In the early 1930s, the Yaroslavl state motor vehicle plant (»YaG« or »YaGAZ«) produced the first domestic heavy trucks of the Soviet Union.
While the vehicles up to YaG-3 were equipped with Autocar licensed AMO engines, the engineers switched to the domestic ZiS-5 engine from Model YaG-4 on.
Even the American Herkules YXC power plant was used in small amounts.
The YaG-6 was the most numerous 5-ton, built from 1932 to 1942 in no less than 8075 machines.
It was widely used in the prewar Red Army who had some 1600 samples in their inventory when the Great Patriotic war began.

25 days after the start of Operation »Bagration«, the three Belorussian Fronts had finally annihilated the once mighty German Army Group Center and liberated the whole motherland.

It was time for launching a spectacular propaganda coup showing to the world the results of this huge victory.

So, on that hot summer day, no less than 57,600 German prisoners of war, lined up in rows of twenty, were diven through inner Moscow, guarded by only a few armed redarmists and curiously watched by a huge crowd.

The yellow YaG-6 and ZiS-5 PM municipal street cleaning vehicles followed immediately behind thus giving the scene an even stranger appearance.