01
Origins
The 402 of 1956 replaced the Opel-derived 400 with the factory's own design: a fresh three-box body with full-width styling, more glass and genuine boot access, over updated but still evolutionary mechanicals. It brought Soviet family motoring visibly into the fifties, and its rapid development into the 407 of 1958 — with an overhead-valve engine — created the first Moskvitch that earned export success, selling in surprising numbers to Norway, France and beyond; hard-currency earnings made the marque a priority. Estate and rugged 410 four-wheel-drive versions widened the family. Production of the 402/407/403 series ran to 1965 and past half a million cars. It marks the marque's confident stretch: no longer copying, briefly competitive, and shipping cars westward — a fact both sides found faintly astonishing.
Moskvich407Budapest · Varga Attila · CC BY-SA 3.0
