Josef Stalin's Aero Minor found back

• 
• 

In 1949, Generalissimo Joseph Stalin received three brand-new motor cars – Skoda Tudor, Aero Minor and Tatraplan – as a gift for his 70th anniversary from workers of Czechoslovakia. Till recent time, it was considered that only one of the above mentioned cars had survived; the Tatraplan. This two-door cabrio is now to be seen in the exposition of the factory museum in the Czech city of Koprzhivnitsa. But hang on to your seatbelts: Stalin’s Aero Minor has been found.

The godsend-find story is almost classic in the antiquarian genre. After the death of Stalin, the car went directly from ‘The Gifts to the Leader Exhibition’ at the Polytechnical museum to the Moscow city Public Health Department. Here it served for a couple of years but then it was sold and went in private hands. Years of usage followed and finally the story was nearly complete when the Aero Minor ended in a wooden barn with a seeping roof. But due to a lucky coincidence the eminent Minor has been given another chance.

Actually, the Aero Minor model was a mass-issued one, but the gift vehicle for comrade Stalin was tailor-made. The car differs from serial exemplars with a different radiator grill, other bumpers’ configuration and dashboard, white plastic steering wheel decorated with additional rim and with special back wings guards. However, the car has been identified with none of these specifics. The previous owner had a damaged right front wing in an accident once. While restoring this wing a tinman found a note pasted to the metal inside: "To comrade Iosif Stalin for his 70th anniversary from Zendink workers of CSR, December 2, 1949".

Unlike Tatraplan, which story is known to the last detail now, there is still few information on Stalin’s Aero Minor. Has the leader seen it at least once? At what healthcare institution served it particularly? Is anyone of Prague workers, who sent that touching and naive hello to the Leader of the People still alive? These are questions which have to be answered with a special historical “let it rip” investigation, which started recently. Some pictures from ‘the Gifts to the Leader Exhibition’ are already found as well as the original museum cardboard plate of the car and some accompanying documents, but it is only a beginning. Now the unique car passes a full cycle of restoration in a workshop of the "Auto-Heritage" restoring company in Moscow.

(Text and photos by Ivan Barantsev)
 

Kommentar abgeben...