zis

ZIS, or ZiS, is the common English rendering of the Soviet acronym Zavod imeni Stalina, literally Factory Named After Stalin. The plant, located near Moscow, was a major producer of automobiles and military hardware from the 1930s through the postwar era.

In civil production, ZiS built passenger cars such as the ZIS-101 and ZIS-110, as well as light trucks like the ZiS-5. In military supply, the plant produced artillery and antitank weapons, most notably the ZiS-2 57 mm anti-tank gun and the ZiS-3 76.2 mm field gun, which were widely deployed by the Red Army during World War II.

Following the war, the facility remained active but underwent organizational changes common to Soviet industry. The ZiS brand gradually faded as production was reorganized under later state manufacturers, and the site contributed to the evolution of Soviet automotive and defense engineering.

Today, ZiS is of interest to historians and collectors as a symbol of the Soviet industrialization drive and wartime mobilization. The name is most often encountered in archival documents, military ordnance records, and classic vehicle histories.

See also: GAZ, ZIL, Soviet automobile industry.