The Soviet Union began to export Ladas in the 1980s until the collapse of the USSR, when car manufacturers struggled to compete with the global motoring industry. Though Marsden never caught sight of one growing up in the UK, he has been catching up by taking bumpy rides off the beaten track in the Caucasus. “I once had a memorable off-road mountain experience in the back of an UAZ jeep (Soviet military jeep) and I’ve had several enjoyable trips in a Niva. The Niva is a genuinely great car which comes into its own in mountainous parts of the Caucasus. A personal favourite is the Zaporozhets because it looks almost human, full of character, and is shaped like a top hat. But these are relatively rare.” The most popular brand however is the Lada. “While genuine admirers of these cars do exist, the reality is that for much of the regional population a used Zhiguli is the most affordable and robust run-around.”

You can find a BMW or Ford anywhere in the world. Yet the Soviet car is imbued with a historic symbolism like no other: you can tell a lot about what a country has been through by hitching a ride in a Zhiguli. “In Azerbaijan this is quite striking, because in the West we tend to associate the USSR with Russia and Eastern Europe, but culturally Azerbaijan is something quite different; far closer to other Turkic countries. So, these Soviet cars provide quite a striking juxtaposition and make you think about how vast and ambitious the Soviet empire was,” Marsden concludes.

Text: Liza Premiyak

Image: Tom Marsden