Originally designed in the late 30s and evolved from their other successful sv flat twins, the 193841 BMW R71 was the last Flathead twin BMW would put into full production. Around 1939 The Russians, although not fighting with Germany, could see the rapid build up and modernization of the German military Especially their huge number of armed motorcycles and sidecar outfits. At that time the Russians saw their immediate need for a similar cheap and highly mobile combat vehicle. They sought to adopt a more capable existing design foregoing the long research and development time they would require for making an original Soviet engineered model to replace their older motorcycles. The Soviet Military, some say with the influence of Foreign Minister Molotov hence the nick name decided upon the BMW R71. They then acquired several of the very capable sidecar outfits through neutral Scandinavian neighbors and set out to copy and produce these machines, which they dubbed the M72. When Stalins suspicions proved to be true and the Germans invaded Russia in late summer 1941 their primary motorcycle production facility moved from Moscow and reestablished itself in the Ural mountains, near the town of Irbit The I in IMZ out of the range of German bombers. However, production during the war did take place at numerous other facilities to boost production such as the machine plant in Gorky.

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