1985 ZiL Russian Limousine Is Our Bring a Trailer Auction Pick of the Day

• As the official state limousines of the Soviet state, ZiL limousines offered luxuries available to only a select few.

• This one was reportedly part of the fleet used by Mikhail Gorbachev, and was in service with the Russian Federation until 2001.

• With the auction set to end on Tuesday, July 25, bidding on the Bring a Trailer online auction is currently at $50,000.

With all due respect to the likes of the Lada Niva or the GAZ Volga, some Russia-made cars are more equal than others. Today's pick is a battleship-sized limousine from the height of the Cold War, a ZiL 41045 believed to have ferried none other than Mikhail Gorbachev himself. It's listed for sale on the auction site Bring a Trailer, which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos.

Just look at the size of this thing. The styling is pure Soviet Blocky, all square angles and imposing bulk. You can just imagine it idling at a curb in front of some brutalist concrete structure, waiting patiently to ferry its occupants to a high-level meeting about nuclear proliferation or vassal states or the strategic national vodka reserve.

ZiL stands for Zavod Imeni Likhachyova, the name taken from the factory in which these cars were built. Before that, the company was ZIS, the S standing for Stalin. This is a car as deeply Russian as borscht, or accidentally coincidentally falling out of a window after issuing public criticisms of the current ruling party.