On the night of April 17, Moscow police dispersed the participants of the auto show on Khodynskoye Field. An action called “Two hundred thousand Lada” was held by the “Battle Classics” community with the goal of bringing together the owners of the said brand. Then the majority of the media covered this event as ordinary riots, ignoring the aesthetic side of the event.
One can conditionally call the participants of the “Combat Classics” street racers: in this subculture there is clearly more admiration of their cars than a thirst for speed and sports records. The old Soviet-Russian automobile industry in the #StyleUtil treatment does not so much drive as it makes noise and inspires awe. A fair amount of the image is self-irony.
An example of the genre of “Combat classics” today is the VAZ-2106 “six” (“Zhiguli-1600”) with a mismatched body, headlights rewound with electrical tape and barbed wire instead of a radiator grille, but at the same time one that can drive from St. Petersburg without breakdowns to Moscow and back.
“Licked” samples are also held in high esteem, as their appearance makes it clear that the owner’s hands are growing from where they should be, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
“Combat classics” is not only about “Zhiguli”; buses and cars of other brands, for example, “Moskvich”, are discussed with interest. One of the first professional reviews was recently uploaded to YouTube, collecting more than 700 thousand views. The main community on the VKontakte social network consists of 200 thousand people.
The phenomenon seriously claims to be called “folk”. Moreover, the price of an “entrance ticket” to this car club starts from 20 thousand rubles. In the regions, that’s about the price of a rusting rusty van in my grandfather’s garage. Long evenings in the process of turning an ordinary “six” into a work of art are priceless.
