September 29 in Russian history. Trams. Babi Yar

1907

The first tram line was opened in St.Petersburg. By that time trams already worked in more than a dozen of Russian cities: in Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinoslav, Kursk, Vitebsk, Moscow, Riga, Kazan, etc., but in St.Petersburg the introduction of trams was delayed by the opposition of horsecar owners. Ten first trams were bought in Britain, they were made by Brush Electrical Engineering Company. Interestingly enough, the first electric tram in the world was tested in St.Petersburg, thirty years earlier. On 3 September, 1880, Fyodor Pirotsky used electric engine to move a two-deck horsecar. The test continued for the whole month, but were stopped due to the financial problems. So, Pirotsky lost the title of the inventor of the electric tram to Werner von Siemens, who was the first to organize a commercial tram line in Berlin.

In 1982, the workers of Vasileostrovsky tram depot reconstructed one of these first Brush trams and you can see it running along the streets of St.Pete (on the photo).

1941

On 29 September the German Nazis killed the first party of Jews in Babi Yar in Kiev (I wrote about Babi Yar in April 2007).

One day before, the following was announced in Kiev:

All Jews of the city of Kiev and its environs must appear on Monday, September 29, 1941, by 8:00 AM on the corner of Melnіkov and Dokterivsky streets (near the cemetery). You are to take your documents, money, valuables, warm clothes, linen etc. Whoever of the Jews does not fulfill this order and is found in another place, shall be shot. Any citizen who enters the apartments that have been left and takes ownership of items will be shot

In September-October 1941, about 50,000 Jews were killed there. Altogether, during the WWII Babi Yar became the grave for 70,000 to 120,000 people.

I thought to write more and post some photos, but then I thought I couldn't do it in the way I wish I could. Just look at the photos here.