Today, February 7, the first general director of the auto giant, Hero of Socialist Labor Lev Borisovich Vasiliev celebrates his 98th birthday.
KAMAZ team congratulated the birthday celebrant. For many KAMAZ workers and residents of Naberezhnye Chelny, the history of the city and the auto giant is inextricably linked with the name of Lev Borisovich, a man without whom it would be impossible to implement such a large-scale and ambitious project as the construction of the largest plant in the country.
Lev Borisovich Vasiliev was born in Moscow in 1925. Fr om an early age, he was attracted to technology, but the outbreak of war prevented him from receiving an appropriate education. He fought, was seriously wounded, demobilized with the rank of senior sergeant in 1945, worked as a driver. Three years later, he came to the Moscow Small Car Factory (future AZLK), wh ere he grew from an ordinary engineer to the director of the plant. On the job, he graduated from the Moscow State Technical University.
On September 30, 1969, Lev Vasiliev arrived in Naberezhnye Chelny to take the post of the general director of the network of heavy-duty diesel truck factories under construction – what later became KAMAZ. Under his leadership, it took record time to launch a huge production line, which is now called the auto giant. At that time, it included seven modern factories, a full cycle of the production of heavy trucks: from metal melting for casting future truck parts to truck assembly. The first construction stage was completed in 1976, the second set of buildings was set to open in 1981. Over 243 thousand KAMAZ trucks were assembled in 1976-1981. All assigned tasks were completed ahead of schedule.
Half a century later, KAMAZ still remains the leader of the domestic auto industry, producing new generation trucks, creating innovative equipment – self-driving vehicles, electric buses, fuel cell buses. This became possible thanks to the unique engineering school of KAMAZ, the foundations of which were also laid by its pioneer builders.
On October 9, 2019, during a solemn ceremony, a bust of Lev Vasilyev, the first General Director of the Kama River Truck Plant, was unveiled near the General Directorate.