Jul 2, 2019 03:37 AM
Where Soviet cars go to not quite die – driving adventures in northern Russia (video)
https://aeon.co/videos/where-soviet-cars...ern-russia
INTRO: The Lada is a stalwart symbol of Soviet Russia. It has also been considered one of the worst cars ever made. Its heyday, if it had one, was in the 1970s, but a substantial number of vehicles remain on the roads today, and hold a special place in the hearts and minds of many Russians.
To tell the story of this much-ridiculed car, the filmmaker Dieter Deswarte, the cinematographer Annegret Sachse and the sound engineer Yulia Glukhova travelled the Russian north, from Murmansk to Siberia, to find where the cheap and easily repairable – if reliably unreliable – vehicles are still in action. Along the way, they got to know a colourful range of drivers who recount the complexities of Lada ownership, and, more important still, show the car on the road – or sometimes what it takes to get it on the road.
Undercutting broad Western stereotypes of a certain Russian dourness, the filmmakers find humour, warmth and kindness in their driving adventures across the icy landscape. (MORE)
Top ten Lada jokes: (1) What's the difference between a Lada and a golf ball? You can drive a golf ball 200 metres.
An Economic Question: Why are Russians Still Driving Lada?
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/russians-...ving-lada/
INTRO: What do Cuba and the Russian Federation have in common? The greater majority of each nation still drive very old and outdated automobiles. Cuba has long received notoriety for its national pride in the restoration, maintenance and daily usage of classic automobiles originally produced and imported from America. Russia, on the other hand, maintains an attachment to an old fleet of automobiles that are less picturesque and sought after. This brings up the economic question: Why are Russians still driving Lada?
[...] Strangely, even as the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990s, Russians were hard pressed to get rid of their Ladas and update to more modern vehicles. [...] The Lada became a worldwide commodity. “Almost two-thirds of Ladas went on to be sold outside of Russia, with more than 300,000 selling in Britain between 1977 and 1997.” However, in just the 10 years between 1994 and 2005, the Lada sales plummeted to fewer than 3,000 cars from the once 134,000 sold.
Lada survived the fall of the Soviet Union and maintains its presence in Russia. So, what does this say about Russian economics? Plagued with embargoes, sanctions and a weak rapport with the world’s leading trade nations, the United States and China, Russia has dug into its own resources and labor to subsist economically, politically and socially. The continued use of Lada cars within Russia’s automotive industry is just one example of that.
Realistically, the Russian middle class has weakened precipitously since the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Ladas owned once as a means of elevated consumerism and luxury have since fallen into a necessity. Most Russians maintain a low degree of economic freedom with an indexed score of 58 and a global rank of 98 out of approximately 180 countries. Therefore, buying or maintaining an economical car makes better sense. Russians ostensibly cannot afford more modern vehicles and instead rely heavily on the gusto of their Soviet automobiles to carry on. (MORE - details)
RELATED: What It's Like To Drive The Greatest Soviet Car Of All Time?
https://aeon.co/videos/where-soviet-cars...ern-russia
INTRO: The Lada is a stalwart symbol of Soviet Russia. It has also been considered one of the worst cars ever made. Its heyday, if it had one, was in the 1970s, but a substantial number of vehicles remain on the roads today, and hold a special place in the hearts and minds of many Russians.
To tell the story of this much-ridiculed car, the filmmaker Dieter Deswarte, the cinematographer Annegret Sachse and the sound engineer Yulia Glukhova travelled the Russian north, from Murmansk to Siberia, to find where the cheap and easily repairable – if reliably unreliable – vehicles are still in action. Along the way, they got to know a colourful range of drivers who recount the complexities of Lada ownership, and, more important still, show the car on the road – or sometimes what it takes to get it on the road.
Undercutting broad Western stereotypes of a certain Russian dourness, the filmmakers find humour, warmth and kindness in their driving adventures across the icy landscape. (MORE)
Top ten Lada jokes: (1) What's the difference between a Lada and a golf ball? You can drive a golf ball 200 metres.
An Economic Question: Why are Russians Still Driving Lada?
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/russians-...ving-lada/
INTRO: What do Cuba and the Russian Federation have in common? The greater majority of each nation still drive very old and outdated automobiles. Cuba has long received notoriety for its national pride in the restoration, maintenance and daily usage of classic automobiles originally produced and imported from America. Russia, on the other hand, maintains an attachment to an old fleet of automobiles that are less picturesque and sought after. This brings up the economic question: Why are Russians still driving Lada?
[...] Strangely, even as the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990s, Russians were hard pressed to get rid of their Ladas and update to more modern vehicles. [...] The Lada became a worldwide commodity. “Almost two-thirds of Ladas went on to be sold outside of Russia, with more than 300,000 selling in Britain between 1977 and 1997.” However, in just the 10 years between 1994 and 2005, the Lada sales plummeted to fewer than 3,000 cars from the once 134,000 sold.
Lada survived the fall of the Soviet Union and maintains its presence in Russia. So, what does this say about Russian economics? Plagued with embargoes, sanctions and a weak rapport with the world’s leading trade nations, the United States and China, Russia has dug into its own resources and labor to subsist economically, politically and socially. The continued use of Lada cars within Russia’s automotive industry is just one example of that.
Realistically, the Russian middle class has weakened precipitously since the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Ladas owned once as a means of elevated consumerism and luxury have since fallen into a necessity. Most Russians maintain a low degree of economic freedom with an indexed score of 58 and a global rank of 98 out of approximately 180 countries. Therefore, buying or maintaining an economical car makes better sense. Russians ostensibly cannot afford more modern vehicles and instead rely heavily on the gusto of their Soviet automobiles to carry on. (MORE - details)
RELATED: What It's Like To Drive The Greatest Soviet Car Of All Time?
