Motorcycles and Motorcycling in the USSR from 1939 - A Social and Technical History is ranked one of the 94 Best Motorcycle Books of All Time by BookAuthority.
The models, the riders and the propaganda that surrounded them: those interested in Soviet era Russian motorcycles and the era that created them, need look no further than this evocatively illustrated and unique book covering the cold war period, when East and West were divided by ideology.
This book provides the first accessible English language account of motorcycles in the Soviet Union. Concentrating on the wartime and postwar period until 1990, prior to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, it covers the motorcycles produced, and looks at the way in which they were used at home and exported abroad.
Chapters cover wartime, models produced, the social character of Soviet era motorcycling, and wide-ranging sport. With planned, rather than market-led, production based around copies of pre-war German BMW and DKW models, the industry churned out hundreds of thousands of utilitarian and rugged machines that were very different from the more fashion-orientated machines produced in the West. These motorcycles went under the place names of the producing factories: Ishevsk, Kovrov, Moskva, Minsk and, of course, the large flat twins produced in Irbit and Kiev under the Ural and Dnepr names.
With a strong emphasis on Soviet era illustrations, the book provides an insight into a life based on idealism and ideology that has now passed. Period photographs and images, many of them from private family collections, show Soviet bikes as well as popular imports Jawa from Czechoslovakia, and Pannonia from Hungary.
The first English language text on postwar motorcycles produced in the Soviet Union
Technical information on every motorcycle produced in the USSR between 1941 and 1990
Extensive use of previously unavailable material
Fully illustrated throughout in both black and white and colour
A fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary citizens in the USSR
Hidden history of Soviet motorcycle sport – from ice-racing and speedway to road-racing
Rare family photographs illustrating the place of motorcycles in social life in the USSR
20th Century Socialist-Realist iconography applied to motorcycling
Aspects of motorcycling not seen elsewhere – bears as riders, camels as passengers!
Describes state production of utilitarian motorcycles on a scale not seen before or since
