It was formerly a Soviet design bureau , and was founded by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich as `` Mikoyan and Gurevich '' , with the bureau prefix `` MiG . ''
The company was first formed in December 1939 as a design office called Mikoyan-Gurevich or MiG , this was because its designers were Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich .