OJSC AMO ZiL, known fully as the Public Joint-Stock Company – Likhachov Plant and more commonly called ZiL (Russian: ЗиЛ), was a major Soviet (Russian) automobile, truck, military vehicle, and heavy equipment manufacturer that was based in Moscow, Russia.
The factory was founded on 2 August 1916 as the Moscow Automotive Society or AMO. The factory was completed in 1917, just before the Revolution, and was built south of Moscow near Moscow River in Tjufeleva grove. It was a modern building with the latest in American equipment and was designed to employ 6,000 workers. The plans were to produce Fiat F-15 1.5-ton trucks under license. Because of the October Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War, it took until 1 November 1924 to produce the first vehicle which was shown at a parade on 7 November, the AMO-F-15.
Nevertheless, the factory still managed to assemble trucks bought from Italy in 1917–1919. On April 30, 1923 the factory was named after an Italian communist Pietro Ferrero, but in 1925 was renamed to First National Automobile Factory. 2 years later in 1927 Ivan Likhachov was appointed as a head of the factory, a person whose name the factory bears from 1956. In April 1929, it was agreed on to expand the plant to build Autocar 2.5-ton truck models.
In 1929—1931, the factory was re-equipped and expanded with the help of the American A.J. Brandt Co., and changed its name to Automotive Factory No. 2 Zavod Imeni Stalina (ZIS or ZiS). After Nikita Khrushchev denounced the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin in 1956, the name was changed again to Zavod imeni Likhachyova, after its former director Ivan Alekseevich Likhachov.
The last ZiL vehicle was assembled in 2012. The company continues to exist only as real-estate development site, on which a new urban district will be built by the LSR Group construction company.
The Museum of the History of AMO ZIL was founded in 1974 and reflected the periods of the plant’s creation from 1916, the period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and the post-war period. The museum had six halls, where about 3,000 exhibits were presented, over 10,000 items of storage of various documents.
Address: Sokolnichesky Val, 1A. Nearest metro: Sokolniki.
The exposition is open every day except Monday from 10 am to 7 pm. Entrance is free. Tel:+7 (916) 887 96 05.
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
See also other transport museums of Moscow:
