The construction of a light-duty cross country vehicle GAZ-69 started as far as in 1946 under the direct leadership of Grigoriy Moiseyevich Wasserman, the project engineer, a pupil of “the off-roadsters king” Vitaliy Andreyevich Grachev. The automobile ASHP-4 (69A), model 40 (the old designation of the PSHM-40 – Pozharnaya Shtabnaya Mashina – a fire-fighting staff vehicle) on the base of a four-door modification GAZ-69А was widely used. It was designed to deliver a fire fighting activity group to fire location and provide radio contact between the headquarters and a dispatcher of the central alarm station. No one fire suppressing did without such a vehicle.

The fire fighting staff vehicle PSHM-40 was supplied with a radio station for communication between a control point and a dispatcher of the alarm headquarters.

Brief characteristics:
- truck crew - 5 people
- fixed radio station RU25-56/А, power supply - 2 in-parallel accumulator batteries AKB 6-ST-54 and a vibrator, the working radius of the radio station - 25 km, an antenna – spike with three fixed positions, the antenna’s height – 1,890 mm
- outside-mounted control table with reclining shelves 300 x 300 mm
-chassis wheelbase – 2,300 mm
- dimensions: 3,850 x 1,850 x 2,100 mm
- overhang angle - 45/35 degrees
- fully loaded mass - 1,975 tons
- maximum speed - 90 km/h