MMZ or Moskovskiy Mototsikletniy Zavod (Московский Мотоциклетний Завод) was a motorcycle manufacturer, based in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

. It commenced operations in 1941 building the M-72, a Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 licensed copy of the BMW

BMW motorcycles

BMW's motorcycle history began in 1921 when the company commenced manufacturing engines for other companies. Motorcycle manufacturing now operates under the BMW Motorrad brand...

 R71. With the German Invasion of the Soviet Union, the plant was transferred east to the town of Irbit

Irbit

Irbit is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located from Yekaterinburg by train or by car on the right bank of the Nitsa River. It is crossed by long distance railway Yekaterinburg–Tavda–Ustye-Akha and by road traffic routes, directed to Kamyshlov, Artyomovsk, Turinsk, and Tyumen. Total area...

 in the Ural region. The new plant was known as "IMZ"

IMZ-Ural

IMZ-Ural is a Russian maker of heavy sidecar motorcycles. Recently the company has developed a solo motorcycle with no sidecar.In 1940, the Soviet Union acquired the design and production techniques for BMW R 71 motorcycles and sidecars. The first M-72 model was finished in 1941...

 (ИМЗ) or Irbitskiy Mototsikletniy Zavod (Ирбитский Мотоциклетный Завод).

In 1946, the Moscow plant was re-established to manufacture the M-1A Moskva, (the DKW

DKW

DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...

 RT 125

RT 125

The RT 125 is a German two-stroke motorcycle made by DKW in Zschopau in the 1930s, IFA and MZ in the 1950s and early 1960s, and DKW in Ingolstadt in the 1950s and 1960s...

 taken as war reparations). In 1951 the plant was relocated to MMVZ

Minsk (motorcycle)

Minsk Motorcycle, or also known as Motovelo Corp, is a company that produces motorcycles. Minsk produces bicycles under its AIST brand. Motovelo is located in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.- History :...

(ММВЗ) or Minsk Motovelo Zavod (Минский Мотовелозавод) in what is now Belarus.