On the history of the trolleybus in Penza

Urban transport is an integral part of the urban economy. Without public transport it is impossible to imagine the existence of large and medium-sized towns. The analysis in this paper discusses the history of the formation of trolleybus transport in Penza in the 1940s. In pre-revolutionary years local governors wanted to organize work of the tram in Penza, but all ideas remained unrealized. After the October revolution and the beginning of industrialization, city authorities faced the task of the organization of regular intercity transport again. In the 1930s at the request of workers in Penza the narrow-gage city train traffic was organized. But it did not operate long: 2 years later owing to the technical difficulties, it wascancelled. In the years of the Great Patriotic War, in connection with the growth of the city, a need arose regular work of passenger transport. It was decided to build a trolleybus line. The main sources of the research are based on the documents of the Federal and regional archives. They are the State archive of the Russian Federation, the Penza branch of the Russian state archive of scientific-technical documentation, the State archive of the Penza region and the Department of public funds-political organizations GAPO. The archival layer of source materials of local periodicals of the considered years complements this database. Complement the archival layer of source materials is supplemented by local periodicals of the historic period in question. The paper focuses on such processes as design, construction and first few years of operation of the trolleybus in Penza. It includes problems that arose during the construction of the trolleybus route and analyses its role in the economy of Penza.