LADA

Will Russia's Classic Auto Industry Survive?

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which still sees no end, let alone a happy one, is the cause of the introduction of extremely harsh Western sanctions against Russia.

From industry, through culture to sport. One after another, foreign-owned Russian car factories closed their factories.

It would be said that ordinary people, workers are the most threatened by this, but also the very survival of legendary models like Lada, which was born and produced in the AvtoVAZ megasystem.

History... AvtoVAZ(old Lada) was founded in the 1960s to meet the growing demand in the Soviet Union for affordable cars, and its flagship product Lada has become widely known for its simplicity and durability.

For generations, the Russian city of Tolyatti has been synonymous with the AvtoVAZ car factory, which produces the most famous Russian car, the Lada. But as the West increasingly imposes sanctions on Russia over military action in Ukraine, workers at Tolyatti and AvtoVAZ face difficult times.

Gathered in a small apartment in the Avtozavodsky district that surrounds a large factory, several workers from the Jedinstvo union said they were worried about their future.

“This is a factory town. Everyone here works either in the factory or in the police,” said Aleksandar Kalinjin (45), who has worked on a cargo crane at AvtoVAZ for 15 years.

The factory was founded in the city of Stavropol, about 780 kilometers southeast of Moscow, which was renamed Tolyatti in honor of Italian communist politician Palmir Togliatti. The factory survived the economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was eventually acquired by French Renault.

“For Tolyatti, this factory is everything. The whole city was built around it,” said Irina Myalkina, 33, who has worked in a spare parts warehouse for 11 years. a good salary, I still hope."

The workers are on paid leave and receive two-thirds of their salary, which for Mjalkina means 13,000 rubles or around 150 euros instead of 20,000 rubles (230 euros).

Prices for food and other basic necessities are rising rapidly, as in other parts of Russia. "People are nervous," she said. By buying AvtoVAZ, Renault invested billions of euros in the factory, but it also severely reduced the number of workers, keeping them less than 40,000 of the previous 70,000.

There were many problems with the departure of workers, but there was still a clear positive trend," said Andrei Yakovlev, director of the Institute of Industrial and Market Research at the Moscow Faculty of Economics.

Factory workers had to take a three-part summer break in April while Renault considered what options were available.

In an underground garage in Tolyatti, two men in vintage work clothes work on a red 1980s Lada Niva, a legendary all-wheel drive vehicle. "Since childhood, my whole life has been linked to the factory," said one of the mechanics, Sergej Diogrik. “All our relatives in Togliatti worked at the factory and I also worked there. I had no choice, everything is connected with that factory,” he added.

About 300,000 cars were produced there last year. "It was fashionable to come here. Now it is fashionable for young people to go to Moscow or elsewhere."

He said he was trying to keep hope, noting that the factory and its workers had already survived the economic hardships of the 1990s. A Russian who survived the 90s, especially in Togliatti, will make it now, everything will be fine.

Source: agencies