GAZ Logo: The Running Deer of Nizhny Novgorod

GAZ began on 1 January 1932 building licensed copies of Ford trucks in Nizhny Novgorod. Its badge later traded the Ford look for a deer from the city's coat of arms.

Country: Russia
Active: Since 1932
Website: Official website ↗

A Ford factory on the Volga

On 1 January 1932 a factory whistle in Nizhny Novgorod called the first shift to work. Four weeks later, on 29 January, the first series truck rolled off the line. It was a near copy of the Ford AA, built under licence, and it carried the name NAZ-AA, for Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant.

That name didn’t last a year. In October 1932 the city was renamed Gorky, so the plant and its vehicles became GAZ, the Gorky Automobile Plant. The truck turned into the GAZ-AA, better known in Russia as the polutorka, the “one and a half tonner”. Its passenger sibling, the GAZ-A, was a copy of the Ford Model A.

The city got its old name back long ago. The three letters stayed.

First, a badge that looked American

With Ford designs came a Ford look. Writing in 1976, the Soviet magazine Za Rulem noted that the shape and lettering of the early GAZ badge clearly showed where the cars came from: the blue Ford oval with white letters that was known all over the world in the 1920s and 1930s.

Things changed once Gorky grew its own design school. The plant needed a badge that said something about home.

A deer from the city’s coat of arms

The answer was a deer. According to Za Rulem, it was taken from the coat of arms of Nizhny Novgorod, and it was paired with the crenellated wall of the city’s Kremlin, a nod to the old traditions of local craftsmen. GAZ Group dates the deer on its badge to 1949.

Why a regional symbol at all? According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the idea goes back to the designer Yuri Dolmatovsky, who argued that each car plant’s emblem should show the symbol of its region.

The deer also ran on the cars themselves. Za Rulem notes that the third series of the GAZ-21 Volga no longer had the deer figure on its bonnet.

Blue and white, then black and chrome

The version of the badge registered in 1997 was a seven-sided shield. Battlements resembling the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin wall ran along the top, a horizontal line split it in two, and the letters ГАЗ sat at the bottom, all in white and blue.

In September 2015 GAZ Group stripped all of that away. The new sign, created by Studio DEZA, dropped the wall, the lettering and the dividing line, and left the running deer as the only main element. It is drawn in volume, with more dynamic contours, and set on black with a chrome effect. GAZ said the strict lines and precise proportions were meant to match the design of its new vehicles.

The deer also took on new territory. GAZ Group announced that its new bus models from the Pavlovo, Likino and Kurgan plants would carry the GAZ brand too. In 2024 GAZ extended its rights to the deer emblem until 2034.

Video: GAZ Production, Russia (KondorCars)

From the polutorka to the GAZelle

Gorky built trucks, family cars and limousines, often side by side. These are the ones that carried the plant’s story forward.

Landmark GAZ vehicles, decade by decade

1932: GAZ-AA. The plant’s first vehicle, a licensed copy of the Ford AA truck, nicknamed the polutorka for its 1.5 tonne payload.
1936: GAZ-M1. The “Emka” replaced the GAZ-A and went into production in Gorky in March 1936.
1946: GAZ-M20 Pobeda. Series production began on 28 June 1946. It was the first Soviet car with a unibody.
1956: GAZ-21 Volga. The first Volga replaced the Pobeda, and more than 600,000 were built before the GAZ-24 took over in 1970.
1958: GAZ-13 Chaika. In a trademark dispute GAZ cited a drawing of the limousine’s grille ornament dated 24 July 1958, and it says its seagull-wing emblem first appeared on that grille.
1994: GAZelle. Series production of the light commercial vehicle started in 1994, and Za Rulem credits it with helping to save the plant.

GAZ was not the only Soviet plant to pick a local symbol. Compare its deer with the badges of ZiL, UAZ and Lada, or browse more classic car logos.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there a deer on the GAZ logo?

The deer comes from the coat of arms of Nizhny Novgorod, the city where GAZ is based. GAZ Group dates the deer on its badge to 1949.

What does GAZ stand for?

Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, the Gorky Automobile Plant. The plant started out in 1932 as NAZ, the Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant, and became GAZ in October 1932 when the city was renamed Gorky.

When did GAZ get its current logo?

In September 2015. The new sign kept only the running deer, drawn in volume with a chrome effect on black, and dropped the Kremlin wall, the lettering and the dividing line of the previous version.

Were early GAZ cars based on Fords?

Yes. The first GAZ-AA truck was a licensed copy of the Ford AA, and the GAZ-A car was a copy of the Ford Model A. Even the early badge borrowed the shape and lettering of the Ford oval.