ZIS-5 (truck) - Production

Production

Serial production of the new truck started on October 1, 1933. The truck was an instant success and, which together with GAZ AA, became the main Soviet truck of 1930-50's. It also evolved into the workhorse of the Soviet armed forces: at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa the Red Army could line up 104,200 of those trucks.

Facing the German invasion, in the autumn of 1941 the production line at Moscow plant was stopped and ZIS was moved to Ulianovsk (on the Volga river) and to Miass (in the Chelyabinsk region of the Urals). Production at Ulianovsk UASZIS lasted from February 1942 to 1944, while UralZIS at Ulianovsk it began in July 1944; UralZIS fitted the truck radiators with own label and produced it until 1955, well after the end of the war.

In the meantime Moscow ZIS plant had restarted production of these trucks in April 1942, and continued until 1948, when the new ZIS-50 (ZIS-5 with new engine) appeared.

In 1955 UralZIS also modified the ZIS-5: It got new engine and oval fenders, different from pre-war ones. This new model received the designation of UralZIS-355 or ZIS-355.