Regarding the climatic and road conditions of their country, it comes to no surprise that the Russians were constantly researching cross-country transport.
In the 1930s, they considered the French Citroen-Kegresse halftracks appropriate for rebuilding.
As a result, the Gorkiy Auto Zavod (»GAZ«) combined the GAZ-AA and the halftrack suspension and called it GAZ-60.
Almost 700 were produced in 1939, just in time to be tested in the Russian-Finnish Winter War.
Like the war itself, the car proved far from optimal, being underprowered and often breaking down due to track problems.
Nevertheless, another 200 were built and delivered in 1940, receiving several improvements, among them the rear sparewheel mount as shown here,
The Russians remained unlucky with their halftrack projects, as the same problems appeared with the ZiS-42 only 2 years later.