6 foreign-made buses popular in the USSR

Some of these vehicles became so popular with Soviet passengers that they became symbols of the era.

6 PHOTOS

1. It was the first foreign-made bus in the Soviet Union. The import of Hungarian-made buses was supposed to alleviate the shortage of buses in the fast-growing Soviet cities. The first batch of the Ikarus 60 arrived in the Soviet Union in 1956. It was designed for 60 passengers, although it had only 20 seats (the rest were intended for standing movement). The model had a 6-cylinder 8-liter and 125-horsepower diesel engine.

2. Although the Ikarus-60 was the first foreign-made bus to hit the Soviet roads, it was the Ikarus-280 that truly won the hearts and minds of Soviet passengers. This model has been produced since 1973 and was nicknamed "accordion" and "sausage". It was a salvation for the growing Soviet cities, because this giant bus, equipped with four doors, could carry a couple of hundred people at a time.

3. The Hungarian "Ikarus" was an extremely popular brand of buses imported into the USSR, but not the only one. Another popular model was the Austrian-made ÖAF 5DN-120 tourist bus. This model was brought to the Soviet Union when the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow in 1957.

4. Sometimes more exotic models appeared on the Soviet streets. The French Chausson AP 521 was just that: exotic. This bus also had a 145 hp diesel engine.

5. Even more exotic was the Bussing D2U. Its main feature was its two-story structure, a very unusual design that the Soviet public had not yet seen. The double-decker bus was equipped with a 150 hp engine. It passed along Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow, one of Moscow's main routes leading to Vnukovo Airport.

6. In 1989, the USSR State Committee for Foreign Tourism purchased 450 Yugoslav-made buses. According to some reports, Yugoslav-made TAMs were as comfortable as the legendary Hungarian Ikarus. In addition, the 260 hp engine was incredibly powerful compared to any other foreign or domestic buses used in the Soviet Union.