Editing UAZ (section)

===War and postwar===
The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant was founded in 1941 as a direct result of the [[German invasion of the Soviet Union]]. In response to this threat, the government of [[Joseph Stalin]] ordered the evacuation of strategically crucial industrial centers to the East. By October 1941, the rapid German drive to Moscow, triggered the decision to relocate the Moscow automotive manufacturer [[Zavod Imeni Likhacheva|ZIS]] to the [[Volga]] town of [[Ulyanovsk]]. The town, already a nascent industrial center with a sufficiently developed infrastructure and a good supply of skilled workers, would be an ideal location for the reconstituted factory. It was also safely out of reach of the German army. At that time of its founding, the plant was considered a subsidiary of ZIS. By 1942, the plant began production of artillery shells and automobiles. The first vehicle produced at the plant was the [[ZIS-5 (truck)|ZIS-5]] three-ton truck.

In 1943, when the prospect of a German victory had become far less likely, it was decided the relocated plant would remain in Ulyanovsk and be separated administratively from ZIS, which would be rebuilt in Moscow from scratch. This was in line with the Soviet post-war policy regarding various relocated industrial operations. It was considered more efficient to leave the newly built plants as is, while the original plants, provided they survived the war were outfitted anew, frequently with captured German machinery. At the end of 1944, the production of the ZIS-5 was transferred to The [[Ural Automotive Plant]] in [[Miass]], while the Ulyanovsk plant began producing the smaller [[Ford Model AA|GAZ-AA]] in 1947.<ref name=Thompson71>Thompson, Andy. ''Cars of the Soviet Union'' (Haynes Publishing, Somerset, UK, 2008), p. 71.</ref> UAZ developed a prototype 1.5-tonne truck in 1948, using the ubiquitous {{convert|50|hp|kW PS|lk=on|abbr=on}} {{convert|2112|cc|cid|0|abbr=on}} [[Inline four engine|inline four]] of the [[GAZ-M20 Pobeda|''Pobeda'']]; this, the [[UAZ-300]], was never built, due to a lack of production capacity.<ref name=Thompson71/> In 1954, production was expanded to include the [[GAZ-69]], and the first batches were assembled from GAZ parts.<ref>Thompson, pp.71–72.</ref> Two years later, the factory was not just assembling GAZ-69s from parts delivered elsewhere, but manufacturing them in their entirety.

The connection with [[GAZ]] led UAZ to be the top Soviet manufacturer of [[four-wheel drive]] vehicles.<ref name=Thompson71/>