This is not only the story of Viktor Nikolaevich Polyakov (1915–2004), Minister of the Automotive Industry of the USSR, one of the country's prominent industrial leaders in the second half of the 20th century, whose name is associated with the most important decisions that determined the face of the Soviet automobile industry. Many pages of this book are dedicated to the history of the Volga Automobile Plant - V. N. Polyakov was its first general director, the godfather of the first Lada, the famous “kopek”.