01
Origins
The Moskvitch 400 of 1947 was a 1938 Opel Kadett built with German tooling taken to Moscow as war reparations — Stalin had approved the Kadett as the model for Soviet popular motoring, and the MZMA plant duly recreated it, badge aside, down to its unitary body and independent front suspension. For ordinary Soviet citizens it was the first realistic prospect of private car ownership, however long the queue, and around a quarter of a million were built through 1956 in saloon, convertible-saloon and utilitarian variants. The car itself was competent thirties engineering made in the forties and fifties; its significance was social. The 'Muscovite' established that the USSR would build small private cars at all — an ideological decision wearing an Opel body.
Moskvich-401-424E 1949 · Liftarn · CC BY 3.0
