Authors

John Kennedy¹;  ¹ European University Institute, Italy

Discussion

The ‘Moskvich’ is known to historians of the Soviet Union as one of the quintessential car models of the post-war period. What is less well known is that the ‘Moskvich’ was also produced in Izhevsk, the heart of the Soviet military-industrial complex (MIC).

The capital of Udmurtia, a region which takes its name from the native Udmurts (a Finnic people), Izhevsk first emerged as an armaments hub in the 19th century. It was the MIC’s post-war patron, Dmitry Ustinov, who pushed to launch car production in the city. Ustinov was opposed to Alexei Kosygin’s strategy of developing car production through massive imports of Western equipment: he insisted that the MIC was capable of establishing production with indigenous technologies. Ustinov’s belief in the MIC’s potential was misplaced. The Izhevsk automobile factory (IAZ) failed to develop an autarkic model and the factory was eventually equipped by the French firm Renault. This was an early indication of the MIC’s institutional-technological limitations.

This paper will take a longue-durée approach to the history of IAZ, using it is a guiding thread to explore Udmurt history from colonial, social, economic, and environmental perspectives. I will trace the factory’s prehistory from the emergence of Izhevsk as a Russian settler-town in the 18th century to Ustinov’s first experiences in the city in the 1930s. I will show that IAZ was ultimately another vehicle of Soviet ‘social imperialism.’ I will explore Ustinov’s legacy, detailing a perestroika-era campaign opposing the renaming of Izhevsk in the marshal’s honour. I will argue that IAZ reflected the limits of the MIC’s model of development and the Russified society the latter created.