80 years ago, Ogonyok first decided to write about the traffic collapse on the streets of Moscow. However, traffic jams in Russian cities existed even in the days of horse-drawn transport, and Ogonyok journalists often wrote how it was impossible to push through the flow of omnibuses, phaetons and heavy drays. But in the 20s, Moscow, which received the status of the capital of the USSR, faced a completely new problem - a lack of seats in public transport. By that time, the old horse-drawn carriages - horse-drawn carriages - had already been replaced by electric trams, but there were not enough carriages for everyone, and crowding on trams became completely commonplace (the tram was used by 2.6 million people a day in 1931, with a city population of about 4 million). Despite the fact that in 1930 the development of the tram network reached its apogee - the lines covered both rings, Boulevard and Garden, tracks were laid to all the outskirts of the city, this still did not make it any easier. Then, on the initiative of the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee, Lazar Kaganovich, alternative modes of transport began to be developed in the capital - buses and trolleybuses. Freight trams, which since the beginning of the century had been delivering batches of various goods to city stores, were also eliminated, which, of course, interfered with the movement of ordinary passenger cars. Instead of freight trams, cargo transportation was to be carried out by small Ford AA pickup trucks, which since the fall of 1930 were produced under license at the KIM plant (car assembly plant named after the Communist Youth International). But before Comrade Kaganovich could get enough of his ingenuity, new problems arose - traffic jams. The ancient and narrow streets of Moscow could not cope with the increased flow of cars, and Moscow was stuck in one giant traffic jam. The solution to the problem then seemed simple - plans were adopted for the construction of the Moscow metro and the expansion of the central streets of the capital by demolishing “unnecessary buildings”, but decades later it became clear that there were no easy and simple solutions to transport problems in principle.

Magazine "Ogonyok" No. 49 dated 12/12/2011, p. 53

Dates – Ogonyok No. 49 (5207) from 12/12/2011