The first

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

vehicle in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

was built in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1902 at Frese machine-building factory. It utilised a carriage-type

current collector A current collector (often called a "pickup") is a device used in trolleybuses, trams, electric locomotives and EMUs to carry electric power ( current) from overhead lines, electric third rails, or ground-level power supplies to the electrical ...

like the early von Siemens prototypes. There was no attempt to organize passenger or cargo services at this time. The first operational trolleybus service was introduced in 1933 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

cities with underground metropolitan railways, trolleybus systems were intended to replace

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

cars. In reality such plans were partially performed in the 1950s rather than in the 1930s. The first Soviet-made passenger trolleybus

LK-1 LK-1 was a projected Soviet crewed lunar flyby spacecraft. It would be launched on a three-stage Proton launch vehicle. The project started in 1962 under the lead engineer Vladimir Chelomey, with the first flight planned for 1967. The LK-1 had ...

was named after Politburo member

Lazar Kaganovich Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich (; – 25 July 1991) was a Soviet politician and one of Joseph Stalin's closest associates. Born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, Kaganovich worked as a shoemaker and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ...

. It was a dangerous and unreliable vehicle, quickly replaced by more advanced YaTB vehicles. These cars, both passenger and cargo, were the mainstay of the Soviet trolley fleet before the World War II. At this time new trolleybus systems were opened in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, and a few other major Soviet cities. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, new trolleybus systems were opened in the Soviet Union. The need for mass transit in cities away from the front was urgent, but construction of tram lines was too expensive and time-consuming. Buses were largely mobilised to the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

as staff and medical vehicles. The remains of the bus fleet quickly stalled due to fuel shortages. The trolleybuses proved a good solution. Some vehicles, wires and other equipment were evacuated from Moscow in 1941; these materials were used for erecting new lines and systems in other cities. In the front-line city of Leningrad, trolleybus service ceased operations in November 1941 and was not restored until the end of the war. City trams were relaunched in April 1942 and performed without interruption under siege conditions. This restored Soviet plans of mass transit development in the form of co-existence of subways, trams, and trolleys. The postwar period saw an explosion of development and expansion of trolleybus systems in the Soviet Union. Many cities and towns introduced passenger and cargo trolleybus services, sometimes interfering with tram operations. One of the most notable of these new trolleybus systems was the

Crimean Trolleybus The Crimean Trolleybus Line in Crimea is the world's longest trolleybus line.Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia''. p. 41. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. . It is long,Makewell, Roy. "Trolleybuses Over the Yaila Mountain ...

, currently the world's longest trolleybus line. Production at the time was limited to the monopoly '' Zavod imeni Uritskogo'' (ZiU, named after

Moisei Uritsky Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky (; ; – 30 August 1918), also known by his pen-name Boretsky () was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia. After the October Revolution, he was the chief of the Cheka secret police of the Petrograd Soviet. ...

). It produced thousands of

MTB-82 The MTB-82 () is the designation of a type of Soviet Union, Soviet trolleybus. The Rigid bus, rigid buses were initially developed and manufactured by the Zavod No. 82 (Завод №82, Plant No. 82) armaments plant in the Moscow suburb of Tushin ...

ZiU-5 The ZiU-5 (in Russian ''ЗиУ-5'') is a Soviet Union, Soviet trolleybus model that was built by the Uritsky (company), Uritsky factory. The ZiU acronym stands for ''Zavod imeni Uritskogo'' (in Russian ''Завод имени Урицкого'', ' ...

, and

ZiU-9 ZiU-9, or ZIU-9 (Cyrillic: ЗиУ-9) is a Soviet Union, Soviet (and later Russian) trolleybus. Other names for the ZiU-9 are ZiU-682 and HTI-682 (Cyrillic: ЗиУ-682 and ХТИ-682). The ZiU acronym stands for "Zavod imeni Uritskogo", which m ...

passenger trolleybuses for domestic purposes and for export. ZiU-5s and ZiU-9s were sold to Greece, Colombia, Argentina and Eastern Bloc countries. Three ZiU-9 cars were on loan in 1973 for testing purposes in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, Finland. The

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

led to insufficient funding for many municipal trolleybus systems, but they proved more resilient than municipal tram or bus operations. Within the area of modern Russia, there are two closed trolleybus systems, in

Shakhty Shakhty ( rus, Шахты, p=ˈʂaxtɨ) is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the southeastern spur of the Donetsk mountain ridge, northeast of Rostov-on-Don. As of th2023 Census its population was 222,500. It was previously known ...

(whose operations ceased in October 2007) and

on 26 August 2020. The suspended trolleybus operations from October 2006 in

Archangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river and numerous islands o ...

were reactivated in December 2007. The trolleybus system in

Grozny Grozny (, ; ) is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 328,533 — up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Russian Census, 2002 ce ...

was completely destroyed in the

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the invading Russia, Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. After a mutually agreed on treaty ...

; reconstruction is in planning. There is also one system with uncertain futures, in

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

. In other cities the development of trolleybus passenger services continues. Two new systems were introduced in Moscow suburbs

Khimki Khimki (, ) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is located approximately northwest from central Moscow, and is part of the Moscow metropolitan area. History Origins and formation Khimki was initially a railway station that had existed sin ...

and Vidnoe in the second half of the 1990s. ZiU, now named

Trolza Trolza (), formerly known as the Uritsky factory or simply Uritsky,Bushell, Chris; and Stonham, Peter (eds.) (1987). ''Jane's Urban Transport Systems 1987'', pp. 603–605. London: Jane's Publishing Company. . was a trolleybus manufacturer in ...

, has lost its monopoly in producing trolley vehicles. Today a number of domestic factories offer trolleybuses for the Russian market.

Books

* Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia''.

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

, UK: Trolleybooks. . * ''Straßenbahnatlas ehem. Sowjetunion / Tramway Atlas of the former USSR'' (1996). Berlin: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blickpunkt Straßenbahn, in conjunction with

Light Rail Transit Association The Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), formerly the Light Railway Transport League (LRTL), is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to advocate and encourage research into the retention and development of light rail and tramway/streetc ...

, London. . * Tarkhov, Sergei (2000). ''Empire of the Trolleybus: Vol 1 - Russia''. London: Rapid Transit Publications. {{ISBN, 0-948619-02-3. Public transport in Russia

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

See also

Books