KamAZ

The Kama Automobile Plant was the Soviet Union's largest builder of heavy trucks. Construction of the enormous industrial complex at Naberezhnye Chelny in the Tatar ASSR began in 1969 and became one of the biggest building projects of the era: eight production plants rose on the bank of the Kama, employing tens of thousands of people.

The first truck, the KamAZ-5320, left the line on 16 February 1976. The three-axle, eight-tonne truck transformed Soviet road haulage: it was more powerful, more reliable and more economical than anything built before it. Its 210 hp V8 diesel and ten-speed gearbox were cutting-edge for the Soviet industry.

By the late 1970s KamAZ trucks handled about a third of all Soviet road freight. The factory team later became famous in the Dakar rally marathon, winning repeatedly from 1996 onwards. A major fire hit the plant in 1993, but production was restored quickly. Today KamAZ is one of the world's leading truck manufacturers.