in front of you, has become a “general”. And in their spare time, the government elite rode the Pobeda in their hunting grounds.

In the spring of 1954 GAZ officially received the terms of reference. G. Wasserman, the creator of the GAZ-67 and GAZ-69, was appointed lead designer. In addition to him, a whole department of specialists worked on the future government car. All of them at one time were engaged in the creation of the GAZ-69. Therefore, all the subtleties of this machine wereknown.

So what did the designers do? The new car received a load-bearing body frame and panels from the GAZ-M-20, but these parts were modified. The transfer case replaced the transverse box-shaped amplifier of the body and the longitudinal amplifier. The latter had to be completely abandoned. To compensate for these power elements and increase the transverse and longitudinal rigidity of the body, roof and door pillars were also introduced. GAZ-M72, unlike the GAZ-M-20, received a new sub-frame. It was specially designed to secure the front axle leaf spring suspension.

GAZ-M72 also has parts from the 69th model. This is a modernized front axle and transfer case. And the gearbox is quite standard, from the GAZ-M-20. The rear axle was developed specifically for the new Pobeda. To increase ground clearance, the springs were installed on the beams of the bridges.

The body was equipped like that of the 20th Pobeda model: the upholstery is soft, there is a heater, a clock, a dual-band radio. Therefore, this car embodied the concept of comfortable SUVs. It must be said that they did not even think about the mass production of such machines abroad.

The GAZ-M72 was equipped with a transfer case, which had a demultiplier and a switchable drive front axle. The wheels were set to 16-inch, with increased lugs. This provided good flotation in snow, sand, mud and broken roads.

As befits a government and military SUV, the car had to pass the test. Car showedgood "survivability" of the units and the body. Excellent cross-country characteristics were also noted. In the summer of 1956, three journalists on the new Pobeda made a run along the Moscow-Vladivostok route. This distance (15 thousand kilometers) GAZ-M-72 passed without serious damage. From those distant years, newsreels have come down to us in which Nikita Khrushchev, together with Fidel Castro, go on a winter hunt in this car.

In June 55, the first trial GAZ-M72 rolled off the assembly line, and a year later a serious production began. The car did not become mass-produced and "came out" in small series from 1955 to 1958. When the production of the GAZ-M-20 Pobeda cars was completed, the assembly of the new GAZ-M72 also stopped.