01
Origins
The ZIL-41047 of 1985 refined the 4104 formula — rectangular headlamps, updated trim, the same colossal V8 and hand assembly — and became history's chauffeur: it carried Gorbachev through perestroika's summits, served the August 1991 coup's chaotic comings and goings, and delivered the new Russia its ceremonial transport while the Likhachov plant collapsed around its own special shop. Handfuls continued to be assembled to order into the 2000s, and Moscow's parades keep a few immaculate examples working still. The 41047 ended Soviet automotive aristocracy in the strangest way available — by outliving its state, its factory and its purpose, still gleaming, a black-lacquered ghost of protocol permanently at rest between duties. Protocol, like the cars, survives its empires.
Dmitry Medvedev's Zi L-4104 limousine · Juerg Vollmer from Zürich, Schweiz · CC BY 2.0
