In May 1929 the Soviet Union signed an agreement with the Ford Motor Company. Under its terms, the Soviets agreed to purchase $13 million worth of automobiles and parts, while Ford agreed to give technical assistance until 1938 to construct an integrated automobile-manufacturing plant at Nizhny Novgorod. Production started on January 1, 1932, and the factory and marque was titled Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, or GAZ, but also displayed the "Ford" sign. GAZ's first vehicle was the medium-priced Ford Model A, sold as the GAZ- A and a light truck, the Ford Model AA. GAZ-A production commenced in 1932 and lasted until 1936, during which time over 100,000 examples were built.
Many American engineers and skilled auto workers moved to the Soviet Union to work at GAZ. Hundreds of American workers stayed on after the plant's completion in 1932, often with their families. They had to deliver their American passports, and within a few years became victims of Stalin's Great Terror, either shot or exiled to Soviet gulags. Attempts of these Americans to their embassy to help them were rebuffed or ignored. A notable survivor of these expatriates was Viktor Herman (look it up).
The GAZ-AAA was a 6x4 truck that was built from 1934 to 1943 and was pretty much the standard military truck of the Soviet Army.
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