The story
After World War II the documentation and equipment of the German DKW factory in Zschopau were taken to the Soviet Union as war reparations. Production of the RT 125 model began in Moscow under the M1A brand. By the Order No.494 of the Ministry of automotive industry of the Soviet Union dated 12 July 1951 the production of M1A was transferred from Moscow to the Minsk Motorcycle and Bicycle Plant (MMVZ, then Motovelo). This model was imported into the United Kingdom by Neval Motorcycles, marketed as Neval.
The new models code name system was introduced in 1973 with the new Minsk MMVZ-3.111.
Reliability and simplicity made Minsk motorcycles a cult brand in Vietnam, which was the most extensive export market. Minsk motorcycles were among the Soviet motorcycles that were distributed by SATRA, UK, under the Minsk Saturn 125 and Cossack brand names from 1973 to 1979.
In 2007 Motovelo became a private company. Motorcycles sold under M1NSK brand are rebadged Chinese products. For example, M1nsk TRX 300i is a Zongshen RX3.
From Wikipedia’s article on Minsk (motorcycle), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4