KIEV | 1946-2016 | Russia USSR) & Ukraine :
The Kyiv Motorcycle Plant, known by its Ukrainian initials KMZ, was founded in September 1945 on the site of a former armoured tank repair plant in Kiev. The timing and location were a direct consequence of the war. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, equipment from the German Wanderer factory in Chemnitz, which was located in the Soviet occupation zone, was brought to Kiev to organise the production of motor vehicles, making it possible to assemble the first ten motorcycles from machine kits in December 1945, with mass production established by September 1946.
The first model, the K-1B motorcycle known as the Kievlyanin, was made according to documentation and on equipment exported as reparations from Germany in November 1946. It was a copy of the German Wanderer 1-SP with a 98cc Sachs engine. At the beginning of production, engines for the K-1B were received from Germany, but as early as 1947 the plant began serial production of motorcycles with an engine of its own production. In parallel with motorcycle production, the factory developed a three-wheeled K-1V motorised tricycle designed for people with disabilities who urgently needed an affordable and practical means of transport. By 1953, a total of about 19,000 K-1V units had been produced.
The heavier chapter of KMZ history begins with one of the most consequential pieces of technology transfer in motorcycle history. In 1940, the Soviet Union acquired the design and production techniques for the BMW R71 motorcycle and sidecar. The M-72 is a Soviet heavy motorcycle based on the German BMW R71. It was produced in large quantities from 1941 to 1960 at many factories: MMZ in Moscow, Serp i Molot in Kharkov, GMZ in Nizhny Novgorod, IMZ in Irbit, Krasny Oktyabr in St. Petersburg, KMZ in Kiev and Zavod imeni Lepse in Kirov. The motorcycle was initially intended for military purposes and was not available for free purchase until the mid-1950s. In total, more than 330,000 units were produced.
The plant and equipment needed to make the M-72 at KMZ was transferred from the city of Gorkiy in 1949. The first batch of M-72 motorcycles was produced in 1952 with the supply of 500 engines from IMZ. In 1958 KMZ replaced the plunger-framed M-72N with the swingarm-framed K-750. The Dnepr brand name, under which the Kiev factory’s machines became best known internationally, has been in use since 1967.
The M-72 used a slightly modified version of the BMW 650cc side-valve, horizontally opposed, air-cooled engine with a four-speed transmission, mounted in a tubular steel frame with drum brakes front and rear, and a sidecar affixed. The M-72’s ability to move quickly across varied terrain was particularly useful for carrying up to three soldiers and their rifles, or two soldiers and radio gear, a mortar cannon, a heavy machine gun, or a multitude of other equipment.
The Kyiv Motorcycle Plant was declared bankrupt in April 2016. Its seven decades of production, from the modest 98cc Kievlyanin built on confiscated German tooling to the Dnepr sidecar combinations that found their way to export markets across the world, represent one of the longer continuous runs in Soviet and post-Soviet industrial history.
