page_title: Dushanbe
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dushanbe / Transportation / Trolleybus system / History
caption_attribution_description: Dushanbe, Tajikistan
context_page_description: Dushanbe is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. As of January 2020, Dushanbe had a population of 863,400. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as Stalinabad, after Joseph Stalin.
  In ancient times, what is now or is close to modern Dushanbe was settled by various empires and peoples, including Mousterian tool-users, various neolithic cultures, the Achaemenid Empire, Greco-Bactria, the Kushan Empire, and the Hephalites. In the Middle Ages, more settlements began near modern-day Dushanbe such as Hulbuk and its famous palace. From the 17th century to the early 20th, Dushanbe began to grow into a market village controlled at times by the Beg of Hisor, Balkh, and finally Bukhara. Soon after the Russian invasion in 1922, the town was made the capital of the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924, which commenced Dushanbe's development and rapid population growth that continued until the Tajik Civil War. After the war, the city became capital of an independent Tajikistan and continued its growth and development into a modern city.
context_section_description: The Dushanbe trolleybus system began on April 6 1955 when a trolleybus administration was organized in the city. On May 1 1955 the first Trolza trolleybus began operation on Lenin Avenue, the main avenue of Dushanbe. Routes continued to be added in 1957 and 1958 and in 1967 9 routes were opened and the length of the network reached 49 kilometres. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a crisis in the system, as fuel increased in price and looting became a consistent problem, with one incident occurring at the central bus station leading to the temporary suspension of lines. During the period, the number of trolleybuses declined from a high of 250 during the late 1980s to only 45-50. 100 new trolleybuses were ordered in 2004 which were delivered a couple years after and aided in the resumption of service.
caption: Trolleybus in Dushanbe
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