Serzhenko I.I. The development of city transport and the policy of municipal authorities in Moscow at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries

Abstract: The end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries was an important stage in the pre-Revolutionary history of Moscow. The increase in population within the context of Russia’s general urbanisation, economic growth, active building of city outskirts, and development of city municipality all contributed to the appearance of new problems in city life, one of which was the problem of public transportation. The article examines the history of the origins, becoming and development of city public transportation in Moscow at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries parallel to the evolution of the city officials’ position towards the given question. If in the second half of the 19th century the city railroad was considered by the municipal authorities as a temporary attraction confined to the Polytechnic exhibition, then by the beginning of the 20th century the city council and board directed all their efforts to the advance redemption of the Moscow electric tramway network for the city’s ownership. The author evaluates the role and position of the city system of electric tramways among the other branches of municipal service. The Moscow tramway on an electric traction became the object of extreme interest for city authorities. The tramway network expanded, while its revenues assuredly rose, which made the electric tramway very profitable for the city treasury. Separate attention is also given to the operation of the tramway system in the years of the First World War.

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