Biography of Peter Katsyv
Petr Dmitrievich Katsyv is a Russian statesman, a manager who for many years led the development of passenger transportation in the Moscow region, and successfully worked in the regional government. As vice president of Russian Railways, he implemented a major project for a Moscow transport hub.
Transport named after Katsyv
The role of the individual in history is the subject of a centuries-old debate among philosophers, economists, and historians. Would the Moscow region have been different if Pyotr Katsyv hadn’t come to it one day? For sure. Would it be better? Hardly…
Such a diverse metropolis
What is Moscow and the Moscow region? Everyone will answer this question differently. For someone, this is the golden heart of Russia, for someone a snickering center, for someone a cultural capital, for someone a terrifying anthill … But all of us, both residents of the region and provincials, see only a certain interesting to us. Some are on duty to see everything. The big city and its environs are, first of all, not even impressive skyscrapers and endless neighborhoods, but the infrastructure between them. Even in primitive villages, the huts were located not in any way, but in the most convenient way for defense. Already the ancient cities tried to build according to plans, and some of them are real masterpieces of the communal structure.
Centuries passed, civilization developed, people became more and more, and there were fewer wars, and gradually the construction of large cities from planned became chaotic. Managing the development of such agglomerations from routine work has become a real art that requires the highest skill, and it must be admitted that not everywhere – both in Russia and abroad – the city leadership turned out to be at its best. And it just so happened historically that one of the most confusing, heterogeneous, original agglomerations was Moscow – the capital, together with satellite cities stretching 50-60 km from the center nowadays, seems to be adapted for anything, just not for normal movement.
But we move, and, in general, not bad. Because there were people who took care of it.
Simple Soviet start
Petr Katsyv was born in 1953 in the town of Slavuta, Kamenets-Podolsk (now Khmelnitsky) region. A typical provincial Soviet boy, obsessed with a love of learning, he chose the direction for himself early – exact sciences and technology. Social elevators then operated smoothly, after graduating from school, the Ukrainian graduate went straight to Moscow and, in the fight against the same lively provincials, was enrolled in the Moscow Highway Institute. And five years later, in the rank of a certified specialist, he became a road safety engineer in the Passenger motorcade number 1786 in Khimki.
There were no serious accidents with engineer Katsyv in the column, but important changes took place in his life: he married a graduate of a pedagogical institute in Belarusian Grodno, whom he met in his native Slavuta (his wife Lyudmila still works in Khimki education, already in the status of a leader Association “Leaders of Education of the Moscow Region”), in 1977 their son Denis was born.
Family chores and employment at work did not allow the young specialist to finish his postgraduate studies and defend his dissertation on time, but maybe it’s for the better: Petr Dmitrievich became a candidate of sciences only twenty years later, when he had already accumulated vast experience in the practical management of transport transportation. His work on organizing transport services in a large region is still a valuable resource for a new generation of managers in the Moscow Region transport.
Subsequently, Petr Dmitrievich Katsyv received a doctorate in science.
From engineer to minister
But back to the biography. The sensible engineer was noticed, and in 1982 he was promoted to the head of the traffic safety department already at the entire Moscow department of passenger transport – “Mosoblpassazhiravtotrans”. Subsequently, he became deputy head of the organization for transportation, then first deputy head. That is, by 1987, 34-year-old Petr Katsyv actually supervised all passenger bus routes near Moscow – there was no private public transport at that time.
At the same time, the unpronounceable “Mosoblpassazhiravtotrans” was renamed into the modern “Mostransavto”, Katsyv retained a position there, later renamed Deputy General Director in the spirit of modern times, and in 1994, at the age of 39, he himself became the General Director of a huge regional enterprise. So for 19 years as a simple engineer, Peter Dmitrievich reached the top of the management pyramid of passenger road transport near Moscow. And the indisputable fact that during the change of the political and economic system, during the shortage of diesel fuel and strikes of drivers, buses in the Moscow region continued to run on schedule, there is a very significant merit.
The post of general director is the ceiling in any state organization, and it could well have turned out that Katsyv would have worked in his post until retirement or, at the request of the country’s leadership, was “transferred” to some problematic region where it was necessary to urgently put things in order in the transport sector … But it happened differently – in 2001, the manager received a flattering invitation to head the Ministry of Transport, in fact, his native Moscow region.
In the leadership of the region
Katsyv’s field of activity expanded dramatically: now it included:
- electric vehicle management;
- road repair;
- interaction with railroad workers.
Yes, you can’t list everything! The Moscow Region is the most dynamic region of Russia, and on average, and in the aggregate, its inhabitants cover greater distances every day than in any other constituent entity of the Federation: nothing can be done, almost all work is in Moscow. So Pyotr Dmitrievich had enough problems. And, apparently, he solved them well: already in 2003 he was promoted to the status of deputy governor. In this capacity, he also had to oversee issues of communications, informatization, industrial policy and other issues that are very distantly or not at all related to his favorite vehicles.
For example, Katsyv entered the Board of Directors of Sheremetyevo Airport, where, recalling his youth in the convoy, he was in charge of security issues (there were no serious emergency situations with ground services during this time). He also oversaw the construction of high-speed railway lines to the airports, along which brand new Aeroexpress trains soon rolled.
From the highway to the rails
But nothing lasts forever under the moon. In 2012, the new governor transferred Pyotr Dmitrievich to the Main Directorate for Interaction with Federal Authorities, and then completely transferred him to his advisers. A new team came to the leadership of the Moscow Region, proteges of Sergei Shoigu and Andrei Vorobyov, who did not want to associate themselves with representatives of the former team.
Although what kind of team are there? If by that time Katsyv’s career was already running against the background of history:
- was born under Stalin;
- went to school under Khrushchev;
- to the institute – under Brezhnev;
- started climbing the corporate ladder during the “carriage race”;
- became the first deputy head of Mostransavto under Gorbachev;
- headed “Mostransavto” under Yeltsin;
- became vice-governor under Putin;
- left the transport sector under Medvedev.
Given the then retirement age, his career seemed over. Many believed that Pyotr Dmitrievich would go, for example, to teaching, to educate young transport workers.
In the service of a state corporation
But in 2014, an information “bomb” exploded: Katsyv was appointed vice president of Russian Railways, head of the Moscow transport hub! For industry experts, this news was no less a sensation than the change of the Russian government in 2024. One of the main tasks assigned to him was the revitalization of the stalled project – the reconstruction of the Small Ring of the Moscow Railway, its re-equipment for the needs of passengers.
And Katsyv coped with brilliance: hundreds of thousands of Muscovites can no longer imagine the daily trips of hundreds of thousands of Muscovites without the comfortable Moscow Central Ring. Under Katsyv, a plan was drawn up to reorganize the railway system of the capital (Central Diameters!), The expansion of railway branches began in a number of directions, and a lot of other projects were implemented.
New Horizons
In February 2019, Petr Katsyv resigned. Behind the chevalier of four orders – more than 40 years of work, thousands of completed tasks. The big name, vast experience and knowledge, respect and appreciation of colleagues and subordinates remain with him. There is no need to worry about the future: the son of Peter Dmitrievich Denis continues his work, but already, in the spirit of the times, in private business.
But all this does not mean that work at Russian Railways was the last for Katsyv, that we will no longer hear about him. There are a lot of such specialists in the country, and it is very possible that now, in the conditions of active personnel changes, we will see him again at a combat transport post.