Automotive News GAZ 21: Otherwise Known as a Volga

Seeing Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush putter around in a 1956 GAZ 21 in the major news media has had quite an effect on me.  I spent two formative years in Moscow, USSR; the young years when a boy becomes enamored of cars.  All the taxis in those days were Volgas.  We were always told the Russians stole their design and engineering from Fords of the day, which certainly seems the case given the provenance of the GAZ factory and the styling.