Miass has the UralAZ factory, a truck plant with the same name as the mountain ridge. The Zis-5 lorry was built here in the years of World War Two. The Zis-5 was first created at the Zis factory in Moscow from 1933 on, facing the German army after Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the plant was relocated behind the Ural mountains. Multiple factories produced the lorry at the same time. One of these locations was in Miass, later on the factory changed its name to UralAZ. AZ stands for автомоби́льный заво́д; wich sounds like Avtomobilny Zavod and means car factory.
It was an almost identical copy of the American “Autocar” model CA truck (Autocar is a company name).
The lorry was of vital importance for the Russian army. During the war year about 83000 of the Zis-5 lorries were produced, it was used on all Russian fronts.
A Zis-5 truck and LandmarkScout in Miass Russia
