The communists had many issues. One of them was the bad road conditions. Of course the peasants in Siberia probably didn't care about that too much in 1938, but while everybody was equal, some were more equal than others, and therefore needed better transportation than what horses could offer. A few decades on the Soviets mastered the 4x4 technology so well that some of those Cold War cans are are still in production.
"Deliberate development" is what a loyal communist would say when asked about their methods. While nowdays the imperialists try to protect their automotive industry through regulations like the American Automobile Labeling Act, the Soviet Union was more into recycling old technologies to save on development costs. Everything was from the CCCP, so foreign produce was not an issue. The results were rolling bricks you could fix with a hammer. A rather large hammer.