Soviet Vehicle Graveyard, Lithuania

A Soviet Vehicle Graveyard; probably my favourite location in Lithuania! Part of the site is an active vehicle workshop and scrapyard, but over the years a collection of rusting relics has grown around it. These older vehicles are wedged close together, in tight rows, and have clearly not been moved for many years. The collection includes many Soviet manufactured vehicles, as well as some German-built military trucks from the 1960s.

I visited this location during my 2019 tour of the Baltics, when there were many beautiful cars and trucks to photograph. Over the last few years, all the German military trucks and many of the other vehicles have been removed.

A plethora of Soviet-era vehicles FOund this vehicle graveyard

Workhorses of the USSR – Soviet-Era trucks

The ZIL-130 (ЗиЛ-130) was one of the most popular cargo trucks in the USSR. 3,380,000 produced between 1962 and 1994, at the ZIL plan in Moscow. These light utility trucks were adapted to many uses, everything from civilian and agricultural to emergency response and military. These fuel-guzzling trucks were notoriously unreliable, requiring regular servicing to keep them operational. In this collection there is a liquids tanker version in a light blue paint job.

There are also several trucks manufactured by GAZ, and automobile plant that was located in Nizhny Novgorod. GAZ trucks were also made on license in Poland, North Korea and China. There are examples of GAZ-51 (ГАЗ-51;1946 and 1975) and GAZ-53 (ГАЗ-53;1961 and 1993). In this collection there are examples of GAZ-53 modified for use as a flatbed truck, fire truck and even a bus. There is also a nice example of blue GAZ-51 with lovely rustic looking wooden bed.

Colourful Soviet Cars

Some of the oldest, most decayed, cars here are GAZ-M20 “Pobeda” which were produced between 1946 and 1958. Additionally there are quite a few examples of MZMA Moskvich 407 and GAZ Volga from the 1950s/1960s.

There were several very photogenic VAZ Lada. Most are the common Lada 1200 (VAZ-2101) from 1970s and 1980s. There is also a lovely red Lada 1500 (VAZ-2103)!

A collection of 1960s Magirus Deutz Jupiter Trucks

The Magirus Deutz Jupiter is a 1960s German-built truck. These Jupiter models have a V8 engine and were popular in military trucks in Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark.