The project of a wooden pole and a lantern for electric lighting of boulevards and squares of the city of Moscow from the collection of the Museum of Moscow provides evidence of the electrification of the city at the end of the 19th century.

On the initiative of the brothers Werner and Carl Siemens, who worked in Russia from 1852 and headed the company “Siemens and Halske” (which produced electrical equipment, railway transport and household appliances from 1847), in 1886 the Joint-Stock Company of Electric Lighting (the 1886 Society) was established in St. Petersburg. The charter of the company allowed it to produce, transport and sell electricity. The activity of the 1886 Society in Moscow began with the conclusion in April 1887 of an agreement with the city council, according to which the Society was granted the right to lay underground electric wires through the streets. The first important business of the Society was the conclusion of an agreement with the city council in April 1887: according to it, the Society was granted the right to lay underground electrical wires through the streets

The first electric lanterns lit up Moscow streets in 1880. On the day of the coronation of Emperor Alexander III, May 15, 1883, with the help of arc lamps, the square around the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was illuminated. The first electric illumination of the bell tower of Ivan the Great was arranged that same day. Specifically for this purpose, 3,500 Thomas Edison incandescent bulbs were purchased. This day can be called the day the street electric lighting system appeared in the capital.

Citizens appreciated the advantages of electric lighting and began to submit petitions to the Governor-General about the installation of electric lighting in residential buildings. But it was only in 1895, when the Moscow City Duma signed a 50-year contract with the 1886 Society, that electricity entered the life of Muscovites and electric lights appeared on city streets. In November 1897, the grand opening of the first central power plant on Raushskaya Embankment took place (most of the embankment is still occupied by Mosenergo buildings).

The progress was rather slow: at the beginning of the last century, only a few central streets were illuminated by electricity in Moscow. The main reason for this situation was the lack of an organization that would manage the street lighting system of the city. The special department was established only on January 1, 1912, which was then turned into “Mosgorsvet”.