V/O Avtoexport was the Soviet agency charged with exporting bicycles (along with many other vehicles). It appears to have been formed (or at least renamed) in 1956 and to have existed until 1990. V/O (внешнеторговое объединение) roughly translates as ‘Foreign Trade Association’.

Bicycle manufacturers supplying the domestic Soviet market were more concerned with satisfying long waiting lists than with generating ‘extra’ demand, and so produced virtually no advertising material. However, because it was concerned with exports, V/O Avtoexport found itself in the unusual position of having to tantalise those fickle and dissolute foreigners with glossy brochures - something for which anyone trying to explore the history of the Soviet bicycle industry can only be grateful.

V/O Avtoexport was based in Moscow and was but one of a fantastic menagerie of agencies including V/O Tractoroexport, V/O Machinoexport, V/O Energomachexport, V/O Chimmashexport, V/O Selkhozpromexport, V/O Technoexport and on and on ...

Franz Kafka could have happily worked in any one of them.