A few years after the Soviet government lifted the ban on foreign tourist travel, R. De Groote and W.C. Hoffman from Chicago became the first Western railfans to 'officially' visit Kiev. The timing could not possibly have been better. On 11-12 July 1959, the Vladimirskaya St. line had but a few more months to live; trams still ran along the whole of Saksaganskogo St. to Ploschad Pobedy (Victory Square); route 20 to the Lavra was still alive, while new route 24 to Stalinka (sic) had just been introduced. By no means less interesting was the real 'zoo' of tram cars serving the still huge network. The old Pullmanns and KH+M cars, plus KTM-1s, plus Kiev's own KTCs and KTVs of two types, plus the then-new MTV-82s, and to top it off, LM-57 5001 which was to be the first and only one. All that, and more, was captured by the railfan explorers, to become an evidence of Kiev's tram history whose value cannot be overestimated.

All photos are by Raymond De Groote Jr. and William C. Hoffman, kindly supplied to the author by Aare Olander and Alexander Shanin.

	Where it all began. Ploschad Stalina (Stalin square, nowadays European Square) was the upper terminus of the first Kiev tram line. The car here, MTV-82 1358, is heading upwards on an extension to that line into the district of Pechersk, serving route 16 to Pecherskiy Most (Pechersk Bridge).
	The lower end of Aleksandrovskiy Spusk (Alexander Descent) and of the first tram line, at Pochtovaya Ploschad (Postal Square). Route 20, which served Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra (Monastery on the Caves), would be abandoned about a year later and replaced by a trolleybus route under the same number. The trolleybus route would be 'temporarily' suspended in 2001, and a bus under an impressive number 20TR substituted. At present, trolleybus route 38 runs on a portion of that route. [Car numbers: 1374 and 1350]
	Now this is a unique one. The prototype LM-57 car 5001 was donated to Kiev as a gift from its manufacturer in Leningrad (St Petersburg), and while another one never followed, it defined the enumeration of the Kiev cars for thirty years to come! Indeed, the Tatra T-2s and T-3s, which followed shortly thereafter, just started from 5002 upwards, eventually ending at 6032. The location here is Aleksandrovskaya St. in Podol, between Pochtovaya Ploschad and Krasnaya Ploschad.
	In the middle of Podol, the lower part of town, at Krasnaya Ploschad (Red Square; now Kontraktovaya Ploschad, Contract Square), are two terminals serving about one half of all city's routes. Here in the northbound routes section, the 13 will go to the railway station, and the 9, served by a prewar wooden Kh+M train, to the suburb of Stalinka (Demievka). [Car numbers: 457 and 1329]
	In the same spot just a few minutes later, car 1023 reassigned from route 19 to route 12, will begin its long journey towards Puscha Voditsa far in the outskirts. The car is a Pullmann rebuilt in Kiev and now resembling very much the KTV model with which we will meet later.
	The 1023 as it pulls away from the terminal and heads north on Mezhigorskaya St., following an MTV-82.
	This 1057, in the same spot, serving route 19, a shortened version of 12, is another Pullmann rebuilt differently so it resembles its original self more closely. The three doors are all in place, and the Kiev look to be encountered in the KTV is not there; however, it has been converted to single-ended operation. The original Pullmanns were all double-ended, intended for use on stub-track routes.
	See any difference? The single-ended KTV-55 1111 was inspired by the rebuilt Pullmann (1023) and resembles it quite closely indeed. Carrying a new KPV-55 trailer 1013 series (the trailers and the Pullmanns shared the 10** series for a while, before the veterans left), it is on route 12 at Ploschad Shevchenko, just about to enter its interurban portion running through the forest to Puscha Voditsa.
	From Podol, it was possible (still is, so far) to go in three different directions: due north to Kurenevka and Puscha Voditsa, west to Lukyanovka and the railway station, and south to Naberezhnoe Shosse (Embankment Highway) towards the newly constructed Paton Bridge and the left bank. KTM-1 519 plus trailer KTP-1 119 on route 28 has started the long journey to the eastern suburb of Darnitsa across the river along this newly-constructed line.
	In a minute at the same spot, KTV-55-2 2019 on route 29 (which began at Pochtovaya Ploschad with a crossover between tracks, not a loop, hence the double-ended car). Look at that enormous crowd of swimmers across the river, at Trukhanov Ostrov (Trukhan Island)!
	Naberezhnoe Shosse, approaching Most Patona (Paton Bridge). Today at a nearby spot, by the river, stands a monument to the legendary founders of Kiev. KTM-1 510 and trailer 110 on route 28, bound for DShK (Darnitsa Silk Factory).
	At the very same spot, a training car which looks exactly like the KTV-55 but is apparently two-axle; most probably, rebuilt in Kiev itself from an older model.
	A brief detour to a western suburb of the city, some 10 km away from downtown. The western terminus of the Brest-Litovskiy Prospect line in Svyatoshino existed until 1982. Here, KTM-1 502 and trailer 102 on route 23 are on their way to downtown (Bessarabka), a couple more trains laying over in the background.
	Now back to the city center. The loop at Vokzal (Railway Station) used to serve a huge number of routes. In this picture, an MTV-82 on route 2 is entering the loop, being followed by an old Kh+M train on route 10 and two more MTV-82s. No time for layovers here! (The loop was single-tracked all the time up to its demise in 1996.) [Car numbers: 1532, 1327, 462+341, 1226]
	On the way back from the station (visible in the background), on Ulitsa Kominterna (yes, Communist International Street; the name survives today), MTV-82 1510 serves route 30. Later on, the outer terminus of this route at Pecherskiy most (Pechersk Bridge) will become a stub track instead of a loop, and thus the KTV-55-2 will take over. On the right, 1245 turns from the western part of Saksaganskogo St. (see next photo).
	Service on this block of Saksaganskogo St., from Ploschad Pobedy (Victory Square) to Kominterna St., is to be suspended in a few months from the date of the photo, making the latter all the more unique. Kh+M train 466+325 rus route 9 from Podol, which we saw before, to Stalinka in the southwestern part of the city.
	With the car number differing only by two but in a much different livery, 468+345 turns into Saksaganskogo from Kominterna, at the same intersection as in the second last picture, on the way from Railway Station to Stalinka, route 10.
	Half a block down the street from the intersection, MTV-82 1298 on circle route A meets a Kh+M on route 10. There were two circle routes, A (counterclockwise) and B (clockwise) running through downtown, Pechersk, and Podol. Needless to say, this is no longer possible...
	At the same spot, KTM-1+KTP-1 553+153 on route 9. Note, in both pictures, how intensive the tram traffic is! Saksaganskogo was, indeed, one of the main central tram arteries, linking the railway station and the districts of Lukyanovka and Podol with Bessarabka and Pechersk.
	However, the "most central" line, since rails were lifted on Kreschatik in 1934, was, at the time, Vladimirskaya St. In fact, 1959 was the last year of its operation - trolleybuses would be substituted in the fall of that year. Here, routes 8 and 15 are still running, and MTV-82 1243 serves route 8, apparently on a spot just short of the intersection with Lenin St.
	Running in the opposite direction is one of merely nine cars of its type, the KTC (Kievskij Tramvaj Celnometallicheskij, Kiev Tram Wholly Metallic). Those mostly served route 15, from Ploschad Bogdana Khmelnitskogo to Stalinka. On the same spot as in the previous picture, this 1107 is on the way to the Ploschad Bogdana Khmelnitskogo (nowadays Sofievskaya ploschad, Sophia Square) terminus. Today, the trolleybuses are gone, too...
	Sister car 1105 on the same spot again, next to the Opera House. In the background is a small park around Zolotye Vorota (Golden Gate).
	The Bogdana Khmelnitskogo terminus of the line, in the historic part of the city near the walls of the St Sophia Cathedral. KTV-55-2 2015 has, in all probability, been put on route 8 in anticipation of its imminent truncation at the stub-track University terminus, requiring double-sided cars.
	The newly inaugurated route 24 links the central district of Bessarabka with the suburb of Stalinka, the terminus of 9, 10, and 15 as well. 1537 is seen here turning from Dimitrova St. into Korolenkovskaya St. near the Shevchenko Central Tramway Depot.
	The next three pictures are at the Stalinka terminus just mentioned, the present Goloseevskaya Square. KH+M 478+311 on route 9, from Podol (cut back to Moskovskaya Square in 1980, discontinued in 1996)...
	The same type of train, 453+331, on route 10 from the railway station (cut back in 1980, liquidated, together with the line, in 2001)...
	KTC 1107, which we have seen before, on route 15 from Ploschad Bogdana Khmelnitskogo. Its line would be dealt with in four stages: Vladimirskaya in 1959, the extension to Goloseevskaya Square in 1980, the University spur in 1987, and the final curtain on 20 May 2001.
	And to top it off, service cars are stored in this spot which, most probably, is near Ploschad Pobedy (Victory Square), Starovokzalnaya St. near the intersection with Saksaganskogo St. The present-day line to the railway station is a block away.