Brewschnew—The car fool

In the Soviet Union the Brezhnev era was characterized by economic problems and social distress. Whereas food item and other consumer goods were scarce, the head of state lived his passion for luxury secretly. Though Brezhnev drove Soviet limousines for representatives only like ZIL or Tschaika in public, his personal space in the vehicle fleet of the Kremlin icluded the most expensive cars of the West: luxury models from Maserati, Cadillac, Rolls-Royce and also a Mercedes-Benz 600 too. Pictures showing Leonid Brezhnev in this car are not knowns. Evidently, in the Soviet Union a car of this luxury class was determined for the „highest class of people“ only. The use by others, even senior national officers, can practically be excluded.

On the occasion of the auction in 2008 Florian Hadzic, former spokesman of Daimler-Benz, in the Moscows` German Newspaper explained: “The Mercedes-Benz 600 was the best car in the world at that time.” Therefore, it can be assumed that Brezhnev among other models from his private vehicle fleet in particular steered the Mercedes-Benz 600 himself. It is unconceivable that the Mercedes-Benz only was exhibition piece in the garage.

Moreover, Brezhnev loved German cars with a star: In 1973 on the occasion of a state visit the German Chancellor Willy Brandt gave him a Mercedes Coupé SL version 450 SLC as a present. On a spontaneous nocturnal test drive on the serpentine road leading to Hotel Petersberg in Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Brezhnev did total the car in an accident.

Yvo Konzag of the Classic Remise Berlin is a hunded percent convinced that Brezhnev personally drove the Mercedes-Benz 600 that belonged to his private vehicle fleet. Vladimir Musaelyan, Brezhnev ́s personal photographer, points out that Brezhnev only drove the cars belonging to this private vehicle fleet on his personal property outside Moscow. Because of this circumstances this is not photographed or documented for the public.9