Cars driven by the first president of Russia

Most likely, each of us will change more than one car model in our life. And they will become more and more comfortable and expensive. Although sometimes the opposite is true. And this information will not be of interest to anyone except us and our family. Celebrities are another matter. Many are interested in knowing which car one of them drove, which brands preferred more. Therefore, today we are starting a series of articles on this topic.


Who will be represented in it may depend not only on us, but also on you. By actively participating in the discussions, each of you can influence which political figure or famous artist's garage we "open" next time. And we will start with what became the starting point of the modern history of Russia. It was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the coming to power of the first Russian President B. N. Yeltsin.


Boris Nikolaevich was a rather controversial personality. Much depends on the views of the person giving the assessment and the period of Yeltsin's rule. Some consider him to be the one who weakened the country, others - to bring more freedom into it. But we will not get into politics, but we will talk about a completely different side of the life of the first president - personal and official cars at his disposal.

Love for cars, but contentment with official vehicles

According to eyewitnesses and Yeltsin himself, he always had a very great desire to have a personal car. But it was not easy to do this in a country with a huge shortage of private four-wheeled transport. It just so happened that the party career, which went uphill sharply, happened before he saved up for a personal car. Nothing can be done - I had to be content with the service.

By the age of 45, Boris Nikolayevich received a very high position for his age (at that time). He was appointed first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU. In the mid-70s, on roads far from the capital, one could meet a classic set of stamps of those years:

✅ "Zaporozhets"
✅ "Moskvich"
✅ Zhiguli
✅ "Volga"

Minibuses came across UAZ or RAF. From foreign cars - Polish Zuk or Nysa, Czechoslovak Avia and some others. A more cheerful picture was observed in the center of Sverdlovsk near the building, which the locals called the “Wisdom Tooth”. Of course, it was the notorious local "white house" - the building of the regional party committee.

In its basement hangars there was a special purpose garage (GON). In it one could see chic Soviet limousines manufactured by the Gorky Automobile Plant. At the end of the 70s - the beginning of the 80s, they were the Chaika GAZ-13. Perfectly lacquered black Volga GAZ-24s were adjacent to it. Later, GAZ-3102 was added to them.


If we return to the GAZ-13, then it was the first model of the plant, which became an unequivocal "member carrier" for middle-level Soviet officials. Its mass production was not expected, so body color options were limited. In addition to officials, only diplomats or foreign citizens could use these cars.



After that, the issue of releasing a new car was decided. Its production started in 1959 and lasted 22 years. Many developments were used in the subsequent production car "Volga" GAZ-24. It was on such cars that the party leader of the region and his retinue drove at the end of Brezhnev's reign.

The situation changed when a new, even more prestigious car appeared in the GON of the Sverdlovsk regional party committee. It was the "Seagull" of the next generation. The only GAZ-14 in the region since 1983 became the personal official transport of Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin.


The last two years of his tenure, the head of the regional committee used the car to meet and accompany high-ranking guests from the capital. He also served to receive foreign delegations. In addition, Yeltsin used the official GAZ-14 for official city and regional trips.



It looked much more luxurious than its predecessor and, in many respects, came close to the government ZIL. The new hand-assembled Chaika had the largest parameters among GAZ vehicles in several indicators at once:

✅ body dimensions
✅ engine power
✅ cabin comfort

Unfortunately, her story turned out to be rather short and sad. After the release of the 1114th car in 1988, production was curtailed. And the last copy, preparing for release, was dismantled for spare parts. The increased comfort of the car made him a victim of the unfolding struggle with party privileges. But Yeltsin at that time was already far from Sverdlovsk.

After Gorbachev came to power, the career of Boris Nikolaevich went up. In 1985, he became Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for Construction. A little later he was appointed first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee.

Finally, the first personal car

In 1989, Boris Nikolayevich became a People's Deputy of the USSR. In the same year, he got his first personal car. They became, as they would say now, a modest Moskvich-2141. True, in those days the car was considered pretty good:

✅ front wheel drive
✅ McPherson type front suspension
✅ 1,6-liter engine with 76 hp. With.

It so happened that for the past 23 years, Yeltsin used only official cars, having gone from the director of a house-building plant to a people's deputy of a huge country. To leave a memory for posterity, the Yeltsin Center was formed in Sverdlovsk, which contains four-wheeled exhibits associated with the first president of the country. But the high point of his career and even more famous car brands lay ahead.

Cars of the first President of Russia

After the Iron Curtain fell, various foreign cars literally poured into our country. Of course, all of them, even supported ones, were head and shoulders above domestic ones in all respects. But Boris Nikolayevich, as the first person of the newly formed state, deserved better.


The time has come when the automotive tastes of a political leader who crossed the 60-year mark could be satisfied. Like many connoisseurs of good cars, Yeltsin preferred German technology. A Mercedes-Benz S500 and a very rare Mercedes-Benz Pullman Sonderschutz were made to his personal order.



What kind of technique it was is well evidenced by one fact. 5 years ago, the W140 from the garage of the former president was put up for sale, priced at almost 20 million rubles. The German company Trasco Bremen made a real armored car out of it. But, even he was inferior in chic to the Pullman mentioned above. The car, rumored to have been donated by Helmut Kohl himself, was sold earlier for 33,8 million rubles.


Of course, Yeltsin, as head of state, had other special vehicles. I would especially like to highlight ZIL-41047 TB. Because of the design features, he received the nickname "armored capsule". The car also had several modifications:

✅ ZIL-4105
✅ ZIL-41051
✅ ZIL-41052

For a long time, American intelligence agencies could not understand the secret of 41047 TB. They succeeded only after the collapse of the Union. Everything ingenious turned out to be simple: “skin” grew around the armored base made in advance, like the body of an armored car visible to everyone inside. Thanks to such cunning, he was not afraid of any attack, even an explosion of medium power. It was such an unusual transport that became the final note of the vast garage of the former first person of our state.