Austin-Putilov I

Austin-Putilov was the main armoured car of the Imperial Russian Army. It was built in British-Russian cooperation shortly after the outbreak of World War I, when Russians realised their factories are unable to produce armoured cars in sufficient numbers and asked their British allies for help. Their asked for a fully enclosed machine armed with at least two machine guns. 48 cars were produced until the end of 1914, but their armour was so weak it couldn't withstand even the impacts of standard MG bullets. Therefore Russian factories uparmoured the machine, altough at the cost of decreasing the mobility - the car performed poorly off the road.

Later on the Russians started the production of their own, improved version of Austin AC, with different turret layout (not next to each other, but one slightly behind one another), which improved the field of fire, and with thicker armour. This variant was called Austin-Putilov. Due to the political and geographical changes, minor numbers (one to three cars) were used by Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Mongolia, Japan and Austria. Interestingly, one of such cars is kept in Petersburg museum as a car from which V. Lenin allegadly spoke to the people in April 1917 - allegadly, because the car was manufactured two years later.

Several of these cars were captured by Poles in the course of rebirth of Polish state and following conflicts. On May 28th 1920 soldiers of 55th Infantry Regiment of 14th Greater Poland Infantry Division captured an Austin-Putilov near Babruysk (now in Belarus) after it fell into a ditch and was immobilized. It was named Stienka Razin, after a Cossack uprising leader, but later on it was renamed "Poznańczyk" (Citizen of Poznan). It was incorporated into Greater Poland Armoured Car Platoon (Wielkopolski Pluton Samochodów Pancernych), commanded by ltn. Feliks Peto. The car was used during the reatreat from Eastern Front, and later during Polish-bolshevik war. Poland used about 20 Austin-Putilov cars until late 1920s.

This particular car is a replica built by enthusiasts, led by Artur Sobieraj. It was first shown in Gostyn in July 2013. On November 11th, Polish Independence Day, it was brought to Poznan, after which the original machine took its name.