The Lviv Bus Plant LAZ was built in 1945 to produce ZIS buses for the USSR. As an idea came about to create a whole new bus, the LAZ 695 bus was designed and approved by the Moscow Ministry of Transport. Production was launched in 1956 and continued until 2006. This is the most successful bus in the world and holds a world record for the longest in production. During the 1970s many new models were created such as the LAZ 699 and 697 which are both coach buses. In 1967, LAZ won the best bus in Europe at the Brussels auto show. LAZ was the first ever to create the low floor bus in 1963 called the LAZ 360 designed by Nami USSR. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, LAZ suffered a big meltdown economically due to the loss of funding. Production stopped due to no orders. After the economy started to pick up, LAZ started to produce buses again. The LAZ 52523 was created.