"VIZH", 1999, 6

Soviet topographic maps were better than German ones

Colonel A.A. SHARAVIN

Military topographic service of the Red Army and topographic and geodetic support of troops in the initial period of the war.

The experience of past and present warriors testifies that the success of military operations of various scales depends on their careful planning and support, and on the most complete training of troops. In the aggregate of these measures, each of them is equally important, since underestimation of any one can lead to disaster. In the presence of all the factors necessary for success, the command and control process becomes decisive, for the loss of it, as a rule, leads to defeat. It is practically impossible to carry out reliable and accurate command and control of troops in the absence or lack of the necessary topographic and geodetic information (topographic maps, aerial photo-topographic documents, initial geodetic data for artillery firing). Unfortunately, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were not enough, and sometimes there were not even maps, for which the Military Topographic Service (MTS) of the Red Army was responsible. This is evidenced by archival documents and memoirs of veterans - active participants in the war. Major General of Tank Troops V. T. Volsky, reporting on the events of the first days of the war to the head of the Armored Directorate, Lieutenant General Ya.N. Fedorenko, noted: "The command staff did not have maps, which led to the fact that not only individual tanks, but entire units wandered" (1), Former commander of the 10th Army (October 1941 - February 1942) Marshal of the Soviet Union F.I. Golikov wrote: "There were only two copies of the map. One was with me, the other - with the chief of staff of the army" (2). Commander of the 186th Rifle Division of the 62nd Rifle Corps, Major General N.I. Biryukov noted: "The only copy of the map that I managed to get from the chief of staff of the 21st mechanized corps was taken from me by the commander of our corps, Major General I.P. Karmanov" (3). It is clear that it was impossible to establish reliable command and control of troops in such difficult conditions.

Why, then, in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, our army suddenly revealed an acute shortage of everything necessary to defeat the enemy, including topographic maps and other documents with information about the area, how long this went on and how the optimal way out of the situation was found, described in the published article.

The flames of the Second World War were already blazing in Western Europe, when the leadership of the USSR, in a fire order, began to strengthen the Military Topographic Service of the Red Army, which lost a lot of military surveyors, topographers and cartographers in the tragic 30s, people in the overwhelming majority of honest, knowledgeable people, such , as the head of the Office of Military Topographers, Commander I.F. Maksimov, head of the Leningrad military topographic school brigade commander N.M. Gravel and many others. Vacancies were filled by less experienced managers and less qualified specialists. So, in 1937-1938. Head of the Geodetic Faculty of the Military Engineering Academy named after V.V. Kuibyshev - the forge of command personnel of the military-technical cooperation - becomes an adjunct of the same faculty V.N. Chernyshev. The MTC of the Red Army is also headed by the recent adjunct M.K. Kudryavtsev. Only three years of his experience in such a responsible post was not slow to affect in the very first hours of the war: the stock of topographic maps and material and technical means, which were in service with the units and subunits of the military-technical cooperation, was lost. To meet the increased need for military-technical cooperation in personnel, the number of students of the geodetic faculty of the academy and cadets of the military topographic school was increased, and refresher courses for command personnel were opened. By the beginning of the war, the lack of commanding staff of the military-technical cooperation was almost completely filled by young graduates of the listed military educational institutions.

In 1939, the Military Topographic Department of the General Staff was transformed into the Directorate of the Military Topographic Service, which in 1940 became known as the Military Topographic Directorate of the General Staff (VTU GSh). The new, numerically enlarged directorate was entrusted with the tasks of preparing probable theaters of military operations in advance in topographic and geodetic and cartographic terms, providing troops with topographic maps and catalogs of coordinates of geodetic points and topographic training of troops.

In 1939-1940. topographic departments were introduced at the headquarters of the Moscow and border military districts, which were abolished in 1936 and transformed into directorates of military topographic works. In addition to managing the topographic units and topographic and geodetic work on the territory of the districts, these departments were entrusted with supplying the troops of the district with maps and catalogs of the coordinates of geodetic points. At the headquarters of the armies, the topographic service was represented by the topographic department, at the headquarters of the corps - by the topographic department of the operational department. The headquarters of the divisions in the state of such a service was not provided. Providing parts of the formations with maps was assigned, as a rule, to the topographer of the operational department.

By June 1941, the number of field units of the service had increased significantly. For example, only in the Western direction were deployed 3 geodetic, 10 topographic, 3 motorized topographic and 2 aerial survey detachments. At this time, they performed the tasks of early topographic and geodetic preparation of the territory of probable hostilities, developing and consolidating geodetic networks.

tey, geodetic support for airfield construction and fortified areas directly in the border zone, produced and updated topographic maps. For the troops of the western districts, maps were published by the Dunaev Moscow Military Cartographic Factory, several cartographic units, including two newly created in Minsk and Riga.

The newly formed and pre-existing parts of the military-technical cooperation were reinforced with vehicles, equipped with new tools and devices, and map publishing equipment. For the repair and adjustment of special equipment in the Baltic and Kiev Special Military Districts, optical-mechanical workshops were created. It was planned to place orders in industry for the manufacture of special bodies and map publishing tools for front-line marching topographic sets. But, as it turned out, it was too late: the Nazi troops were stationed along the western borders of the USSR. By the beginning of the war, the total stock of topographic maps in the military-technical cooperation warehouses was about 550 million copies. Approximately half of it was stored in 21 map warehouses of the western districts, including 58 million maps in the Baltic, 88 million in the Western Special, and 76 million in the Kiev Special. Unfortunately, these warehouses, in contrast to the field units of the vehicle service did not have, and some of them (in strict accordance with the postulate "to fight with little blood on foreign territory") were unjustifiably placed in the immediate vicinity of the state border (the regions of Bialystok, Kaunas, Lvov, etc.). The young head of the military-technical cooperation did not dare to come up with a proposal to the chief of the General Staff and insist on the optimal placement of map warehouses, providing them with vehicles. After the war, retired Lieutenant General of the Technical Troops M.K. Kudryavtsev bitterly admitted that "the placement of warehouses near the state border was erroneous. The question of their redeployment was in the work plan for 1941, but it was not possible to resolve it before June" (4).
[Note history: understanding the non-academic accuracy of the memoirs, we can assume that this phrase could have been written on purpose. The fact is that Lieutenant General of those. retired troops M.K. Kudryavtsev had a certain responsibility (like Zhukov), so the question may arise here: did he "plan" in real life to "relocate" those warehouses or is this his post-war "thinking" (in hindsight)?] .

Using the combat experience of topographic and geodetic support of troops in operations on the Khalkhin Gol River (May - August 1939) and in the war with Finland (November 1939 - March 1940), military-technical cooperation units prepared to perform special work in combat conditions. To this end, in the Western Special, Transcaucasian, Odessa and other military districts in 1940, military-technical cooperation units conducted exercises together with the troops of the districts. In February - March 1941, at the training camp of the heads of the topographic departments of the headquarters of the military districts and their deputies, held at the VTU General Staff, they worked out tasks for topographic and geodetic support of troops in operations.

According to the plans of topographic and geodetic works in 1939-1941. almost all field units of the military-technical cooperation located in the European part of the USSR carried out geodetic work and topographic surveys in the strip between the old and new borders. Therefore, before the start of the war, topographic surveys were completed and obsolete maps were corrected in Bessarabia, in Western Ukraine, in Western Belarus, on the Karelian Isthmus and partly in the territory of the Baltic states. Topographic maps at a scale of 1:25,000 and smaller were drawn on the border strip. It should be noted that maps at scales of 1:25,000 and 1:100,000 were compiled in a single coordinate system, on a solid geodetic basis, made mainly from the results of aerial photography, and therefore their quality was quite satisfactory.

Maps at a scale of 1:100,000 and smaller were also created for part of the foreign territory up to the Berlin-Prague-Vienna-Bucharest-Bucharest line. However, modern topographic maps of the deep regions of the USSR were clearly not enough. Even a 1:500,000 scale map was drawn up only up to the Moscow Meridian; for the entire territory of the USSR, there was only a 1:1,000,000 scale map. In this regard, General of the Army S. M. Shtemenko wrote in his book "The General Staff during the War Years": the territories of our state were not compiled. We had completely modern topographic maps only up to the border of Petrozavodsk, Vitebsk, Kyiv, Odessa. When the enemy pushed us beyond this border, the lack of maps was added to all other troubles "(5). To the east of this boundary, topographic maps of scales 1:50000, 1:100000 were available only for the districts of Moscow, Gorky

whom, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don and some others, and, for example, only outdated maps of one and two-verst scales existed for the territory of the Caucasus.

It must be said that the "cutting" of the strip of cartographic security, limited by the lines Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Budapest - Bucharest in the west and Petrozavodsk - Vitebsk - Kiev - Odessa in the east, was carried out in 1939 by the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army B.M. Shaposhnikov with his own blue pencil on the work card of the head of the VTU General Staff, Colonel M.K. Kudryavtsev. In the first difficult months of the war, this map, signed by Boris Mikhailovich, played the role of a kind of safe-conduct for both M.K. Kudryavtsev himself and his subordinates, among whom was the head of the topographic department of the headquarters of the Western Special Military District (Western Front), a member of many Pamir expeditions, Colonel I.G. Dorofeev, who almost shared the tragic fate of the district commander, General of the Army D.G. Pavlov and his chief of staff, Major General V.E. Klimovskikh.

Before the start of the war, the development of a manual on topographic and geodetic support of the troops, which was urgently needed by military-technical cooperation units and the newly created topographic departments of the headquarters of military districts, was not completed. Its author, former head of the Office of Military Topographers, Commander I.F. Maximov, who did a lot to reorganize the topographic service from the category of engineering, production to military, was repressed, and the almost completed work was handed over to the special guard. Later, on the basis of summarizing the experience of providing troops in Mongolia and in the war with Finland, conducting military maneuvers and exercises, training manuals were developed. The most valuable of them turned out to be a manual on topographic and geodetic or topographic (in the terminology of the pre-war years) support for combat operations of troops, developed by a group of teachers of the Military Engineering Academy, including participants in the Soviet-Finnish war (6). Published and sent to military-technical cooperation units and educational institutions in April-May 1941 and at the beginning of the war, it served as an appropriate instruction.

Thus, despite the efforts of the leadership and the entire personnel of the military-technical cooperation of the Red Army, the planned measures to strengthen the production capacities of the service and map the territories of the western theater of operations could not be fully implemented before the start of World War II. We had to complete the work already in its course.

On June 22, 1941, as a result of a sudden attack by fascist Germany on the USSR, units of the military-technical cooperation of the Red Army, stationed and performing special tasks in the border zone, especially in Lithuania, Latvia, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment. Field teams of topographers and surveyors, working over a large area and at a considerable distance from one another, found themselves in a combat zone. Cut off from the bases of their detachments, they joined the border guards and units of the Red Army, participated in the battles, made their way and left the encirclement. Heavy losses were suffered by the 5th, 16th, 17th, 31st and 75th topographic and geodetic detachments of the military-technical cooperation. For example, the 31st motorized topographic detachment, which provided the Brest, Osovets and Grodno fortified regions with geodetic data, lost more than half of its personnel. In difficult conditions, the command of the detachment managed to take out the marching cartographic department from under the blow of the enemy and save part of the geodetic instruments. Later, all these detachments were assigned to the rear for reorganization and resupply. The total losses of the personnel of the field units of the military-technical cooperation in the first three months of the war amounted to 148 officers, 1127 soldiers and sergeants, 15 employees (7). On the territory occupied by the enemy, there were two cartographic units (in Riga, Minsk), an optical-mechanical workshop (in Lvov), and somewhat later a cartographic military-technical cooperation factory (in Kyiv). For a service with a small number of personnel, this was quite a tangible loss.

The army and district warehouses of topographic maps were especially affected, on which about 200 carloads of maps were stored. In the first week of the war, a large district map warehouse stationed in Minsk was destroyed and then captured by the enemy. It was not possible to evacuate its stocks: the retreating troops demanded maps only for areas east of Minsk, and even then in a small

quantity, the rest were rejected. Some of the maps still managed to be evacuated from the district warehouses of the Baltic and Kyiv Special Military Districts, however, for a long time, the wagons with them that were on the way with them, if necessary, were difficult to find. Army warehouses located near the border were also destroyed or captured by the enemy in the very first days of the war, a significant number of maps fell into his hands. Stocks of maps due to the impossibility of exporting them for the most part were destroyed. Taking into account the losses of the emergency stock of maps stored directly in the troops, 250-300 million copies were lost.

Thus, the reserves of excellent quality of topographic maps of the territory of the western border area created in advance were not used for the most part. At the same time, the troops of the Red Army, especially the Central and Southwestern Fronts, did not have the maps they needed at all. Instead of large-scale topographic maps (1:50,000 and 1:100,000), small-scale ones (1:500,000 and 1:1,000,000) were used, which were supplied in small numbers by the rapidly moving topographic departments of front headquarters. With the withdrawal of our troops abroad Bryansk - Kursk - Kharkov - Zaporozhye, to the east of which there were almost no other maps, except for maps of the territory of the USSR at a scale of 1: 1,000,000, the situation with the supply of maps worsened even more. The absence of maps had a negative effect on the possibilities of combat use of both rifle formations and units of the Red Army, and aviation, armored vehicles and artillery. It was a difficult time for the Military Topographic Service, which demanded that the situation be corrected as soon as possible. It was necessary to immediately, at least partially, replenish the stocks of maps of combat areas, as well as create new maps of a vast territory for which they had not been created in the pre-war 20-25 years.

With the outbreak of war, the General Staff VTU faced a difficult task: carrying out current work on topographic and geodetic support of troops in the difficult situation of 1941, in the shortest possible time organizationally reorganize the service on a military footing, understaff the topographic units that suffered heavy losses, form new ones, and correctly distribute their forces and funds on the fronts of the army in the field.

To this end, on the basis of the topographic departments of the headquarters of the Leningrad, Baltic, Western Special, Kyiv Special, Odessa and Transcaucasian military districts, topographic departments of the headquarters of the Northern, North-Western, Western, South-Western, Southern, Transcaucasian fronts and the headquarters of the armies included in them are formed. Later, due to the prevailing situation, the topographic departments of the army headquarters were reorganized into the topographic departments of the operational departments of the army headquarters (9). At the same time, 2 military cartographic factories (in Sverdlovsk and Saratov) and 11 MTC field detachments (mainly topographic and motorized topographic) are being created. Some of these detachments were transferred to the fronts, and some were used for topographic and geodetic work in the rear of the army. Cartographic enterprises of various departments of Moscow and Leningrad are involved in the publication of maps. Equipping units with special topographic and geodetic equipment, weapons and vehicles in the conditions of the retreat of troops and the evacuation of local institutions to the east was carried out with great difficulty.

Thanks to the measures taken by the VTU of the General Staff, by August 1, 1941, six fronts had 21 detachments (4 geodetic, 11 topographic and 6 motorized topographic). However, these detachments were distributed along the fronts very unevenly, due to the difficulty of redeploying units. 6 detachments worked on the less active Northern Front, 7 on the South-Western Front, and only 2 on the most important Western Front. By the autumn of 1941, the field units of the military-technical cooperation were redistributed taking into account the evolving situation, and some of them were charged with the duty to carry out topographic surveys and correct outdated maps in the rear areas, others were transferred to the reserve of the VTU to strengthen the topographic services of the fronts.

By the same time, the activities of the military-technical cooperation of the Red Army in the interests of the army in the field were aimed at providing the troops with topographic maps, initial geodetic data and photographic documents.

In the first months of the war, the provision of troops with topographic maps was carried out with great difficulty. Therefore, the VTU General Staff and the topographic departments of the headquarters of the fronts paid the main attention to solving this paramount task. After analyzing the current situation, the leadership of the military-technical cooperation corrected the system worked out in peacetime conditions for providing the troops of the army with topographic maps.

The system was based on the principle of providing troops with maps from top to bottom along the chain of warehouses: central - front - army - corps. Then the cards were to be delivered to the headquarters of divisions, brigades and regiments for their issuance to their destination up to and including platoon commanders. In practice, however, unforeseen difficulties emerged. So, if in the front and army echelons the work to provide the troops with maps was carried out by the topographic services of the corresponding headquarters, and, I must say, things were done well there, then in the tactical (from division, regiment and below) it was carried out by combined arms commanders who were insufficiently trained in this regard. . There were cases when, even if maps were available at higher headquarters, they did not reach units and subunits, and as a result, the troops suffered unjustified losses of personnel and military equipment. The shortage of vehicles also led to malfunctions in the system for providing troops with maps. Taking into account the identified shortcomings, at the end of 1941 - the beginning of 1942, a number of corrective additional measures were taken: head and rear depots began to be created in the fronts, from which the troops were mainly provided with maps; the heads of the topographic services of the fronts and armies began to be allocated motor vehicles; at the headquarters of divisions and regiments, persons were appointed responsible for accounting and saving maps, as well as for providing units and subunits with them. The division headquarters issued maps from their warehouses to the headquarters of the regiments, and those to the headquarters of the battalions. Delivery of cards was carried out by means of recipients. As a rule, maps were received by the troops simultaneously with preliminary combat orders. Formations and units that arrived at the front were supplied with maps as they approached the combat area. Transport aviation was used to deliver a large number of cards from rear warehouses. When there were no separate nomenclature sheets of maps in the front warehouses, the heads of the topographic departments of the front headquarters published maps using the map publishing tools available to them. In the first period of the war, the so-called tactical maps at scales of 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 were the most widely used; the share of their use by the troops was 35 and 65 percent. respectively.

In 1942, on the initiative of the VTU General Staff and with the direct participation of experienced military cartographers, a special cartographic train was equipped - a mobile military cartographic factory, which entered the history of military-technical cooperation under the name "train-lithography". He followed the troops of the active army, and his personnel promptly compiled and published reconnaissance and corrected topographic maps, city plans, combat graphic documents. The train staff had to work under bombing and shelling for several days in a row without rest, incurring losses, but the tasks of the front command were carried out right on time. For military merits and the courage and selflessness shown by commanders and Red Army soldiers, the train-lithograph was awarded the Order of the Red Star by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

As already noted, at the beginning of the war there were clearly not enough maps of the interior regions of the European part of the USSR, which created a threat of disruption of the entire system of supplying troops with them. Thus, maps of 1:100,000 and larger scales were available only for individual sections (polygons, military camps, new buildings, etc.), while maps of the main part of the territory were only old, on metric scales. Therefore, the MTC of the Red Army was faced with a task of great importance: in an extremely short time, in a difficult military situation, to map areas that could become battlefields. The leadership of the service began to implement it immediately, sending reserve, newly formed and withdrawn from the fronts for reorganization field units of the military-technical cooperation to filming. At the same time, by the forces of military cartographic factories (Moscow named after Dunaev, Saratov and Sverdlovsk), Moscow, Kharkov

and the Rostov cartographic units, two newly formed cartographic detachments, a research and testing site for military-technical cooperation, an editorial and publishing department for military-technical cooperation, enterprises of the Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography (GUGK) of the NKVD of the USSR, and other organizations (the Pravda newspaper plant, Goznak) literally in the afternoon and at night maps were made and published. General planning of field topographic and geodetic work, preparation for publication and printing of maps, distribution of districts in queues and parts, control over the fulfillment of tasks was carried out by the VTU General Staff.

As a result of selfless and hard work, already a month after the start of the war, all the troops operating on the Western Front up to the Kalinin, Mozhaisk, Orel line had maps at a scale of 1: 100,000, and the Rostov and Kharkov cartographic units, in cooperation with civilian organizations related in profile, were able to this time to provide units and formations in the zone of the Southwestern and Southern fronts with the same maps. By the end of 1941, units of the military-technical cooperation and subdivisions of the GUGK made new surveys of maps over a total area of ​​520,000 square meters. km, mainly at a scale of 1: 100,000, the old ones were corrected, in total 2638 sheets of originals were compiled and 200 million copies of maps were printed.

After the implementation of the above measures, the provision of troops of all fronts with maps improved significantly. The Soviet government and the High Command highly appreciated the activities of the Military Topographic Service in creating new maps of the country's territory east and southeast of Moscow up to the Volga River inclusive, awarding in May 1942 a large group of senior staff and engineering and technical workers with orders and medals. Head of military-technical cooperation M.K. Kudryavtsev and his deputy F.Ya. Gerasimov was awarded the next military rank of Major General.

Along with supplying the troops with military-technical cooperation maps, the Red Army provided artillery with initial geodetic data, since artillery fire can only be effective when the firing positions of the batteries, the observation posts of their commanders, the positions of artillery reconnaissance equipment, and targets in the enemy’s position are “tied” to geodetic points with sufficient accuracy. and locally oriented. As the experience of the first months of the war showed, the topographic and geodetic support of artillery required the production of a significant amount of work: the development of geodetic and so-called artillery geodetic networks, the binding of artillery battle formations, determining the location of targets and landmarks, providing consumers with a special artillery map, catalogs of coordinates of geodetic points, reconnaissance schemes and other graphic documentation. Only with the successful completion of all this, the artillery was able to suddenly and effectively hit enemy targets invisible from firing positions. At the beginning of the war, when heavy defensive battles were fought in the border areas, the binding of artillery positions was carried out on a large-scale map [it can be assumed that there is an error here and it is more logical to understand not "large-scale" type 1: 25000, but "small-scale", i.e. scale type 1: 100,000 - history] followed by clarification of the location of targets by shooting. This required additional expenditure of shells and excluded the suddenness of artillery fire. Therefore, the artillery topographic service (ATS) was tasked with preparing data for firing on a full geodetic basis. By this time, the ATC did not yet have sufficiently qualified personnel, and the military-technical cooperation provided assistance to it. So, in the spring of 1942, the VTU General Staff sent 200 graduates of the Leningrad Military Topographic School, who were later called artillery topographers, to the Main Artillery Directorate. At the same time, on the basis of an analysis of the experience of the first half of the war, the "Regulations on the work of the bodies of the Military Topographic Service of the Red Army to provide artillery in combat conditions" were developed and put into effect. In particular, it determined the tasks of topographical units for topographic and geodetic support of artillery, requirements for the density and accuracy of points of special geodetic networks, as well as the principles of interaction between military and military technical units and automatic transport units in preparing artillery fire.

But, despite the assistance provided, the main volume of geodetic work was still carried out by the forces of the military-technical cooperation field units. Its units were attached to the armies, where they performed tasks according to the plans of the artillery headquarters. Under exceptionally difficult conditions, military surveyors and

topographers developed support networks, carried out binding of fire weapons, determined their coordinates by flashes of shots of enemy guns, serifs, using optical means (theodolites). Lists of coordinates and layouts of certain stronghold artillery points were transmitted directly to the topographic department of the army, and the results of linking the elements of battle formations were transmitted to the head of the topographic service of the army or the senior head of the artillery group. Such tasks were carried out under conditions of continuous exposure to aviation, artillery and mortar fire. German snipers hunted for military surveyors and topographers. Military-technical cooperation units on the Leningrad Front made a great contribution to the success of counter-battery combat by identifying the enemy's heavy long-range guns. So, for example, on the night of December 12, 1941, from three points of the terrain, they spotted a 420 mm railway super-heavy German mortar "Big Berta", which managed to fire several shots at Leningrad. According to surveyors, the mortar was destroyed by our bombers.

Thus, in the interests of artillery, the personnel of the field units of the military-technical cooperation performed the necessary and enormous work in terms of volume. So, in the first year of the war alone, about 62 thousand geodetic points were opened on the Soviet-German front, over 20 thousand firing positions of artillery batteries were tied, the coordinates of 5.5 thousand important enemy targets were determined, more than 500 bases for standardizing anti-aircraft artillery rangefinders were measured. parts.

The experience of the war with Finland showed the exceptional importance of aerial photographic reconnaissance, which in 1941, under the overwhelming domination of fascist German aviation, was carried out on a very limited scale. Yet its effectiveness was high. Already in August 1941, in preparation for the offensive operation near Yelnya, aviation of the Western Front made aerial photographs of the enemy defense zone. Military topographers, together with the personnel of the aerial photographic service of the 1st Air Army, deciphered aerial photographs. Enemy military targets identified (firing positions of artillery and mortars, machine-gun nests, dugouts, places of accumulation of military equipment, ammunition depots, etc.) were marked on reconnaissance carts, which, after breeding, were issued to the troops, and the coordinates of the objects were transferred to the gunners. To a certain extent, these data alleviated the plight of the Red Army troops; with their help, our artillerymen successfully hit enemy targets.

The activity of aerial reconnaissance was significantly intensified after, in January 1942, at the insistence of the VTU General Staff, the Air Force Headquarters instructed to equip one unit of combat aviation with special aerial cameras, ordered the aviation of the fronts to improve the quality of aerial photography and provide the topographic service of the fronts with aerial photography materials. It should be noted that the Air Force aerial photographic service, then headed by Major General of Aviation G. D. Bankovsky, treated this task with great interest and understanding. Pilots and navigators who had experience in such work began to stand out to perform aerial photography. At the same time, the head of the military-technical cooperation, by his directive, ordered the topographic departments of the headquarters of the fronts to create photogrammetric groups for processing aerial photographic reconnaissance materials. The core of each such group was the subdivisions of military-technical cooperation units. The groups worked in cooperation with the map publishing divisions of the topographic services of the fronts. The largest photogrammetric group (47 people) - "Fotogrammtsentr" - was created on the Kalinin front. It included: a detachment of the 32nd motorized topographic detachment, photogrammetric divisions of the Air Force, an artillery photo platoon, representatives of the reconnaissance and engineering departments of the front headquarters. The group had photographic equipment and a lithographic machine for reproduction of graphic documents. Its tasks included: deciphering images and determining the coordinates of objects (targets) from them, making photographic maps and aerial photographs with a coordinate grid, correcting topographic maps from images, and also promptly compiling new maps of reduced accuracy. "Fotogrammtsentr" was originally subordinated to the headquarters of the air army, and since June 1942 - to the topographic department of the headquarters of the front. Aerial photographic reconnaissance planning was carried out by the reconnaissance department with no

mediocre participation of the topographic department. The close interaction of reconnaissance and topographic agencies was quite effective. A comparison of the results of aerial photographic reconnaissance and other types of reconnaissance showed that it provides the most accurate and reliable reconnaissance information about the terrain and the enemy. So, for example, the first field check of the results of the work of the Photogram Center, carried out by a special commission of the Kalinin Front in the Rzhev region, showed that all engineering structures and artillery positions were identified by 100 percent, dugouts (dugouts) and bunkers - by 60-70 percent. On the whole, the reliability of deciphering military installations was estimated at no less than 70 percent. In the first half of 1942, photogrammetric groups were created on all the fronts that existed at that time. In the same year, 1942, the "Regulations on the interaction of the Military Topographic Service with the Air Force Aerial Photo Service" was developed, approved by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the Chief of the VTS of the Red Army. This provision was in effect until the end of the war and was of great organizational importance in the topographic and geodetic support of the troops. Improvement in the quality of aerial photography and the subsequent interpretation of enemy objects was facilitated by the "Guidelines for Interpreting Aerial Photographs" developed by a team of authors of the military-technical cooperation and aerial photographic services of the Air Force.

In a short time, many military topographers mastered the art of deciphering enemy targets from aerial photographs to such an extent that almost nothing escaped them. In practice, combat work between aviators and topographers was distributed as follows. The planes of the air armies made aerial photographs, the units of the aerial photographic services of the air armies developed air film, printed photographs, and partially deciphered enemy objects. Then the aerial photography service transferred the films and photographs to the topographic service of the front, which carried out a detailed decoding of enemy targets, made reconnaissance maps, photo schemes and photo plans, reproduced them, and after reporting to the chief of staff of the front, on his instructions, brought them to the troops. The interaction of the military-technical cooperation with the Air Force aerial photographic service raised the importance of aerial photographic reconnaissance, rightly called aerial photographic reconnaissance during the war. Combined-arms commanders and chiefs, when deciding on a battle, operation and during their conduct, along with data from other types of intelligence, successfully used the intelligence maps made with the help of the latter. Despite the lack of experience and the limited actions of Soviet reconnaissance aviation (due to the temporary superiority of enemy aircraft), in the first year of the war, more than 28 thousand aerial photographs were deciphered on all fronts and about 700 pieces of original photographs were made. In the future, the volume of this work has increased significantly. Only during the period of the defense of Leningrad, for example, almost 66 thousand photographs were deciphered.

Aerial photographs received from the Air Force not only made it possible to determine the coordinates of enemy military installations invisible from ground observation posts, but using them the topographic units drew up plans for settlements that the enemy usually turns into centers of resistance, corrected topographic maps of the territory occupied by the enemy, produced large-scale schemes of railway junctions and individual sections of the enemy's defense, etc. By 1942, reconnaissance maps (schemes) were widely used on all fronts, compiled according to aerial photography data, supplemented by information from other types of reconnaissance and included in the number of basic documents published by cartographic units of the topographic service of the fronts. By the end of the first period of the war, more than 600 thousand sheets of reconnaissance maps and diagrams were printed and handed over to the troops by the forces of this service.

By this time, additional types of work on topographic and geodetic support of the troops were also determined. So, for example, it turned out that due to insufficient topographical literacy of the commanders of various branches of the armed forces, especially those called up from the reserve, there were difficulties in orienting on the ground and in maintaining a map, in correctly displaying the outline of the front line, the location of battle formations on it, which often led to to the transmission of erroneous information about the location of both friendly and enemy troops. In this regard, military topographers of some fronts were obliged to determine the position of the front line and put its mark on the map.

After the exceptionally snowy winter of 1941/42, specialists from the hydrometeorological service predicted the possibility of a strong spring flood and flooding of a significant part of the territory where elements of the combat formations of the troops of the North-Western Front were stationed. At the direction of the chief of staff of the front, Colonel-General N.F. Vatutin, military topographers were given the task of compiling a map of possible flooding of the area when the water level in rivers and lakes rose. Soon such a map was made. The commanders of units and formations, the chiefs of services studied the area on it, took into account the likely areas of flooding, drew up and implemented a plan for the redeployment of warehouses, equipped new routes for the supply of materiel and ammunition.

On the Bryansk and Karelian fronts, new types of special maps were required, in particular, cross-country maps for tanks and other equipment. In order to compile such maps, topographers, together with tankers, reconnoitered in advance the areas and directions of the upcoming actions of the armored forces, highlighting places impassable for tanks, anti-tank obstacles, etc. on topographic maps. The original obtained in this way was promptly and in the required quantity reproduced by the topographic service of the front to supply the corresponding formations and units.

Blank maps, created with the direct participation of topographers, were in great demand among the troops - topographic maps printed in pale colors and serving as the basis for various combat graphic documents, including reconnaissance diagrams and maps. On this occasion, Marshal of the Soviet Union I. S. Konev wrote in his memoirs: “As shown by the course of hostilities, as well as by checking the effectiveness of artillery fire on the ground, blank maps were compiled with great accuracy and fully reflected the enemy’s defense system and the location of his firepower Blanks, as they were then called, brought to the company commander and battery commander, were the main document for organizing the offensive and attack "(11).

As you can see, in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, the Military Topographic Service, having shared with the entire Red Army the bitterness of the strategic miscalculations of the high command in preparation for repelling possible aggression, suffered heavy casualties, lost special mapping and mapping equipment, and huge stocks of topographic maps. However, thanks to the high level of organization and dedication of the personnel, it was able to quickly reorganize on a military footing, provide the troops with maps, initial geodetic data and photographic documents in a timely manner and in sufficient quantities. The year 1942 became a turning point for the Military Topographic Service, when not only was the difficult situation created in the first months of the war rectified, but an advantage was achieved in providing troops with maps in comparison with the topographic service of the Nazi army. This was forced to admit and the enemy himself. “Being of the opinion that nothing significant has been done in Soviet Russia and cartographic work has not gone further than the old verst maps of the tsarist time, we were involved in a big mistake. It turned out that Soviet Russia created cartographic production, which, according to its plans, broad organization, volume works and their quality surpassed everything that has been carried out anywhere so far, "wrote Wehrmacht General B. Kariberg (12).

1. TsAMO RF, f. 38, op. 11360, d. 2. l. 13.
2. Military history magazine. 1966. N: 5. S. 74.
3. Military history. magazine. 1962. N: 4. S. 82.
4. Kudryavtsev M.K. On the military topographic service and topographic and geodetic support of the troops. M.: RIO VTS, 1980. S. 129.
5. Shtemenko S. M. General staff during the war. M.: Military publishing house. 1968, p. 128.
6. Gramenitsky D.S., Kremp A.I., Toropkin F.M., Kharin K.N. Topographic support of military operations of troops. M.: Ed. Military Engineering Academy of the Red Army named after V.V. Kuibyshev, 1941. P. 151.
7. Kudryavtsev M.K. Decree. op. S. 131.
8. Sharavin A.A., Molchanov VV. Whose topographic maps were better? // Military history. magazine. 1990. N: 4. S.81-82.
9. In 1942, the topographic departments of the operational departments of the armies were again transformed into topographic departments.
10. The corps usually did not have their own rear, the formations that were part of them were supplied from army warehouses.
11. Konev I. S. Notes of the Front Commander 1943-1944. M.: Nauka, 1972. S. 243.
12. Cariberg B. Die heuen Kartenwerke der Sovjets. Potemiaims geographischen Mittelungen, 1943. Heft 9/10.

Colonel A.A. SHARAVIN,
Doctor of Technical Sciences

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Every year on February 8, the Russian Federation celebrates the Day of the military topographer. It was established in February 2003 by order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation No. 395 and has been celebrated since 2004. The date of the holiday was established in honor of the adoption on February 8, 1812 of the Regulations for the military topographic business. In accordance with this decree, a structure was created responsible for providing the Russian army with cartographic and topographic materials. In fact, needless to say, the topographic service in Russia is much longer.

At the origins of military topography

The rapid development of topography began under Peter I, who paid great attention to the improvement of military engineering, geodesy, and cartography. In 1711, a quartermaster unit appeared as part of the Russian army, which was assigned, among other things, the tasks of providing the Russian army with cartographic materials. In the quartermaster units, the positions of individual officers were introduced who dealt with the compilation of maps and the collection of information about the area. These were the first Russian military topographers. The School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences appeared in Moscow, where future surveyors and topographers were trained. When the General Staff was created in 1763, it included 40 staff officers and chief officers - geodesists and topographers, who laid the foundation for the military topographic service created later. In 1797, His Imperial Majesty's own Depot of Maps was created, which was engaged in compiling, printing and storing topographic maps and atlases. The director of the Kart Depot was subordinate to the quartermaster general of the Russian army. Major General Count Karl Ivanovich Opperman (1766-1831), a professional military engineer, who came from a noble family of the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, was appointed to the post of director of the Kart Depot. Having received an engineering education, Karl Opperman began military service in the Hessian army, and then asked for Russian citizenship. Empress Catherine II answered in the affirmative and, as it turned out, not in vain. Karl Opperman made a great contribution to the formation of the national military topographic service, engineering troops and, in general, to strengthening the defense capability of the Russian Empire. Under the command of Opperman, 22 officers seconded from the Engineering Department, the quartermaster unit and army units served in the Kart Depot. In 1801-1804, it was the Depot of Maps that prepared and published the Stolist Map of the Russian Empire. On February 8, 1812, the Depot of Maps was renamed the Military Topographic Depot, after which it was reassigned directly to the Minister of War. For the period from 1812 to 1863. The military topographic depot turned into the main body of the Russian army, responsible for the supply of cartographic material.

Corps of topographers

In 1822, under the leadership of the Military Topographic Depot, the Corps of Topographers was created. His duties included direct topographic and topographic and geodetic support of the Russian army, bringing topographic material to headquarters and troops. The Corps of Topographers included officers - surveyors, class topographers, class military artists, non-class artists, students of topographers and artists, topographers of the non-commissioned officer rank. Employees of the Corps of Topographers were engaged in topographic surveys, the creation of maps and plans, surveys of the terrain - and not only in the interests of the military department, but also the Geological Committee, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of State Property, the Committee for the Construction of State Roads. In 1832, the Corps of Topographers included 70 officers and 456 topographers. 8 companies were created. The first company, numbering 120 people, was called the company of the Military Topographic Depot. The remaining seven companies operated throughout the territory of the Russian Empire. The leadership of the Corps of Topographers was carried out by the Quartermaster General of the General Staff through the Military Topographic Bureau.

Major General Fedor Fedorovich Schubert (1789-1865) stood at the origins of the organization of the Corps of Topographers. In 1803, at the age of fourteen, Schubert began serving as a column leader in the retinue of His Imperial Majesty in the quartermaster, then participated in a number of military campaigns at the beginning of the 19th century. During the Patriotic War of 1812, Captain Schubert, as quartermaster of the 2nd Cavalry Corps, not only engaged in his direct duties, but also showed courage and courage directly during the battles. Adjutant General Baron Fyodor Karlovich Korf noted in a report that Schubert personally helped him under enemy fire to keep the cavalry regiments from retreating. Schubert's courage contributed to his rapid promotion in the ranks - he was soon awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel, and then colonel. He served as chief quartermaster in the infantry and grenadier corps. In 1819, Colonel Schubert was transferred to the General Staff - to the position of head of the 3rd department of the Military Topographic Depot, and the following year he became the head of triangulation and topographic survey of the St. Petersburg province. Then, in 1820, 31-year-old Colonel Schubert was promoted to major general. Since it was Schubert who developed the project for the creation of the Corps of Topographers, in 1822 he was appointed to the post of director of the Corps. Three years later he became manager, and in 1832 - director of the Military Topographic Depot. At the same time, General Schubert also served as quartermaster general of the General Staff of the Russian army. In 1866, the Corps of Topographers was transformed into the Corps of Military Topographers, which was headed by the head of the Military Topographic Department of the General Staff. It is noteworthy that the practice of combining the positions of the head of the topographic service and the head of the Military Topographic Directorate of the General Staff is still preserved in the Russian armed forces. By 1866, the Corps of Military Topographers numbered 643 people. 6 generals, 33 staff officers, 156 chief officers, 170 class topographers, 236 non-commissioned officer topographers, 42 topographer's students served in it. It should be noted that in 1866 the Military Topographic Department was created as part of the General Staff, replacing the Military Topographic Depot as the central governing body of the military topographic service. As for the Military Topographic Depot, it was liquidated. Military topographic departments were also created at the headquarters of the military districts - Orenburg, West Siberian, East Siberian and Turkestan. For the rest of the military districts, it was planned to have 2-4 seconded officers and class topographers from the Corps of Military Topographers. In 1877, in accordance with the new regulations on the Corps of Military Topographers, the number of personnel of this service was reduced to 515 people. At the same time, 6 general posts, 26 posts of headquarters officers, 367 chief officers and class topographers also remained in the Corps. It should be noted that civil officials who were part of the staff of the Corps of Military Topographers and had the corresponding civil ranks according to the Table of Ranks of the Russian Empire were called class topographers. In addition, in 1890, the Regulations on the Field Command of Troops in Peacetime were adopted, which provided for the staff of topographic officers in various formations. So, 5 headquarters officers of the Corps of military topographers were seconded to the army headquarters, and 2 chief officers and 1 junior topographer were assigned to the headquarters corps. In 1913, the feast of military topographers was established on February 10 (in honor of St. Ephraim the Syrian). With the improvement of the technical means that are in service with the Russian army, there was also a modernization of the methods of conducting topographic activities. So, after the spread of the telegraph network in the Russian Empire, the method of determining geographical longitudes, based on the time of transmission by telegraph between the determined points, developed by Colonel Forsh, began to be used. In 1915, in connection with the advent of aviation, officers of the Corps of Military Topographers began to actively use the aerial survey method. At the beginning of 1917, photometric (later - photogrammetric) units were created.

How military topographers were taught in the Russian Empire

We should also talk about the training of officers-topographers in the Russian Empire. The topographic service, unlike service in the guards, cavalry units, in the navy, never enjoyed special prestige, was associated with the need for long and painstaking study, complex, routine work. Therefore, among the officers-topographers there were few people from noble families. For a long time, future topographers studied their business and only after 8-12 years of work and passing exams did they receive an officer's rank. The first educational institution that trained specialists in topography and geodesy was the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, opened by Peter I. In 1822, after the creation of the Corps of Topographers, the School of Topographers was opened in St. Petersburg. The "Supplement to the Regulations on the Corps of Topographers" listed the basic principles for organizing the training of officers - topographers and announced the creation of the School of Topographers. October 22, 1822 the school was opened - as a two-year, with a four-year term of study. Since that time, October 22 is considered a traditional annual holiday of an educational institution that trains military topographers of the Russian army. The first graduation from the School of Topographers was held in 1825. Released only 12 officers who received the rank of ensign. In 1827, the second release of officers took place, after which every year the Russian army began to replenish with new officers - topographers. The small staff of the Corps of Military Topographers led to a small number of graduates of the School of Topographers. But, as they say, graduates of the school took "not quantity, but quality."

In 1832, the School of Topographers was renamed the School of Topographers, which was associated with the absence of those benefits that were assigned to specialized schools. When all the topographers of the Corps of Topographers were consolidated into companies, the company stationed in St. Petersburg formed the School of Topographers, which included 120 topographers of the 1st and 2nd classes. In 1863, the School of Topographers returned to its former name - the School of Topographers, at the same time the graduates of the School of Topographers were given the right to enter the geodetic department of the Academy of the General Staff. On December 24, 1866 (January 5, 1867), the new name of the School of Topographers was approved - the Military Topographic Junker School. The curriculum has been expanded at the school. However, in 1883-1885. enrollment in the school was not carried out due to the growth of the revolutionary movement in the country. After the recruitment to the school was resumed in September 1886, it was again deprived of the privileges of the other cadet schools and existed in this status until 1892, when it was again assigned the right for graduates to enter the geodetic department of the General Staff Academy. In 1906, an additional geodetic class was introduced into the school, the number of which was determined at 10 people. In just 95 years of the existence of the school - from 1822 to 1917 - more than 1.5 thousand specialists in the field of military topography and geodesy with an officer rank were trained in it. Survey officers played a crucial role in ensuring the defense capability of the Russian Empire and took part in all possible military campaigns. Moreover, the level of professional training and education allowed the leaders of the Corps of Military Topographers, if necessary, to take over the leadership of the General Staff. Among the officers of the military topographic service of the Russian Empire there were outstanding scientists who made a great contribution to the development of topography as a science. On November 15 (November 28 - according to the new style), 1917, an order was issued to demobilize the Russian army. However, the Corps of Military Topographers continued to exist under a new name until 1923 - as a structure of the Military Topographic Directorate as part of the All-Russian General Staff (Vseroglavshtab), created on May 8, 1918 and existed until February 10, 1921, when it was merged with Polevoy Headquarters of the Red Army to the Headquarters of the Red Army.

From the military topographic school to the school

In 1923, the Corps of Military Topographers of the Red Army was renamed the Military Topographic Service of the Red Army. Thus began the history of a qualitatively new structure. At the Headquarters of the Red Army, the Military Topographic Department was created, after the creation in 1935 of the General Staff of the Red Army, in turn, it became part of it as a department. In the Soviet Army, the military topographic service was further developed and, in fact, took shape in the form in which it exists today. Being part of the headquarters service, the military topographic service had its own bodies in the headquarters of formations, operational associations, and also had its own special units and institutions, which included topographic, geodesic, aerial photographic and topographic detachments, map warehouses, cartographic factories. The main task of the military topographic service was the compilation and preparation of topographic maps, the collection of geodetic data, the organization of topographic training of troops, research work in the field of cartography, geodesy, and aerial photography.

After the beginning of the transformations in the military sphere, caused by the October Revolution and the building of the Red Army, there was a need to create a special educational institution for the training of military topographers. The fact is that in accordance with the Order of the Council of People's Commissars for Naval Affairs No. 11 of November 14, 1917, the military educational institutions of the old Russian army were supposed to be disbanded. At the same time, in the order of the Main Commissariat of all military educational institutions of the Russian Republic No. 113 of November 18 and No. 114 of November 28, 1917, it was specified that special technical and naval military educational institutions, the Military Topographic School and the Main Gymnastics fencing school is not subject to disbandment. This moment was very important, because it demonstrated the focus on preserving the experience that had been accumulated by these military educational institutions. Nevertheless, on January 2, 1918, the Executive Committee of the Council of the city of Khvalynsk, which was designated as the gathering place for the cadets sent on vacation from the military topographic school, decided to dissolve the school. But this dissolution was only a formal moment in the history of this military educational institution. On July 18, 1918, in accordance with the order of the People's Commissar for Military Affairs, the First Soviet Military Topographic Courses were opened in the city of Volsk on the basis of the former Military Topographic School. However, since Khvalynsk was in the hands of the White Czechs, who decided to transfer the personnel of the cadets of the military topographic school to Novonikolaevsk, and then to Omsk, it was decided to open Soviet military topographic courses not in Volsk, but in Petrograd. The former teacher of geodesy G.G. was appointed head of the Petrograd courses. Strakhov, military commissar - E.V. Rozhkov. Already on December 16, 1918, classes began at the courses. It is this day that is considered the day of the founding of the Soviet school of military topographers. 50 people were enrolled for training, 11 more people continued their studies in the senior year. By April 1, 1919, 131 cadets were studying at the courses. The Soviet government managed to recruit a number of prominent scientists and teachers, which ensured a normal educational process in the courses and the transfer of knowledge and experience to a new generation of cadets. In 1919, a three-year course of study was established, and on June 5, 1919, 10 cadets who completed their senior year training were assigned as topographers to the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. These were the first military topographers trained by the Soviet authorities.

In the meantime, the personnel of the cadets of the school transferred to Novonikolaevsk continued their classes. In the autumn of 1919, there were even new cadets accepted. When Novonikolaevsk was liberated by units of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front of the Red Army, it was decided to continue the educational process of the cadets. F. Parfenov was appointed military commissar to lead political life. On February 7, 1920, the school was renamed into the th Siberian Military Topographic Courses. Soon they were transferred to the liberated Omsk, where they settled in the building of the Omsk Cadet Corps. In 1921, the Omsk Military Topographic School was opened on the basis of the courses. As of November 1, 1921, 147 cadets were trained there. On November 9, 1922, the Omsk military topographic school was officially named the 2nd Omsk military topographic school, and in early 1923 it was relocated to Petrograd. In Petrograd, both military topographic schools were merged, after which the only military topographic educational institution in the country, the Petrograd Military Topographic School, was revived again. In 1924, at the First Congress of Military Topographers, it was decided to raise the level of training at the military topographic school. This decision was facilitated by the speech of the chief and commissar of the Military Topographic Department of the Headquarters of the Red Army A. I. Artanov, who drew attention to the highly specialized nature of training at school. Therefore, in 1925, it was decided to improve the school's curricula, raise the level of political work in the educational institution, and create under it Command Staff Improvement Courses (KUKS). In addition, commanders from various branches of the military were sent to the school, who decided to get a military topographic education. In 1928-1929. the school was given an air link. Positive shifts in the organization of the educational process of the school could not but be noted by the higher management. In 1929, the head of the Military Topographic Department of the Headquarters of the Red Army A. I. Artanov praised the school for the good equipment of the classrooms, especially noting the photo laboratory, transformer and assembly classes, military and terrain classes. Simultaneously with the improvement of the training base, the number of cadets also increased, since the Red Army needed an increasing number of military specialists - topographers, who were sent for further service in army units. Training of photogrammetrists, advanced training of specialists - topographers, geodesists, cartographers, as well as retraining of commanders of combined arms profile, artillerymen, military engineers in topographic specialties began at the Advanced Courses for Commanders. The cadets of the school were trained in parts of the Red Army as junior commanders. In 1937, the military topographic school was transformed into the Leningrad military topographic school. School graduates received the military rank of lieutenant. Since the second half of the 1930s. the lieutenants released by the school took part in a number of military conflicts, primarily in the battles near Lake Khasan and on the Khalkhin Gol River. The first serious test was participation in the Soviet-Finnish war.

Military topographers during the war years

The path of teachers and graduates of the Leningrad Military Topographic School in the Great Patriotic War is full of feats and covered with military glory. After the head of the LVTU, Lieutenant Colonel A. Gusev, left for the front, the school was headed by Colonel K. Kharin, who previously headed the training department. On June 30, 1941, the cadets of the school began preparations for the defense of the Strugo-Krasnensky camp, but then they were returned to Leningrad. Sophomores who passed the control tests in July 1941 were promoted ahead of schedule to lieutenants and released to the front. In connection with the war, the school switched to an accelerated one-year term of study. The main task of the school during the war years was the accelerated training of specialists for the artillery topographic service, carried out in the 4th special training detachment. In July 1942, Colonel K.N. Kharin, who headed the school, left for the front, and Lieutenant Colonel P.S. became the new head of the educational institution. Pasha, who, in turn, came from the ranks of the army. At the time described, the school was stationed in Ababkovo, and only in January 1945 was it decided to return to Leningrad. On April 5, 1945, the school was awarded the Red Banner and given the name "Leningrad Red Banner Military Topographic School". During the years of the Great Patriotic War, more than 3,000 graduates of the Leningrad Military Topographic School were awarded orders and medals.

The Great Patriotic War, practically in its first months, revealed the main shortcomings of the pre-war organization of the military topographic service in the Red Army. Firstly, it turned out that the troops did not have the required number of cards, in some formations they simply did not exist. The reason for this was the location of map warehouses on the western border of the Soviet Union. The retreating Soviet troops were forced to destroy map warehouses in the Baltic, Western, Kiev military districts so that the advancing enemy would not get the most valuable secret information. In the territories occupied by Nazi Germany, there were a number of the most important objects of the military topographic service - a cartographic factory in Kyiv, an optical-mechanical workshop in Lvov, cartographic units in Riga and Minsk. Secondly, given that before the war the bulk of the military topographic units of the Red Army were stationed in the west of the Soviet Union, from the very first days of the war their personnel went to the front. The losses of the military topographic service in 1941 amounted to 148 officers, 1127 sergeants and soldiers, 15 civil servants. Considering that military topographers are specialists of a narrow profile, whose training requires not only special education, but also the acquisition of the necessary experience, we can say that in the first months of the war these losses were irreplaceable. Therefore, it was necessary to transfer the military topographic school to the most accelerated terms of study, since the shortage of military topographers in this situation was felt especially acutely. In the most difficult conditions of the Great Patriotic War, the military topographic service had to solve a very wide range of tasks, which included: creating and updating topographic maps, publishing topographic maps for active and rear units in huge print runs, delivery, storage and issuance of maps, photographing the area, including including directly in the course of hostilities, control of the accuracy of binding elements of artillery combat formations; marking landmarks on the ground; tactical interpretation of aerial photographs and determination of the coordinates of enemy targets; topographic survey of the area. The military topographic service did not forget about such an important task as the organization of general topographic training of troops, which was also under the jurisdiction of military topographers. At the same time, no matter how difficult it was for military topographers on the fronts, the tasks of further studying strategically important areas in other regions of the Soviet Union, including those far from the front line, in the Far East and Central Asia, in Siberia, were not canceled. in the Urals.

The battle path of Soviet military topographers

The colossal experience gained by military topographers during the Great Patriotic War was used in the postwar years. It was the post-war period that became the era of the highest development and strengthening of the Military Topographic Service of the Soviet Army. The general complication of military affairs in the second half of the twentieth century. demanded that the Military Topographic Service of the SA solve a number of new important tasks. These included: the creation of a world space geodetic network and the justification of the geocentric coordinate system for the use of rocket; creation of large scale digital maps for precision weapon guidance systems; creation of means for monitoring spacecraft and new topographic and geodetic equipment; improvement of mobile means of topographic and geodetic support for solving urgent tasks in the operational-tactical level; creation of electronic topographic maps for automated command and control systems, etc. Accordingly, the solution of these problems also required a general improvement in the qualifications of military topographers and the improvement of their training. In the post-war period, the educational process was also improved at the Leningrad Military Topographic School. Thus, with the advent and improvement of nuclear missile weapons, compulsory study of nuclear weapons and protection against nuclear weapons was introduced into the officer training program and curricula. In addition, military topographers are beginning to acquire more extensive knowledge in a number of disciplines that are critical to any officer. School cadets begin to study military engineering training, rocket weapons and artillery, automotive business, and radio electronics. The school does not forget to give cadets knowledge of military pedagogy and psychology - after all, many of them will have to not only work in the field of topography, but also lead personnel. In 1963, the school received a new name - the Leningrad Military Topographic Red Banner School. The further development of the armed forces required the transition of most of the country's military schools from secondary military schools to higher military schools. In 1968, the Leningrad Military Topographic School was renamed the Leningrad Higher Military Topographic Command Red Banner Order of the Red Star School. Accordingly, a four-year term of study was established, a transition was made to the system of departments. 11 departments were created at the school: phototopography, photogrammetry, geodesy and astronomy, higher geodesy, radio geodesy and radio electronics, cartography, tactical disciplines, higher mathematics, physics and chemistry, Marxism-Leninism, foreign languages, as well as the discipline of the Russian language, automotive training, physical training. As in other higher military schools, a battalion to support the educational process appeared at the Leningrad Higher Military Topographic Command School. Since the school became the highest, the staff category “major general, lieutenant general” was established for its chiefs, and one step lower for deputy chiefs of the school. Heads of departments, their deputies and senior teachers corresponded to the regular category "colonel", teachers - "lieutenant colonel". In 1980, the school was named after General of the Army A.I. Antonov.

A serious test for Soviet military topography in the 1980s was the war in Afghanistan. Combat operations on the territory of another state, especially with such a complex and diverse terrain, were a real test for the military topographic service. Boris Pavlov, who led the topographic service of the 40th Combined Arms Army, recalled in an interview published in the Military Industrial Courier for 2009 that at the initial stage of hostilities in Afghanistan, the Soviet command did not have large-scale maps of the entire territory of this state (See: Umantsev, V. According to the exact landmarks Afghan dushmans were looking for any opportunity to get Soviet maps // Military-industrial courier, 2009, No. 8 (274)). The largest map was a 1:200,000 scale map. Accordingly, military topographers were faced with the task of creating such maps on a larger scale - first 1: 100,000, and then 1: 50,000. the troops of the 40th Army were provided by 1985 by 70-75 percent, by 1986 - by almost all 100. And with maps of a scale of 1:50,000 they were fully provided somewhere by 1986-1987. In the same interview, Boris Pavlov assessed the topographic training of Soviet officers as weak, noting that his subordinates from the topographic service of the army had to conduct numerous topographic training classes for the officers of all units, and even topographic lieutenants in this case acted as teachers in front of senior officers. officers. In general, the topographic service in Afghanistan coped with its tasks with dignity and by the second half of the 1980s. was able to provide large-scale topographic maps to all units operating on the territory of this state.

Topographers remain the "eyes of the army"

In 1991, in connection with the reforms carried out in the country and the demise of the Soviet Union, the Leningrad Higher Military Topographic Command Red Banner Order of the Red Star School was renamed the St. Petersburg Higher Military Topographic Command School. In 1993, a five-year term of study was introduced at the school, two faculties were created - topographic and geodetic. Then, in the era of renaming military schools into institutes, the school received a new name - the Military Topographic Institute named after A. I. Antonov (Military Institute (topographic)). In 2006, the Institute was included as a branch of the famous Military Space Academy. Mozhaisky. Since 2011, the former military topographic institute has been part of the academy as the faculty of topographic and geodetic support and cartography (the so-called "7th faculty"), with the departments of topographic and geodetic support, cartography, higher geodesy, phototopography and photogrammetry, metrological support of weapons, military and special equipment. The faculty continues to train officers - specialists in the field of military topography and geodesy.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that the difficult 1990s were marked by numerous problems for military topographers as well. Reducing the funding of the armed forces, low salaries, the state's inattention to the elementary needs of military specialists - military topographers also had to go through all this. Many of them were forced, due to circumstances, to go “to civilian life”, and, I must say, having a good practical education and extensive experience, as well as “bright minds”, they perfectly settled in civilian companies. After all, the need for highly qualified specialists in the field of topographic and geodesy is also felt in the most important sectors of the Russian economy. At the same time, many officers of the “Soviet temper” remained in military service and made a huge contribution to the formation of military topography already in post-Soviet Russia.

In modern conditions, the old paper cards have long been replaced by electronic ones, which are much more convenient to use. Military topographers are equipped with the latest mobile geodetic systems that record the smallest changes in the terrain while moving along the route. These complexes can transmit coordinates to the troops at a distance of up to 50 km. At the same time, the army does not completely refuse paper maps - after all, equipment is equipment, and in the event of its failure or interruptions, the old tried and tested grandfather's map can come to the rescue. An experimental Center for Geospatial Information and Navigation of the Southern Military District has been created in the Southern Military District. With the help of the latest developments in the field of digital and IT technologies, military topographers of the 21st century control the state of the radio navigation field of satellite navigation systems GLONASS and GPS, provide automated control systems of the military district and high-precision weapons systems with geospatial information. Within 10 minutes, military personnel can deploy the latest equipment and begin to carry out combat missions. As noted on the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the experimental Center is armed with the Violit and ARM-EK software and hardware systems, the Volynets mobile digital topographic system. The technical equipment of the Center makes it possible to carry out the tasks assigned to military topographers both directly at the place of permanent deployment and in the field, if necessary, advancing to the area.

In connection with the termination of the existence of the USSR, in 1991 the Military Topographic Service of the Armed Forces of Russia was formed, which in the following 1992 was transformed into the Topographic Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The head of the Topographic Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is simultaneously the head of the Military Topographic Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Currently, this position is occupied by Colonel Zaliznyuk Alexander Nikolaevich, before from 2013 to 2015. served as chief engineer of the Military Topographic Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Russian military topographers continue to solve a number of complex tasks in the interests of strengthening the defense capability of the Russian state. It remains to wish the people of this complex and necessary military profession not to lose and constantly improve their skills, do without losses, and most importantly, always remain needed by their country.

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