  We set up the singular initial value problem for quasilinear hyperbolic
Fuchsian systems of first order and establish an existence and uniqueness
theory for this problem with smooth data and smooth coefficients (and with even
lower regularity). We apply this theory in order to show the existence of
smooth (generally not analytic) T2-symmetric solutions to the vacuum Einstein
equations, which exhibit AVTD (asymptotically velocity term dominated) behavior
in the neighborhood of their singularities and are polarized or half-polarized.
