How many Wolves are needed to make sure the species will not again be threatened with extinction in Scandinavia. This is a hotly debated topic in both Sweden and Norway today. The growing number of grey bones is fuelling anger and frustration among affected sheep farmers. But urban environmentalists, eager to see the number of Wolves grow, have with the support of governments agencies so far been able to block any hastened actions against the wolf packs.

Other similarities left aside by the debate are reminding us Russian car buffs about the fate of the Volgas in Scandinavia, the car as cultic as the Wolf is in the animal world, and sorry to say, already for a long time on the verge of extinction

Back in the 1960's when Scandinavia was still a perfect place to live the Volgas were selling ....well lets use the Russian word "normal" which has a dual meaning in Swedish/Norwegian. The top note in Sweden was 1964 when 121 GAZ M-21 were registered. In Norway, half the size of Sweden and lacking its own car industry the number was higher and Volgas continued to find buyers even in the 1980's when the M-21 had been replaced by the less fortunate GAZ-24 and 2410. As on other export markets the Scandinavian Volgas were in the 1960's available with a Rover diesel engine. They were popular among cab drivers in Stockholm and Oslo as well as among people with a preference for the political system of the USSR. A Volga stronghold was the mine- and steel-producing industrial belt in the Swedish Far North where the communist party was more popular then elsewhere.

One exemption of the rule was the then-leader of the Swedish neo nazi party Assar Oredsson who in the early 1970's was riding through his native town of Strangnas in a GAZ-22 Station Wagon covered with stickers demanding the release of Rudolf Hess (Hitlers early choice of heir, after the war sentenced to life in Berlins Spandau prison by the allied war crime tribunal).

The reason for Oredssons choice of car was the fact that he had been refused credit by every single Swedish car dealer except by Matreco, the Swedish subsidiary of Sovavtoexport.

But what about today? Where are the beloved vehicles today. The pity fact is that most of the Scandinavian Volgas way to soon ended up at the scrap yard. As we know the Volgas are extremely strong built but like in the case of the wolves the fate of a car brand can be doomed if their number falls under a critical minimum. That happened to the Scandinavian Volgas, and first they were extincted from Sweden and somewhat later from Norway.

Today a very few, unique may I say, examples are back on the roads. To my knowledge there are two GAZ-21 rolling in Sweden, one of them being my own sand-colored 1964. The other, a beautifully restored green one, belongs to Mr. Rolf Granlund in Stockholm and its a 1962 model. Both our vehicles have been imported from Estonia. As for Norway the situation looks slightly better. Thirteen GAZ-21's are registered with the Norwegian MIG-registry, a Russian-car-enthusiast organization, and three of these vehicles are said to be running.