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The Tsar’s Rolls-Royce snowmobile
The link between half-tracked vehicles and the name of French Engineer Adolphe Kégresse is well established, and we wrote about the rather unbelievable story of how some of these wacky vehicles came to their end not too long ago (click here). They were, of course, Citroëns since Kegresse managed to persuade his fellow-countryman André Citroën to do a bit of research and development here.
But there is more to that. We found out only recently also that Monsieur Kégresse - born in the French Alps, near the Swiss border so with lots of snow around – moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905 to become the personal chauffeur to Tsar Nicholas II and later head of the Mechanical Department of the Russian Imperial Garage. It was in fact there, that he came up with his famous invention, which major clue was that it used a flexible belt rather than the interlocking metal segments seen before.
Now, the Tsar was known as an avid car aficionado and collector. When he saw a car for the first time in 1903 he was smitten by what he supposedly called ‘this kerosene thing’. Next, he spent a fortune on them until his death in 1918. He did not only own a multitude of cars but also had a fleet of 21 chauffeurs and purpose-built garages at Tsarskoe Selo, Peterhof, Livadia Palace and at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. You’ll find a list of at least a number of his cars here. Remarkably, there is no mention of the Kégresse-built half-tracked Rolls-Royce there, as the car is mostly attributed to Lenin. But other sources say it was built in 1914 for Tsar Nicolas II and later used by Lenin. The one seen here does survive today in Lenin’s Gorki mansion also and appears to be in a beautiful state.
The second and third picture show other Kégresse-built vehicles, supposedly with the Tsar behind the wheel. What are these then? As so often: we’d love to be educated here since we learn every day!
Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures Wikipedia and Twitter.
Published:
Wednesday January 27th, 2021
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Comments
Ivan Barantsev
21 December 2025, 22:10
Timo Laitinen
05 February 2021, 18:13
According to the Russian book mentioned earlier Kégresse made a (final) list of the vehicles of the imperial garage on March 11, 1917. The list (56 vehicles) includes six vehicles with Kégresse equipment - none of them a Rolls-Royce. Two Kégresse-Packards were used until 1928 and 1929 when their half-track mechanisms were transferred to two Rolls-Royces. The first of them exists as the "Lenin´s car". It is possible that Lenin used the car but that was before it had the half-tracks.
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Bozi Mohacek
01 February 2021, 13:33
Hi, we looked into this one on the Surrey Vintage Vehicle Society Help pages (in 2008 p 16) when an enquirer was trying to firm up the history of "Lenin's Rolls Royce" then in Gorki Leninskie Museum. Chassis plate 79 YG. Our researches of the day revealed there were two possible scenarios in existence relating to the exact history of the vehicle:
The first was that the car was built in 1916 for Tsar Nicholas II, and that it was re-build in Petrograd 1919 in the Poutiloff works as half-track "Kegresse"; The Tsar was assassinated 17 July 1918. The Tsar had numerous cars many fitted with half-tracks.
The second scenario was that the car came to Russia in 1920 and had half-tracks added to the car by Adolphe Kegresse. Our discussions with the RREC advised that they have the build-date for this chassis as 1922, and that the client is listed as the "All Russian Co-Operative Society". Lenin died 1924.
The half-track system of the type seen on the back of the Rolls was developed by Adophe Kegresse, a Frenchman working in the Tsar’s Imperial Garage from 1905 to the First World War. Adolphe was also used as the personal driver to the Tsar. However, after WW1, from 1919, Kegresse was employed by Andre Citroen working in Paris developing half-track vehicles during the 1920s and 1930s. Assuming that the car in the picture carries the chassis number mentioned, it would seem to have nothing to do with the Tsar. The centralised trading system of the era would have required importation of everything via an import-export company, the ” Co-Op” . They often use counter-trade and discount conditions, and it is possible that the Rolls was one of those. As Adophe Kegresse was in Paris by 1919, he could not have fitted the halftrack to the car, nor could he have been Lenin’s driver of the Rolls.
Bozi Mohacek
Read more
The first was that the car was built in 1916 for Tsar Nicholas II, and that it was re-build in Petrograd 1919 in the Poutiloff works as half-track "Kegresse"; The Tsar was assassinated 17 July 1918. The Tsar had numerous cars many fitted with half-tracks.
The second scenario was that the car came to Russia in 1920 and had half-tracks added to the car by Adolphe Kegresse. Our discussions with the RREC advised that they have the build-date for this chassis as 1922, and that the client is listed as the "All Russian Co-Operative Society". Lenin died 1924.
The half-track system of the type seen on the back of the Rolls was developed by Adophe Kegresse, a Frenchman working in the Tsar’s Imperial Garage from 1905 to the First World War. Adolphe was also used as the personal driver to the Tsar. However, after WW1, from 1919, Kegresse was employed by Andre Citroen working in Paris developing half-track vehicles during the 1920s and 1930s. Assuming that the car in the picture carries the chassis number mentioned, it would seem to have nothing to do with the Tsar. The centralised trading system of the era would have required importation of everything via an import-export company, the ” Co-Op” . They often use counter-trade and discount conditions, and it is possible that the Rolls was one of those. As Adophe Kegresse was in Paris by 1919, he could not have fitted the halftrack to the car, nor could he have been Lenin’s driver of the Rolls.
Bozi Mohacek
Timo Laitinen
28 January 2021, 11:33
There is a magnificent Russian book published in 2017 "Garage of His Imperial Highness" which has all the info, even what happened to many of the cars afterwards (when known). The book has 400 huge pages and weights 3 kilos ! Kegresse himself left Russia in 1917 in one of the Delaunay-Bellevilles for Finland. One D-B was converted to (and used as) a bus in Stockholm in the 1920´s but its origin is unclear.
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Keith Kuehn
27 January 2021, 18:37
At least I can say it is NOT the Tsar behind the wheel in any photo here. Really interesting though!
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Ariejan Bos
27 January 2021, 23:38
No, definitely not! At the wheel of the Russo-Balt we see M. Kégresse himself.
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Ariejan Bos
27 January 2021, 11:40
I do not know about a Benz, but at least one Mercedes was equipped with the Kégresse system. The car on the second photo is a Packard, of which several were converted. The car on the last photo is a Russo-Balt, the well-known Russian make, of which also several are known to have been adapted.
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Harit Trivedi
27 January 2021, 09:19
Many years ago there was an article in a German magazine about Kégresse and his half track cars. There were lots of old period pics, some with the Tsar family members and one vehicle so converted was a Benz. Maybe someone has the article handy and could share some extracts.
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John Peirson
27 January 2021, 00:43
The Rolls-Royce in your picture is 1922 chassis 79YG.
There is another Lenin Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost in Moscow. It is on wheels, not half tracks.
Czar Nicholas II is listed in "The Edwardian Rolls-Royce" as owning eight pre WW1 Silver Ghosts. Lenin is not listed.
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There is another Lenin Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost in Moscow. It is on wheels, not half tracks.
Czar Nicholas II is listed in "The Edwardian Rolls-Royce" as owning eight pre WW1 Silver Ghosts. Lenin is not listed.
It turned out that this all-terrain Kégresse vehicle was built in 1928 four years after Lenin's death. But Lenin used this Rolls-Royce when the car was on the wheels.