Roads of Eastern Europe
ABOUT THIS BOOK
This book presents the exceptional variety of vehicles developed behind the iron curtain until the end of the 1980’s, some of which still exist today. To achieve this, the author Klaus Schameitat not only traveled to the former GDR, but he also visited almost all the countries of the Eastern Bloc for more than 40 years.
Big, American-looking sedans come across rear-engined air-cooled curiosities, monstrous transport vehicles dream of a better life on a scrapyard, and a Wartburg races against a Żuk van – but not on the road: both vehicles were converted into draisines. In this beautiful photo book, the East is represented as an unusual, colorful, elegant, and sometimes simply astonishing region.
The highlights: more than 800 documentary photos, mostly of everyday cars, concise model descriptions, a wide variety of cars, trucks, buses and trains of all kinds from more than 60 manufacturers, photographed in 20 Eastern European countries, classified by country, with informative maps and introductory texts. Appendices include abbreviations and the main products of the manufacturers.
Klaus Schameitat, born in 1958, a teacher of Latin and geography in a high school in Germany, has been working for over 40 years on the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and it is during his innumerable travels that he has passionately documented the treasures illustrated in this book.
Selection of the vehicles shown in this book: ZIL-130 fire engine, GAZ-21 Volga, Moskvič 402, Zastava 750, GAZ-24 Volga, GAZ-13 Čajka, GAZ-51, Ikarus 55 bus, Lada 2105, double electric locomotive VL80S, UAZ-452, Barkas B 1000, Zastava 1300, Škoda 1000MB, Trabant 1.1, Wartburg 1.3.
The countries (in the same order as in the book): Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, GDR + Ex-GDR, Poland, Czech Republic + Ex-CSSR, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,
Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia + Ex-Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia.