ZIS-115
motor vehicle
The ZIS-115 is a Soviet-built, armored version of the ZIS-110 limousine, designed and built especially for Joseph Stalin. A total of 32 of the cars were manufactured between 1948 and 1949. The heavily armored car's design was based on the American 1942 Packard Super Eight. The car weighed over 4 tonnes, with windows made of glass nearly 8 cm (3 in) thick (each of which weighed over 200 kg [440 lb]) were powered by a hydraulic system. Its 6.0-litre (366 cu in) straight-eight engine generated 140 hp (103 kW) with a top speed of 121 km/h (75 mph).
Stalin, wary of assassination, always rode in the rear of the car, seated between two armed bodyguards. He frequently changed the route driven from his home in Kuntsevo to the Kremlin. Usage of this vehicle was seen in other countries, as Stalin donated a ZIS-115 to Chairman Mao Zedong due to the lack of armored Chinese vehicles suitable for the purpose of transporting high-ranking officials. After Stalin's death in 1953, the armored ZIS limousines continued to be used for many years by successive Soviet leaders. In 1955, Nikita Khrushchev donated two of these vehicles (which are on display in the Slovenian museum Bistra) to Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “ZIS-115” is motor vehicle. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through ZIS-115, motor and vehicle, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “motor vehicle” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2071708. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1949, 1942 and 1953.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “ZIS-115”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow ZIS-115 primary sources, ZIS-115 archive and ZIS-115 research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “ZIS-115”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “ZIS-115” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.