"It was post-WWII when the respected LOMO factory of St. Petersburg started creating a twin-lens reflex camera called “Komosomolets” (meaning “Young Communist.”), which was especially marketed towards amateur photographers. It was a copy of the 1938 German Voightlander “Brilliant” camera, so the design wasn’t really fresh. Come 1949, the original Lubitel (literally meaning “Amateur”) was presented – an enhanced and improved concept of the “Young Communist” cam. With its better features and quality, the Lubitel sales shot to over a million units sold worldwide, and was followed by the equally successful Lubitel-2, raking in two million units from its 1955 launch, to its demise in 1980."

- www.lomography.com