ZAZ Zaporozhets was a series of rear-wheel-drive superminis (city cars in their first generation) designed and built from 1958 at the ZAZ factory in Soviet Ukraine. Different models of the Zaporozhets, all of which had an air-cooled engine in the rear, were produced until 1994. Since the late 1980s, the final series, 968M, was replaced by the cardinally different ZAZ-1102 Tavria hatchback, which featured a front-wheel drive and a more powerful water-cooled engine.

The name Zaporozhets translates into a Cossack of the Zaporizhian Sich or а man from Zaporizhzhia or the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Zaporozhets is still well known in many former Soviet states. Like the Volkswagen Beetle or East Germany's Trabant, the Zaporozhets was destined to become a "people's car" of the Soviet Union, and as such it was the most affordable vehicle of its era. At the same time, it was rather sturdy and known for its excellent performance on poor roads. Another important advantage of the Zaporozhets was its ease of repair. 

This second generation of the Zaporozhets was a series of subcompact cars, production starting of the 966 in November 1966, although the prototype was first demonstrated in 1961. It had a completely restyled bodywork (done entirely by ZAZ), no longer resembling the Fiat 600 and arguably similar to the Chevrolet Corvair, Hillman Imp or the NSU Prinz. This was an effort to cure some of the 965's issues, such as torsion bars that lost tension, suicide doors, and engine overheating and noise. The engine was the 330 PS 887 cc  MeMZ 966A. A radio was standard equipment. The price had inched up, too, from 1.800 roubles at the 965's debut to 2.200 by 1969.

ZAZ launched an upgraded 966B in 1968, powered by a new 41 PS 1,197 cc.

The 968M was the last Zaporozhets model and also spent the most time in production, spanning a career from 1979 to 1 June 1994. Some of its special variants include the ZAZ-968MB2, for drivers who had only one foot, the ZAZ-968MB for drivers who had no feet.