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Motorcycles in WWII, a political view
BY Nick Davies
clues | November 19, 2001

Hitler never rode a motorbike, and neither did Stalin, although Molotov did have a BSA sidecar combination with open pipes that he used to drive around Moscow after dark with no lights on. He started several false alarms because people thought it might be a German bomber flying overhead. Trotsky owned a Rudge Imperial which he stole during a visit to London. He had it shipped home by Rail via Paris in a box labelled "Tractor Parts". He never took it out, but hept in in his office as a trophy. He used to sit on it while dictating denouncements of his colleagues. Stalin had it thrown into the river after Trotsky's fall but it was rescued by Beria who traded it with Herman Goering for an original Volkswagen with a coal gas conversion. Several post-war Harleys were obtained by the Soviets in secret black market deals which took place in occupied Berlin. They were crated and shipped to collective farms where they were converted to run on creosote and are still used for ploughing and stump pulling.

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