Let me mention a few details. The Opel AG Brandenburg Truck Plant was destroyed by American Liberators on Aug. 6. 1944. Till the end of the war the truck assembly lines were never rearranged and production of Opel Blitz run only in Daimler Benz factory under the license. Russians really captured complete assembly lines in Brandenburg, but those dedicated to the small passemger car, Opel Olympia, which, as mentioned above, was later produced as the first Moskvich car in AZLK (former KIM) factory in Moscow. It is also very likely that Russians captured a lot of other tools or machinery which might have been used in different truck plants later on, but I would not dare to say that captured Blitz assembly line was used for assembly of ZIS-5 trucks.
The KIM factory was built before the GAZ plant and produced other vehicles than Ford/GAZ, so it is not likely that KIM was originally under the authority of GAZ.
The Russian Ford story begins on 31. May 1929, when Valeriy Mieshlaiuk, Deputy Chairman of the Highest Soviet for National Economy and Peter E. Martin, vice president Ford Motor Co. signed in Dearborn, MI, an agreement about building up the new plant for production of Ford A and Ford AA vehicles, supplies of production equipment, disassembled vehicles, spare parts and technical support.
The ground works in the area of the new plant site started 13. August 1929 near by village Monastyrka by the Nizhnyi Novgorod and the cornerstone of the new plant was laid 20. May 1930. In November 1931 the main part of factory was prepared for installation of the machinery.
During building up the plant and test operation of all installed equipment the trucks should have been assembled from imported parts. According to the contract with Ford the support was spread out into the four year period starting by signing the contract. It was planned that Ford would deliver disassembled trucks or spare parts corresponding with 72 000 automobiles. It was also agreed that all vehicles having been assembled from original American parts should bear Ford logo. Ford also guaranteed that all the deliveries would be invoiced for the lowest prices, or for the prices granted to their best customers.
During the period of building up the new plant in Nizhnyi Novgorod the Russian Fords were assembled from imported parts in two smaller plants, Gudok Oktjabrja in Nizhnyi Novgorod a KIM in Moscow.
In 1932 the town Nizhnyi Novgorod was renamed as Gorkii and the new plant was named GAZ, or Gorkovkskii Avtomobilnyi Zavod and the series production of a new truck started 1. April 1932, yet made from Russian parts. The truck was given the name GAZ-AA.
To describe the all production story would require a lot of space but if you are interested I am ready to finish it.
Happy searching,
Jan Mostek
P. S. picture below shows the GAZ logo which superseded the Ford one on the first GAZ-AA series