OTREBUSY, Poland – The first car produced in Soviet-era Poland after World War II was put on display near Warsaw on Friday after being tracked down in Finland during a decades-long search and purchased after years of negotiations.

The large 1951 Warszawa M-20 bears serial number 000001, which it had when it left the FSO Passenger Car Factory in Warsaw exactly 73 years ago, on November 6 of the same year. This is a remnant of Poland’s post-war subordination to the communist-ruled Soviet Union.

“We are extremely proud because we now count among the very few people in the world who have recovered the first vehicles of the series produced in their home country,” said Zbigniew Mikiciuk, co-founder of the private museum in Otrebusy.

The car was first given to Soviet army marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who served as Poland’s defense minister after the war to seal the country’s dependence on Moscow. Mikiciuk said the car was eventually found in the hands of the family of Finnish rally car driver Rauno Aaltonen, but the car’s history remains unclear.

He said negotiations lasted more than two years to acquire the vehicle from the Finnish owners.

The car was originally painted in a light brown shade that was fashionable in the 1970s and bears traces of use, which the museum has preserved, but despite its age it still “holds together” and is “cool,” Mikiciuk said. .

The defunct FSO factory searched extensively for the original model in the 1970s in the hope of using it to celebrate the anniversary. The company even offered a new car in return, but to no avail.

The FSO factory was originally built in the late 1940s to produce Italian Fiat automobiles, but Soviet leaders in Moscow opposed a tie-up with a Western company during the Cold War. They ordered that production be based on the Soviet Union’s Pobeda (Victory) cars and that Moscow provide the technology and production lines.

The car now joins many historic vehicles in the museum; These include the 1928 US-made Oakland, brought to Poland by a doctor’s family before the war, and the 1953 Buick, which belonged to Poland’s communist-era Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz. The former leader brought the car to Poland via the Netherlands to avoid direct connection with the United States during the Cold War.

The museum also exhibits a Volvo driven by Poland’s communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who is known for declaring martial law in 1981.

“We’ve been doing this for over 50 years, and we collect cars that have history, soul and legend, not cars you can see on the street,” Mikiciuk said.

Museum owners hope that by displaying the first Warszawa M-20, they can encourage the public to come forward and fill in more details about its history.