Translated material
Gon is a rut
From March 24 to 27, in the framework of the show of ancient cars "Old-Gallery", one could see the anniversary exhibition of a special garage, which turned 90 years old. The huge hall was decorated with posters with the image of cars in action - with Stalin, Lenin and other first faces inside.
And there were cars below. In the center is the automobile and motorcycle motorcade of the President of the Russian Federation, and around Zila, "Seagulls", "Cadillacs" with "Rolls-Roads" and other rare cars. For example, the personal Volga GAZ-21 Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin and personal Willys MB Sergey Pavlovich Korolev. Among the cars there were also gas 111g - the one at which Brezhnev shot in 1969. True, they did not hit, only a driver and a motorcyclist died.
Near the motorcade, Zila was located - it is not clear which of them were armored and which are not: with such an impressive length - more than 6 m - the difference of half a meter was invisible. In 2003, the latter in the history of ZIL was put in a special purpose garage - these cars are very expensive to serve. In addition, one zil costs as much as three "Mercedes" of the same class.
Photo by Masha Fedorenko
In total, about 80 cars sparkled here, some of them were carried by managers, and in others there was an honorary escort, security and special communications employees. Details about the history of cars could be read in a heavy Talmud with archival materials - on the opening day of the exhibition, the presentation of this book was also held.
- Well, the suitcase will be charged to this? - asked a man with a magnificent beard from a young man, nodding to a sparkling "Cadillac". He was one of the collectors who provided their cars for the exhibition.
- Certainly! - he agreed.
- Where will you buy it? - I was surprised.
- We will order! - answered the man. - There are masters, they will make. He advised him to come to the retro -car museum when there was time, and thoughtfully said: "A man like a child caught fire, and he was no longer stopped."
At the motorcade, three drank champagne and joked.
- The president is probably sitting at home, all the cars are here.
“No, he is sitting in the Kremlin,” one of the interlocutors suggested. - He should have a fasting day.
Yuri Pavlovich Lanin, former chief of Gona, said that he first worked as a driver, drove foreign guests: the leadership of Poland, Germany. And then he reached the “top”. I asked what cars he drove, it turned out that Zila, and it was "very easy to drive and obedient car." Inside, everything was done so that many people fit, for example, a guard and a translator: there are folders behind the driver for five people. When Yuri Pavlovich became the boss, he himself planned foreign trips of the first persons of the USSR: he went abroad for a week, studied the road. Then cars were brought by plane.
- Once 12 cars were carried to America.
- And now they do that too? - I was surprised. It turned out yes.
“So an interesting service, responsible, and at the same time cognitive, you’ll travel everywhere - you will see, people live, what,” he added.
Lanin said that only the best drivers work in Gona and was able to remember such a case. "Where the triumphal arch, in the 80s, ran out of the elk, jumped onto the hood, pressed the glass with his body, bent the steering wheel. But the driver - Zelenov was like that - did not lose a straightforward movement and stopped the car. There was Ustinov, Minister of Defense."
- And how do you feel about the fact that our first persons no longer drive Russian -made cars? - I dared to ask.
- Well, what can you do if the industry has risen. I relate to this negatively, I have to drive in my cars, ”Yuri Pavlovich answered seriously. He said that there was almost no Zilov in the rut - “sold in due time” because they are morally outdated.
Photo by Masha Fedorenko
When asked whether the current Gona’s current employees are advised with him and his former colleagues, he answered this:
“I often visit them, they carry out the exhibition, they gave me an official invitation,” he with pleasure read the text printed on a postcard with an invitation. - Sometimes we meet on solemn occasions, the concert was with good artists.
“We meet at the funeral,” added a former driver Gona, an elderly grandfather who was nearby. “That is, they pay attention to us.” So I told you how much! - Yuri Pavlovich finished and drank champagne for our health.
Photo by Masha Fedorenko
The guests drank serious exposure whiskey and examined the cars. Some cars had an honorary guard: the guards in vintage form did not move, even when girls with trays full of glasses approached them. I noticed Evgenia Murov, director of the Federal Security Service, who studied exhibits with visible interest, accompanied by knowledgeable people who explained the history of cars. Finally, the light went out, the audience formed a semicircle with Murov in the center of the hall. Only the screen and a light bulb remained to burn over the dictator’s table, which solemnly proclaimed that the anniversary was marked by reaching the work of the 32942nd shift.
Photo by Masha Fedorenko
He spoke about the history of cars presented at the exhibition. It turned out that in the "gray ghost", which drove Lenin, it was so quiet that only the ticking of the watch was heard. Then they showed a film in which old photos depicting retro cars in action were alternated with video surveys from the life of a modern rut. “Departure to the point” - for example, read the credits, and the audience watched the work of driver from the garage and rushed to the sounds of alarming music, sometimes turning into Havi -metal.
Photo by Masha Fedorenko
The time has come for the performances of the guards - they threw up the guns, marched beautifully and formed all sorts of geometric figures. The music of the orchestra sounded - very cheerful, it was not for nothing that they drank champagne before the performance. They gave the floor to invited speakers. Sergey Viktorovich Devyatov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, wished the Gona to the workers of "Good, happiness and further success for the good of Russia." The director of the State Archive of the Russian Federation Sergey Mironenko said that he and his colleagues carefully stores all the documents and is ready to provide them if necessary.
- In your hands the security of our country, you are part of our glorious history.
The first deputy chairman of the Federation Council, Alexander Torshin, praised the work of garage staff and said: "Gon is Gon, what else to say." He added that this car enterprise has an impeccable reputation - "no emergency happens, as they say, from whom Korshunov asked."
Vladimir Alekseevich Makarov, deputy chief of the FSO transport department of Russia, congratulated like-minded collectors of ancient cars, and finished solemnly:
- In a good way, book! On a good way, an exhibition!
After the solemn part, a banquet began. Everyone talked and examined the exposition of ancient letters and photographs located on the stands. There were a lot of personnel: Lenin and his wife overwhelm the surroundings, Stalin is studying the new car. There were documents from the archive: it turned out that there were 56 cars in the garage of Nicholas II - they were counted during the requisition.
Photo by Masha Fedorenko