Fasten a Citizen: Forsing Seat Belts in a Soviet Car

Abstract

In the second half of the 1960s, the Soviet authorities accelerated development of the passenger car industry. The new cars had to meet the best world standards, but they also had to be a source of danger to citizens. Contradiction between the tasks of mass production and safety of citizens caused a clash of interests between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Automobile Industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The article examines the history of the introduction of safety belts as one of the subjects of this clash, based on the analysis of previously unpublished archival materials, personal documents and articles in the magazine “Za ruliom”.  Research shown how the task of introducing safety belts, which initially concerned only export car models, was set at the national level with the active support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Concerns of the Soviet leadership about the increase in accidents during motorization led to a rethinking of how to ensure road safety by creating a safer car. The history of the development, testing, and industrial introduction of seat belts turned out to be a complex process, in which, ultimately, the interests of various Soviet institutions intersected. At the same time, years of press discussions about the benefits of seat belts, which reflected a clash of interagency interests, influenced the opinion of soviet drivers long before seat belts became commercially available.