Party Like A Party Leader In Gorbachev’s Zil

We must extradite this indulgent hunk of Soviet iron.

Government literature held that the Soviet Union was a state absent social classes. In reality however, there was a ruling class, and the highest echelon of that elite was driven around exclusively in Zils. What’s a Zil? Though it may sound like the silliest Dr. Seuss character, a Zil is actually a very serious, Soviet-made armored limousine. As of this week, you can buy what might be the world’s premier example: a pristine 1989 Zil 41052 that supposedly carried both Gorbachev and Yeltsin. For $1.6 million, you get a 3-ton, slab-sided Russian limo with a 7.7-liter V8 and while that is expensive, we ask: can you really put a price on a velour seat bearing the buttock imprint of the man who brought down the Berlin Wall?