From the history of modernization of railway transport of Russia at the turn of XX-XXI centuries

The article based on documents of the Ministry of Communication Lines and the “Russian Railways-Partner” journal studies the major stages and directions of modernization of railway transport in post-Soviet Russia. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the system of premium transport service, the creation of state-of-the-art rolling stock and the introduction of high-speed transportation. It is concluded that the three modernization trends were implemented under hard economic, social and other conditions. Nevertheless, they successfully started the transition of Russian railway transport from planned management to the market one.