- The car was first given to Soviet Field Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who served as Poland’s Defense Minister after World War II.
The first car produced in post-World War II Soviet-era Poland was on display near Warsaw on Friday after it was found in Finland after a decades-long search and acquired after years of negotiations.
This chunky 1951 Warszawa M-20 carries the serial number 000001, the same serial number it had when it left the FSO Passenger Car Factory in Warsaw on November 6 of that year, exactly 73 years ago. It is a relic of the Soviet period when Poland was under communist rule after the war.
Zbigniew Mikiciuk, co-founder of the Otrebusi Private Museum, said: “We are very proud because now we are one of the very few in the world who can take back the first of this series made in our country. One of the people with the car.
The car was first given to Soviet Field Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who served as Poland’s Defense Minister after the war to ensure the country’s dependence on Moscow. The car was eventually found in the hands of the family of Finnish rally driver Rauno Aaltonen, Mikicchuk said, although the history between the cars remains unclear.
He said it took more than two years of negotiations to obtain the car from its Finnish owner.
The car’s original light color was painted in a brown that was popular in the 1970s and bears signs of heavy use, which the museum retained to maintain its authenticity, but it still “knits it together” and is “very Cool” “Even though it’s old,” Michichuk said.
The now-defunct FSO factory spent the 1970s aggressively searching for original models in the hope of commemorating anniversaries. The company even offered a new car in exchange, at a time when cars were still a luxury item in Poland, but to no avail.
The FSO plant was originally built in the late 1940s to produce Italian Fiat 508 and 1100 cars, but Soviet leaders in Moscow opposed establishing ties with Western companies during the Cold War. They ordered production based on the Soviet Pobeda (Victory) car, with Moscow providing technology and production lines.
The car now joins the museum’s long list of historic vehicles, including a 1928 American-made Oakland brought to Poland by a doctor’s family before the war and one belonging to Poland’s communist-era prime minister, Josef Silanke Jozef Cyrankiewicz’s 1953 Buick. The former leader took the car to Poland via the Netherlands, apparently to avoid direct contact with the United States during the Cold War.
The museum also displays a Volvo used by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, leader of Poland’s Communist Party and famous for imposing martial law in 1981.
“We’ve been doing this for over 50 years, and we collect not just cars you see on the street, but cars that have their own history, soul and legend,” Mikiciuk said.
Museum directors hope that displaying the original Warsaw M-20 will encourage the public to come forward and fill in more details about its history.
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First published date: November 7, 2024, 09:16 AM IST
