See also: Kharkov documents

Country: Ukraine (USSR at the time)

Based in the eponymous city, Kharkov Velocipyed Zavod (which I believe translates as ‘Kharkov Bicycle Factory’) was a major volume manufacturer of bicycles in the USSR.

Alexander Leutner, a Baltic-German businessman established Alexander Leutner & Co. in 1886 in Riga (now in Latvia), to manufacture bicycles. It rapidly became one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the Russian Empire. In 1915 Alexander Leutner and Co. were evacuated to Kharkov to avoid the advancing Imperial German Army. In 1923, after the revolution, the factory was taken into state ownership and became Kharkov Velocipyed Zavod. At some point the the factory was named after G.I Petrovsky, a prominent Ukrainian Bolshevik.

It is possible that Kharkov’s higher spec. models were some of the better bicycles manufactured in the USSR. At its peak Kharkov manufactured over 1,000,000 bicycles a year. More...