On the Renault Fluence along the 1912 route

Ivan Barantsev, photo by the author

Renault began active expansion into the Russian market in 1912. Before the revolution, the French brand managed to become one of the most popular in our country, and it remains so today.

Photo: Ivan Barantsev

A hundred years ago, it was believed that the success of a foreign automaker in the Russian market largely depended on how suitable its models were for our conditions. In advertising of those times, the words “reinforced” and “specially adapted” often flashed, but everything, as usual, was tested in practice. In the fall of 1912, the War Ministry held a competition for trucks - it showed in practice who is who.

The truck route was laid from St. Petersburg towards Moscow, and further through the cities of Yukhnov, Roslavl, Bryansk, Karachev, Orel, Mtsensk, Tula and Serpukhov. On the modern map these are the federal highways M3 "Ukraine" and M2 "Crimea", and in 1912 - broken roads, mostly dirt, in holes, with rotten wooden bridges... Along this part of the route - the one south of Moscow - we and decided to drive a Renault Fluence. The choice turned out to be symbolic: with a truck competition in 1912, Renault began its active promotion in the Russian Empire. If successful, a large order was expected from the War Ministry - the Russian army was still poorly motorized and the results of the competition would show which company should be chosen. Domestic automobile factories did not produce trucks then. In addition, two Renault trucks accompanied passenger cars of this brand on the run.

Renault trucks

The name Fluence is more often pronounced in the English manner "Fluence", but the correct version is still the Francophone pronunciation "Fluence". This French word is more literary than casual, and is usually used to describe a way of speaking - a good one to throw in when you want to describe smooth storytelling or casual conversation. Smoothness is the most accurate word for Renault Fluence, which fully reflects the essence of the car. These are the soft, flexible lines of the body, drawn by Laurens van der Acker. In motion - dynamic, smooth acceleration thanks to a two-liter engine combined with an adaptive variator. And also the excellent work of the suspension, absorbing all the unevenness of the road surface and making them known only with a dull sound from under the wheels.

The TomTom navigation system, covering 48 cities and 35 regions of Russia, helped us plan the route. Last year, Fluence received the R-Link multimedia system with a 7-inch screen, which allows you to connect any mobile devices and issue voice commands. In addition to the navigator, we also have at our disposal a report on the 1912 mileage, published in a luxurious volume. It describes in detail all participants in the competition - these are 54 trucks and each of the 23 days of the run. Renault trucks, or as they were called then, were driving at the head of the convoy under numbers 1 and 2. The first could take on board two tons of cargo, the second - three, but the engine power of both was the same and amounted to 14 hp, which is by the standards of those years it was considered sufficient. All trucks were fully loaded with ballast - bricks and bales of compressed hay. The speed was approximately 15 km/h. However, we are accustomed to thinking that time then flowed slowly.

In an impossible state

We did not adhere to the speed limit of a hundred years ago and flew to Maloyaroslavets in an hour. In 1912, trucks took half a day to get there, starting at seven in the morning and arriving in the evening - as stated in the report. “The road and bridges are in good condition. In Maloyaroslavets, the inhabitants of the city treated the race participants very well. They were placed according to the inhabitants,” a quote from the same place. The further road to Yukhnov turned out to be without any special problems, with the exception of rotten bridges in which trucks fell through.

But in Roslavl, motorists of the early 20th century were unlucky: “The police showed no concern regarding the accommodation of the rally participants. The mayor and police officer did not take care of the officers, representatives of companies and foreigners, and the police officer Ruklovsky said that on the occasion of the elections in There is no free seat anywhere in the city for the State Duma." And only after persistent demands and clarification of the relations of the participants of the run, and this is about one and a half hundred people, they were placed in the premises of the Nevsky Regiment, the house of the Transfiguration Monastery, the house of the mayor and in the parish school. Alas, you can only see all these buildings that witnessed the rally on postcards - they were all destroyed during the Great Patriotic War.

Our Renault Fluence rushes further along the highway - towards Bryansk. Sitting behind the wheel of a modern car, it is somehow difficult to imagine what this highway once looked like. “The city highway near the city of Bryansk is in an impossible state: the crushed stone layer is completely absent in many places, there are holes up to one arshin deep, filled with liquid mud. In many places, potholes occupied the entire width of the road or were located in a checkerboard pattern. For the passage of 1 - 1? miles it took from 15 to 20 minutes, and only if the truck passed on its own and no towing was required.” Translated into modern language, the pits were up to 70 cm deep, and the speed was about 5 km/h. They tried to put chains on the wheels, but this did not help. We had to unload bricks from the body, line holes with them, lay boards on top and continue moving along them.

In Mtsensk, the trucks were unable to climb - the “road” was a lot of potholes with black soil soaked from the rains. We had to harness a dozen horses each and this was the only way we managed to overcome the hill. The equipment could not withstand such stress: drive chains broke due to slipping, tires flew off the rims, engines overheated, springs broke...

Drunkenness and hooliganism

At the entrance to Mtsensk there is just such a rise near the village of Kamenka. It seems that it was precisely this place that was stormed by the participants of that race a hundred years ago, knee-deep in mud, in the rain, urging their horses, cursing everyone and everything. “Fluence” takes off up the hill in an instant, as if it wasn’t there at all - under the hood it has a top-end engine with a power of 137 hp. and a torque of 190 Nm, working uphill smoothly and confidently, without a strained howl.

The mileage report continues to amaze with its description of reality. “The population along the road made a very unfavorable impression: there were many drunk people, the number of which especially increased about 12 versts from Tula. People they met did not turn off the road, cursed; there were attempts to throw stones at those passing by. The windows of the Saurer ambulance in the village of Sivolapkino were broken Although in general it cannot be said that the population as a whole is hostile to motorists - one can rather conclude that begging, drunkenness and hooliganism are very developed among the peasants of the Tula province. It is characteristic that all this was expressed in the most extreme form not far from Tula. as if 10-15 versts from the city there is a center, from which the corruption of the population spreads in all directions. As you move away from it, the population becomes less mischievous and gradually aligns with the general type.” This village, unfortunately, no longer exists.

Finished the race in St. Petersburg on October 12. On the way back, the temperature dropped below zero, and the frost covered both the puddles and the mud, making the last stage easier for the participants of the race. The oil in the engines also froze - we had to build a fire under the car. The water in the cooling system was diluted with alcohol or diluted with glycerin - this is antifreeze from a hundred years ago! Both Renault trucks performed excellently and completed the entire run without any problems; only one of them had a trip meter that broke down.

So “Fluence” was specially prepared for our difficult conditions - they strengthened the suspension, raised the ground clearance, and applied an anti-gravel coating to the bottom. They also adapted it for the Russian winter: a higher-capacity battery, an increased cross-section of wires, a more powerful generator, plus electronics that limit air intake during a cold start. The Renault Fluence Expression version, assembled in our country at the Renault Russia enterprise, also received a “hands-free” chip card, a “start/stop” button instead of a key, adjustable steering wheel for reach and electric folding rear-view mirrors.

Not only bridges and off-road conditions caused accidents during the run. Many motorists were not distinguished by their driving skills, for example, the driver of this truck, which fell with its rear wheel into a roadside ditch while trying to let an overtaking passenger car pass ahead, took it too sharply to the right, and was unable to return to the road.
Photo: Ivan Barantsev

Then we drank vodka

And the most interesting thing was after the run. His commander, Lieutenant Colonel Sekretev, wrote a report to War Minister Sukhomlinov about all the misadventures during the run. He turned to the Minister of Internal Affairs Makarov for clarification, and he, in turn, sent Privy Councilor Nikolai Cheslavovich Zayonchkovsky to Smolensk, Roslavl and Tula to understand what had happened on the spot.

Zayonchkovsky's report took forty pages. The Privy Councilor conducted an investigation that revealed unpleasant details about the behavior of the motorists themselves. This is what the head of the parish school, Zvorykin, told Roslavl mayor Andrei Yakovlevich Prokopenkov - this historical document is worthy of full citation:

“I have the honor to inform you of the following details of the stay of foreigners from military vehicles in the school entrusted to me on the night of September 28-29. They appeared in the evening, heavily drunk, and the first question addressed in broken Russian to the school attendant was “Is there Are there any girls here." Then they drank vodka. In the assembly hall, blocked by desks, there was a piano belonging to one of my daughters, locked and covered with a cover. One of the foreigners climbed over the desks, broke off the lid of the piano and began to play. The school attendant hurried to him and began to forbid playing. He asked in Russian, pointing to the piano: “Young lady?” “Young lady,” answered the servant. “Take her to three,” the foreigner continued. I was having dinner at that time and when I came to the piano, it was over. was applied, and the player left to join his other comrades. The whistling, shouting, stomping, and walking along the corridors continued almost until the morning. The guests were informed when occupying the premises that there was a family apartment in the building. Instead of treating this with due respect, gentlemen, guests. They began to demand whether the doors to this (my) apartment were tightly locked, and only thanks to the observation of two orderlies assigned to the school from the Nevsky Regiment, a scandal did not arise. These two soldiers, like nannies, walked on the heels of drunken people who did not understand our language and did not allow them to do any mischief. But despite this, the stairs to the kitchen were flooded with urine. People walked along the corridor where the doors of my apartment opened with their underwear unbuttoned and didn’t understand which way was right or which left, and one in this form got through the unlocked door into my dining room, but I myself asked him to leave and showed him the way. My family stayed up all the time until the morning and didn’t dare leave the apartment. Two guests went to the city in the evening and appeared at 2 o’clock in the morning with the lower rank of the local police accompanying them, began knocking on the outer glass doors with their fists and woke up the guests and hosts who had just fallen asleep. Justice requires that we note that the four Russians, who were among others in the assembly hall, and the foreigners who occupied the premises of the 6th department behaved very nobly and should be excluded from among their comrades."

Russian-philistine method

Zayonchkovsky also dealt with the breaking of glass in Tula, writing the following lengthy passage in his report on this matter: “All these phenomena are sad, perhaps formidable, one of the manifestations of growing hooliganism, but it is hardly fair, it is hardly possible to blame it on the police: the root of the evil is much deeper than its competence and reach.”

There were no complaints against police officer Ruklevsky, who did not provide overnight accommodation in Roslavl. “As for the personality of the police officer Ruklevsky, then, according to the testimony of the former Smolensk governor, this is an efficient and experienced police officer who endured the former turmoil of 1905-1906 with honor. This venerable servant made a very pleasant impression on me, and it hurt me to see him sobbing from the false accusations brought against him." And even about Captain Dedyulin from the Training Automobile Company, who started a conflict with the police officer, Nikolai Cheslavovich, responded kindly: “Captain Dedyulin’s way of conducting himself with police officers is Russian-philistine, I attribute it to the youth, fatigue and unevenness of this generally attractive officer.” .

Renault Fluence 2.0 CVT Expression

Engine type	R4
Working volume, cubic meters cm	1997
Power, hp	137
Speed, km/h	195
Acceleration to 100 km/h, s	10.1
Cost, rub.	835,000

With mileage across Russia