t has everything that is missing in other Russian cars: air-conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering and a comfortable interior. It also remains the car of Russian leaders, but today even the great ZiL limousine is in trouble.


Officially called "a higher-class automobile," the ZiL was always a symbol of power, designed only for the top Soviet leaders and as such its future was assured.


More colloquially the ZiL, as the traditional favorite of top Communist Party members, was known as a chlenovo or "member-carrier" -- and the sexual double-entendre is the same in both languages.


Today, ZiL still gets around 20 orders from the government each year and is willing to sell to anybody else with $200,000 to spare -- but even at these prices the limousine division is in financial straits.


Alexander Gorchakov, deputy general designer at ZiL, said that several limousines had been sold to foreign and Russian businessmen in recent years, while the government still pays for most of the 20 to 25 cars produced annually.


But Gorchakov, who refers to the car as "another strategically important" Russian product like rockets or nuclear submarines, said the small limousine production line had been severely effected by the giant ZiL factory's financial problems.


"We are just part of the factory and our unit is sinking just like the whole of ZiL," said Gorchakov.


ZiL is Russia's second-largest truck producer but its output has fallen precipitously over the last year due to low demand. The factory has announced restructuring plans that would lay off up to 20,000 workers by the end of 1994.


He said his best workers were leaving for private design firms that paid six or seven times more than the ZiL factory's average monthly salary of about 120,000 rubles ($60).


"These are our best brains, who are leaving to make something primitive like armored cars," he said. "In a few years time the government may have to spend an enormous amount of money to revive our automotive school."


The latest ZiL model, designed in 1988, was never built due to a lack of funds, Gorchakov said.


"First it was so hard to see that you've wasted four years of your life and this car will never hit the road," he said. "But now we are building a mini-truck and I hope it will help the factory to recover."


From its inception, the Soviet limousine program was granted special treatment, no matter what the country's economic situation or how high the new project's cost.


As an example, Gorchakov said that in 1942, at the height of World War II and even before the decisive battle of Stalingrad, the government brought together the country's best designers and workers to create a new model ZiL, which hit the road in 1945.


Alexander Orfyonov, spokesman for the president's office, said that even today a special plane carrying one or two ZiL limousines follows President Boris Yeltsin on foreign trips, just as Rolls-Royce or Mercedes cars follow some Western leaders.


"The president hardly rides in foreign cars at all," said Orfyonov. "When he does, it's a matter of security."


The first car of the ZiL family, produced in 1936, had a rather casual design and was used not only by top officials, but also as an ambulance and even as a taxi. Annual production of the first ZiL was between 1,500 and 2,000 units, Gorchakov said.


Since then production volumes have declined with every new model, dropping to only around 25 in the 1970s.


"They were designed only for Politburo members," Gorchakov said of these later models.


The Zil cars that carry top Russian officials today are based on a model designed in 1962. According to Gorchakov, the government uses different modifications of the ZiL: a hatchback as an ambulance; a convertible for parades; a limousine for a special occasions; and a sedan for routine transportation. But the base model has not changed since.


Gorchakov said the cars were very reliable and could run for 500,000 kilometers.


"Some of the 1945 ZiLs are still out on the Moscow streets," he said. "This thing is reliable -- can you imagine a breakdown in the middle of a parade?"


Two years ago Russian leaders were ready to switch from using ZiL to Mercedes limousines, Gorchakov said, but the decision was never taken, even though it might have been cheaper for the state to buy from Mercedes than to finance ZiL's limousine production line.


"Patriotism certainly was the issue, but they also found that the ZiL is easier to use in Russian road conditions," Gorchakov said.


As to the high price of the ZiL, he said it was determined by enormous production costs and expensive materials.


"This is rather a hand-made car as opposed to most foreign limousines," he said. "Our cars cannot be produced on a conveyor belt."


Gorchakov acknowledged that the technological level of ZiL production lags far behind Western standards, but said the design level was "absolutely competitive."


Work on the new mini-truck, Gorchakov hopes, will keep the limousine unit designers and workers busy for a while, but he predicted that the decline of the ZiL automotive school was inevitable.