After "The Great Patriotic War" (Word War II) Soviet brought with them the whole manufacturing line for Opel Kadett from Rüsselsheim in Germany. A plant called MZMA ("Moskovsky Zavod Malolitrazhnykh Avtomobiley", "Midget Car Works of Moscow") started to produce a car called Moskvitch 400 in 1947 based on the Opel.
Moskvitch means "A man from Moscow".
