1947 Rare Russian made limousine ZIS 110

One of a few survived vehicles in the world and most likely the only ZIS 110 in the United States is for sale now. Less than 2100 of them were produced and most of the existing ZIS 110s were destroyed by order of Nikita Khrushchev who took the highest office in the USSR after Stalin. Khrushchev condemned Stalin and accused him in creating a cult of his personality. Everything associated with Stalin was removed from public places and destroyed. ZIS is a Russian abbreviation for “Zavod Imeni Satlina (Plant named after Stalin)” In this anti Stalin campaign the plant was renamed and became “Plant named after Likhachov” and all ZIS 110 limousines were ordered to be destroyed. Fortunately, air-minded people disobeyed the order and some of ZIS 110 survived.

This ZIS-110 is one of them. It was manufactured in 1947with serial number 253. In the same year, talin gave this limousine to the first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan Mirdjafar Bagirov.Azerbaijan was one of USSR republic and position of first secretary was the highest office in the republic. After Stalin's death and his condemnation, agirov, s a close ally and friend of Stalin was removed from the office, onvicted and imprisoned.

The car was in an automobile garage of theCommunist Party’s Central Committee and was not used until 1968. In 1968, he limousine was given as a gift to Orudge G. Koshkarly, an outstanding citizen of Azerbaijan. Retired General,

he was a famous Azerbaijan writer, member ofprestigious Writers' Union of the USSR. The son of Orudge Koshkarly,

Murad G. Koshkarlyinherited the car after his father passed away in 1989. In 1998 Murad did a complete restoration of the car including engine overhaul. I met Murad in the streets of Baku when he was driving ZIS and exchange phone numbers with him. Sometime later he called me and offered his car for sale. I bought and shipped the car to the US in 1999. It was delivered to storage in Houston, exas as I continued working overseas. In attached photos you can see that bumpers were removed from the vehicle for shipment as it did not fit in 20 foot container.

Upon return home 5 years later I kept the car in storage as it would not fit in the garage. I never started the engine and ZIS stayed in storage for all these years. When I brought car to Houston it was in perfect working condition. Everything, ncluding the original radio and hydraulic power windows were in working order.After many years in storage car needs overhaul. The good news is that all parts are original and that is a major concern for true car collectors.

I consulted with Russian vintage car specialists on the selling price I should put for the car in its current condition. The answer was around $200,000 That sounded as a reasonable number considering selling price of similar cars in a very good condition. The link below will take you to a Russian site that has 2 of ZIS listed for sale.

http://www.old-time.ru/?page=car&group_id=17&lang2=ru&year1=1945&year2=1976&lang=ru

Although the prices are high, ut in my opinion they do not reflect the true collector value of this vehicle. Again, n my opinion, IS 110 is undervalued and still needs to be discovered by serious car collectors outside of Russia.

Serious inquiries only please.

P.S.

Having this car in the United States gives a potential buyer an opportunity to save time and a lot of money in comparison to buying similar car in Russia (provided it’s available)

For export purposes from Russia, IS 110 falls in category of “a cultural value of Russian Federation”. Items in this category require a permit to be shipped out of the country. Those who are familiar with Russian bureaucracy and corruption would correctly guess that obtaining that permit would require significant efforts and great deal of money. In addition to getting the permit a lucky owner of “cultural value” item has to pay state tax equal to 10% of estimated value of the item. All these expenses together with shipping cost, nsurance and import duties can add up to a substantial amount of money in addition to the purchase price.