Before World War II, the Soviet aeroengine industry was mainly engaged in producing foreign designs, notably Wright, Bristol, Hispano-Suiza, and Gnome-Rhône.

Several engines of so-called original design were developed, although these were probably largely based on foreign models (e.g. Mikulin M-17, Shvetsov M-25, Klimov M-103, etc.).

The M-34 was thought to have been originally designed in Italy by Fiat; it closely follows Italian inline aeroengine practice.

The first engine was delivered to TsIAM (Russian: Центральный институт авиационного моторостроения, romanized: Tsentralniy institut aviatsionnogo motorostroeniya, lit.

[3] The M-34 was used in an unusual system, first tried by Imperial Germany in 1918 with a Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, that used a separate supercharger to supply pressurized air to the aircraft's M-34FRN engines.

The first installation, designated ATsN-1 (agregat tsentral'nogo nadduva, 'central boosting unit'), used an auxiliary M-34 fitted inside the fuselage to drive a central supercharger with ducts leading to the engines in the wings.

[4] The same idea was revived in 1943 by Nazi Germany with the Henschel Hs 130E bomber prototype series, with the Höhen-Zentrale Anlage unit.

[5] Development of a version for motor torpedo boats began in 1932 as the GM-34, but it did not pass its state tests until December 1934, although it was put into production that same year.