First introduced in 1929 as the Model D, Harley-Davidson's hugely successful 45ci (750cc) v-twin was copied by rival manufacturers in both Europe and Japan, the example offered here being the work of the Russian PMZ factory. Isolated from the West following the communist revolution of 1917, the Soviet Union – as it then was – had few scruples about stealing designs from Western manufacturers, producing DKW-influenced two-stroke lightweights, sidevalve singles that looked remarkably like the BSA 'Sloper', and the PMZ A-750. The latter was designed at the Soviet automotive industry's technical facility – the Scientific Car and Tractor Research Institute – in 1933 and after a few prototypes had been completed at the Izhevsk motorcycle factory, production proper got under way at the Podolsky works in the Ukraine. Although its 750cc sidevalve v-twin engine had clearly been influenced by the Harley '45', the PMZ's cycle parts were unmistakably European in conception, comprising a pressed steel frame and leaf-sprung, trailing-link front fork. Despite looking like a contemporary BMW fitted with a Harley-Davidson engine, the PMZ was an undeniably handsome machine and almost certainly would have sold well abroad had overseas markets been open to it. A military version was supplied to the Red Army during WW2. Purchased in 2006, this restored machine comes with a photographic record of the work and Netherlands registration papers.