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Issues of 2008
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Rolls-Royce of the proletariat leader
In 1927, one could see quite a lot of Rolls-Royce cars on the streets of Moscow. The fact is reflected in one of the satiric poems by the popular Russian poet of the age Vladimir Mayakovsky: «Comrades, have you seen a Royce? Royce, who resembles wind when it is in motion? Royce, who is like a whale when it stands still»? In revolutionary Russia, the fashion to drive expensive automobiles was introduced by the leader of international proletariat Vladimir Ilyich Lenin — who was named «the most humane person in the world» by the Soviet propaganda. However, the great leader possessed human weaknesses like many other people — for instance, the passion for luxurious cars. For the first time Lenin got closely acquainted with a Rolls-Royce automobile in 1910 in Paris: a French aristocrat accidentally knocked down monsieur Ulyanov (the real name of Lenin) when he was riding a bicycle. Fortunately, the biker escaped with nothing worse but a fright and made a claim against the owner of the car. The graduate of the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University managed to win the case and received money from the aristocrat. Bolshevik limousines
Rolls-Royce Limited was a British car and aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Henry Royce and C.S. Rolls on 15 March 1906 and was the result of a partnership formed in 1904. In 1884, Frederick Henry Royce started an electrical and mechanical business. He made his first car, a «Royce», in his Manchester factory in 1904. He was introduced to Charles Stewart Rolls at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on May 4 of that year, and the pair agreed to a deal where Royce would manufacture cars, to be sold exclusively by Rolls. A clause was added to the contract stipulating the cars would be called «Rolls-Royce». The company was formed on March 15, 1906, and moved to Derby in 1908. In Russia Rolls-Royce Company established its branch before the October turnover in 1913 right in the downtown of the Imperial capital St. Petersburg (62, English embankment). Petersburg-based noblemen and bourgeois willingly bought superb automobiles with a figurine of a silver lady on the hood. Nicolas II owned one Rolls-Royce limousine too, as he had a reputation of a devoted motorist and possessed the largest private motor-vehicle pool among European monarchs. Empress Alexandra enjoyed going by that car together with her daughters and the heir to the throne as well. In February 1917, the Imperial motor-vehicle pool was passed to the Provisional Government, while in October — to the first communist leaders. Thus, Vladimir Lenin received the best automobiles of the age — Turcat-Mery 28, Delaunay-Belleville 45 and limousine Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost. The Silver Ghost was the origin of Rolls-Royce’s claim of making the «Best car in the world» — a phrase coined not by themselves, but by the prestigious publication Autocar in 1907. The Commercial Managing Director, Mr. Claude Johnson ordered a car painted in aluminum paint and the fittings silver-plated. It was the 12th 40/50 hp to be made. A plaque with the words «Silver Ghost» adorned the bulkhead. An open-top body by coachbuilder Barker was fitted, and the car readied for the Scottish reliability trials of 1907. The aim was to raise public awareness of the new company and to show the reliability and quietness of their new car. The car set off on trials, and with press aboard, broke record upon record. The reputation of Rolls-Royce was set, and the 40/50 very successful. When the Soviet government moved to Moscow, the former imperial cars were taken there too. In 1919, there were two Rolls-Royce automobiles in the garage of the Council of People’s Commissars (the country’s main governing body): No3 was meant for Lenin, while No4 — for another celebrated Bolshevik leader Leo Trotsky. Alas, soon «the heritage of the cruel tsarist regime» got out of order. Thus, the Bolshevik government decided to buy new automobiles in England — the only European country that had stable diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia by the time. In the early 1921, a trading delegation headed by Leonid Krasin arrived to London. The delegation made an unprecedented bargain — the Bolshevik signed a contract on purchasing of seventy (sic!) Rolls-Royce automobiles. Unfortunately, famine broke out in the young communist state and the government had to spend money for buying food. Still, by the end of the year there were already thirteen Rolls-Royce automobiles in the garage of the Council of People’s Commissars. Two of them were meant for Vladimir Lenin: Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost Alpine Eagle with «Torpedo» body by Barker Company and Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, with «Continental» body and semi-track drive installed at the Putilov factory in Petrograd. Lenin used the latter automobile (or sledge-car, as it was called then) during his winter hunting trips. The car did 8,000 miles in several winters. The Rolls-Royce car with a sliding head served Lenin in summer. In 1923, the communist leader made his last trip together with M.I. Ulyanova and N.K. Krupskaya to the National Agriculture and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow. Then that Rolls-Royce took him back to Gorki — his country residence (On 15 May 1923, Lenin followed the doctor’s advice and left the Moscow Kremlin for Gorki. He lived there in semi¬retirement until his death on 21 January 1924). To keep forever After death of the leader, the fates of his automobiles were different. The Rolls-Royce sledge-car remained in Gorki and is kept there nowadays. The automobile is preserved in almost perfect condition; in 1984, experts of renowned ZIL factory examined the motor, replaced branch pipes of system of cooling, completely renewed circuit conduit, and made minor repairs of the car’s body and interior. The motor is also in good operational condition, although the automobile have never left the garage after death of its owner. However, visitors to Gorki have had an opportunity to see it in the garage. Alas, during one of the excursions some «worshipper» of the elegant Rolls-Royce car has stolen the silver statuette from the hood of the automobile. The Rolls-Royce car with a sliding head was less fortunate. It was returned to the garage of the Council of People’s Commissars to perform «common labour», as an ordinary car for communist officials. The automobile served there up to 1930s, when it was decided to renew the governmental motor-vehicle pool. The Lenin’s Rolls-Royce was wrote-off and after some time it was passed to the head of a fishing kolkhoz in Kerch (Crimea). Obviously, the head of the kolkhoz had no idea whose automobile he was driving everyday. The Stalin’s edict to preserve everything that was connected with Lenin saved the car from recycling. In 1939, the remains of the Rolls-Royce were taken to Gorki. The automobile featured engine, wheels and wings from «polutorka» (Ford Model AA made in both 1 ton and 1.5 ton variants built between 1928 and 1931, popular model and license built in Sweden, France, Denmark and the USSR), self-made hardtop and headlamps of unknown origin. The automobile remained there intact up to 1957, when it was decided to restore it on the eve of Lenin’s anniversary. Thus, the Silver Ghost car was taken to the Likhachev factory. Engineers searched through the country and managed to find three similar automobiles in order to get the required details for the Lenin’s Rolls-Royce. The restoration works were finished by 1959, and the automobile arrived to the Lenin’s Museum at the Revolution Square in Moscow under its own power. Notably, the workers and engineers involved in repairing works refused to receive bonus money for their job, as they greatly worshiped the leader of international proletariat. Then Lenin’s automobile was displayed to the wide public on the second floor of the Lenin’s museum in Moscow until the enraged crowd threw it out through the window in dramatic 1990s when the country experienced total «democratizion». After that, the automobile was passed to the State History Museum and hidden from view in the vaults (although some people offered to display the rare and unique car at the Amoury Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin alongside carriages and coaches of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and other rulers of Russia).
The propaganda myths In Soviet time it was officially believed that both Lenin’s Rolls-Royce automobiles had been manufactured before 1917 and were later expropriated by revolutionary soldiers and workers from «bourgeois» exploiters, as the truth (the purchase of extremely expensive limousines during country’s hard times) dented the image of the Communist Party. Interestingly, the workers that took part in repairing of the Silver Ghost car in 1957–1959 believed that the automobile had once belonged to Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov, the probable successor of Nicolas II during the abdication process. No one accepted as true that the government could buy a luxurious car equal in price to a food supply train during the famine. The truth was unveiled in Perestroika time. Journalist of Italian-based magazine «Ruoteclassiche» Giuseppe Dikorato examined both Lenin’s Rolls-Royce automobiles and conducted his own investigation. The clingy Italian found out that the cars were produced around 1920–1922 and bought by Soviet representatives. A scandal broke out. Still, the fact of purchase is quite disputable, but the production date is most likely correct. Lenin’s legacy Rolls¬Royce automobiles have been purchased by governmental garage after death of their main worshipper: Stalin, Molotov, Budennny, Voroshilov used Rolls-Royce cars too (model Phantom I). However, Joseph Stalin and other Party leaders preferred more powerful 12-cylinder Packard automobiles. In September 1933, Stalin proposed that the Soviet government should stop importing Rolls-Royce cars for its members and should buy Packard and Cadillac automobiles instead. Thus, many of Rolls-Royce cars became private property. The purchased American automobiles (Packard and Cadillac) had been the only stars of the Kremlin’s motor-vehicle pool for a long time, until in the early 1970s Leonid Brezhnev ordered a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow from England. In 2004, the original Lenin’s car was displayed at the Rolls-Royce exhibition at the State History Museum. Nowadays, the automobile is displayed in the show room of «Rolls-Royce Cars Moscow» alongside the newest Phantom
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