Foreign writers of that time argued that the Russians during the reign of John the Terrible fought better in fortresses and during sieges than in the open field: “despite modern times,” say the foreign writers of that ERA, “it is impossible to revive from the army without a break, which is not afraid of either gold or cold, tolokiomo and breadcrumbs, bez 06034 and #p0va 65 invincible tolerant wanders into. puetynyakh spvera!)".
Despite such a flattering review of us by foreigners, it must be admitted that, although in the field of fortification the Russians lagged behind their Western neighbors, no less progress in engineering was faster than in the tactical education of our troops.
1552 So, for example, during the siege of Kazan, our rozmyel skillfully lead the approaches and even use mines or “iodkop”, as they were called at that time; iodkop contributed greatly to the conquest of Kazan.
I think it’s worth noting that mines in Western Europe began to be used in siege warfare shortly before the capture of Kazan.
The siege and capture by the Russians of Polotsk, the castle of Verbeek on Embach, the siege of Dorpat and Wesenberg and the valiant defense of Pskov by boyar Shein, against Batory, prove that field engineering in Russia was gradually improved. Russian troops knew how to capture heavily fortified cities, were skilled in underground warfare and very successfully used both offensive and defensive mines.
`) Oyere Visa Sopipop \eaIV, Fletcher (Engineer. Notes, part XXX[X).
In general, we can say positively that our ancestors, before Peter. Great, they were distinguished by their strength in fortress warfare, and in the open field, and that the tactical education of our troops of that time was much weaker than the engineering one. |
Our military commanders, aware of the weakness of the troops in open battle, resorted to various devices to strengthen their positions.
Without going into a critical assessment of how much all these fortified positions weakened the troops, increased forces, destroyed the mobility of the army and doomed them, voluntarily, to passive defense, we can only say that at that time Field Engineering was widely used in all military operations.
Although Tsar Yuann Vasilyevich himself understood, more than his other contemporaries, the benefits of engineering, often personally controlled the course of siege work and in his orders showed a lot of experience, knowledge and intelligent considerations in the field of Engineering, but the means for its development among the Russians remained at the same level of very weak borrowing for practice from foreigners.
Rozmyesly, foreigners, in order to maintain their importance, jealously watched the darkness so as not to communicate all their knowledge to the Russians. Although, as I said above, the thoughts had Russian students, these latter were blind executors of the instructions of their teachers. They understood well that it was extremely convenient to keep people in this role and that, with this method of training, only a practitioner, more than a foreigner, would not soon fall for Russia.
1606 At the beginning of the 17th century, an attempt was made towards the theoretical education of Russians in the engineering arts.
Tsar Vasily Oannovich Shuisky, “wishing for the great military to have hope for the great” State of the Russian Empire, and so that our troops could not only resist with force, but also with the meaning of the sense to resist the usptahom,” he and his king ordered, in 1606, the translator of the embassy order, Anisim Mikhailov, to translate the book from German and Latin into Russian: “About cannons and inyl different military men and mastery of all kinds of cunning in military service by fair and wise skilled people in different countries to be built.”
1621 This book was completed in 1621 and appeared under the title: “Status of military, pushkar and friends related to military science.” This charter, containing 633 articles, gave absolutely clear and precise instructions for the organization and division of troops, their formation and action, and gave the rules “0 build long ditches, built style, towers, trenches, ditches, cuts, rolls, 71 ditches and the gate is located." It set out in detail the rules for the construction of a fortress, according to the terrain, etc., and examined the details of all fortress buildings, with a detailed indication of the rules for the siege and their defense.
In order to get some understanding of the above-mentioned statute, I allow myself to cite the original text of some articles relating to Engineering and of greatest interest.
The article “Building Dollar Strength” says:
“First of all, it is appropriate to inspect and examine each person according to the earthly custom and examine all the 1st generation.”