Cossack motorcycle

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The term Cossack motorcycle can apply to any number of motorcycles, made in the former Soviet Union, a reference to the semi-nomadic mounted Cossacks who lived in Eastern Europe. Some are derived from the design of the 1938 BMW R71 sidecar motorcycle. Examples include the Ural or the Dnepr. Cossack was also the brand name applied to all Soviet motorcycles by SATRA in the 1970s and used by the Australian importers of the same period.

Adolf Hitler licensed a lot of factory machinery to Stalin, including the BMW motorcycle factory equipment, in exchange for access to natural resources as part of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This eventually led to the formation of the Ural and Dnepr. Template:Motorcycle-stub