In truth, it is easy to overlook how, even in the early 1980s, ordinary Soviet residents relied on their cars for daily commutes, grocery runs, and weekend dachas. Cars spent years living outside, with dust gathered and then carefully wiped away behind fences at exhibitions. And the best kept treasure cases often sat in plain sight—garages, yards, or side lots where dusty histories slept in plain view.
The Riga Motor Museum hosts a striking scene: a BMW 326 after restoration sits beside the same model that endured a long, hard life and collected spare parts that a resourceful owner could scavenge. This juxtaposition captures the poignancy of preservation through rough use.
iron currents
Back in 1948, Mashgiz, a publishing house with a print run of 15,000, released a book by engineer Yuri Khalfan titled Description of the Designs of Cars of Foreign Brands. The work appeared amid a climate of postwar shortages and a push against cosmopolitan influences. The title did not feature the word German, though the content clearly explored captured cars and the vehicles that crossed into the Soviet sphere through wartime victory.
Soviet cinema star Valentina Serova is photographed with a rare Opel Super 6 roadster built in the Glaser studio in Dresden, highlighting the era’s blending of glamour and engineering prowess. The book’s pages, filled with detailed diagrams and charts, became a desktop reference for generations of owners of captured cars and a source of fascination for retro enthusiasts. Its appearance in 1948 reflected a surge of interest in German cars that entered the USSR after the war. Exact numbers remain uncertain, with estimates often surpassing 100,000. Trophies were collected by corporations and, with proper authorization and ample resources, by private merchants who acquired them as well. Even today, the number of foreign cars on postwar Moscow streets can be inferred from archival photos and old cinema reels from the late 1940s.
The trunk and headlights of the BMW 326 mounted on the 21st Volga illustrate the typical prewar German fashion in Soviet tuning, a visual cue of the era’s crossovers and experiments with design language.
thin tracks
Khalfan’s book also records how carefully Soviet engineers studied German automobiles. Yet those trophies carried limited influence on domestic postwar models. The Moskvich 400, for example, bears a close resemblance to the prewar Opel Kadett K38. This car had already been known in the Union before the war, as a batch of Opels had been acquired for production managers and other officials. Opel’s ties to Soviet leadership included figures such as Stalin’s security head, General Nikolai Vlasik, a factor that shaped postwar copying and adaptation of Kadett designs once victory was secured.
The most significant impact on Soviet engineering emerged in the front suspension and the bearing structure of the Victory GAZ-M20. These elements drew from the 1938 Opel Kapitan, shaping a front-end likeness between Soviet and German designs and easing repair work for German cars in the factory environment.
An Opel Kapitan with a Glaser body once belonged to Stalin’s secretary Alexander Poskrebyshev, later passing through another Muscovite before finding its way to Riga. After the war, Auto Union racing cars made their way to the USSR. These advanced machines, driven by engines that could reach up to 520 horsepower, used concepts established by Ferdinand Porsche and stood as the only rear-engined entrants in their class during the 1930s. They undeniably influenced Soviet racing and record pursuit cars of the 1940s, including Alexander Pelzer’s Stars and the Moskvich-G1 built by MZMA—but the influence remained one step removed from direct adoption.
The front suspension design of the Opel Kapitan sedan fed into the Pobeda, making repairs on German cars easier for Soviet technicians. During a conversation, Boris Kurbatov, a veteran test driver and ZIS racer, recalled the level of German racing technology was so advanced that direct borrowing in the factory context would have been impractical. The sheer sophistication left little room for straightforward adaptation.
more on the rare, the expensive, and the legendary trophy cars from Germany—and where they are now—check back often
- Retrotest of the sport ZIL-112S, see here.
- Driving can also be explored on Viber.