3) East. very good Eng. Ex., A. Savelyev, 1879.
4) P.S. Zak. Ross. Im., vol. UP, No. 5504.
According to the permission of the State. Imperial Anna Goannovna, Count Minich, in 1731
appointed to accept into the Russian service for the first time engineers from foreigners, headquarters and chief officers 27 people. (Hist. och. Inzh. Upr., A. Savelyeva).
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Engineering troops, by those ranks, only by those officers who “served in noble foreign and regular troops, under Engineering”; other officers from foreigners who did not serve in the Engineering Troops, if only they turn out to be “skilled in engineering”, should be accepted into service in the Russian Engineering Troops “with just one rank,” namely: Captains—Captains—Lieutenants, since Russian officers of the Engineering Corps “rank higher than the ground officers.”
1731 The admission of foreigners to the service, according to the Engineering Department, was granted by the Highest Order of November 2, 1731 1), the authorities of the General. Minikha. It was up to his personal discretion to accept and conclude a “surrender” with them, that is, a condition.
1733 In view of the fact that when the regiments of infantry and cavalry were outside the precincts of the Empire, the Headquarters, Ober and Non-Commissioned Officers (from September 14, 1731) received, in addition to the salaries assigned to them, another half salary, and privates 3 kopecks. per day, then September 24, 1733. 2) The highest order was to extend the increase in salaries while abroad to the ranks of the Engineering and Artillery departments.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Their activity was undoubtedly very fruitful. They created an independent significance for the Engineering Department. The Engineering Department owed their scientific knowledge and enlightened activity the honorable place it occupied at that time among other institutions of our fatherland. Due to its independent management, the Engineering Department not only did not lose the significance that the Great Transformer intended to give it, but gained even more, being under the direct influence of such. chief, like General Minich and separately from the Artillery Department.
In addition to showing concern for the organization and dissemination of special education in the troops of the Engineering Department, General Minich was the first to pay very serious attention to strict discipline and military politeness in the development of strict discipline and military politeness in the Engineering Department. On this occasion, he issued a number of decrees, for violation of which officers were fined, and lower ranks were punished with canes.
In general, it can be said that of all the persons who headed the Engineering Department, in the time before Count Shuvalov (1756), General Minich was the only one who fully understood the meaning of military discipline, expressed so clearly in the Military Regulations of Peter the Great.
1) P.S. Zak. Ross. Im., vol. USH, No. 5865. 2) P.S. Zak. Ross. Them. vol. 1X, no. 6489.
But, despite all the wonderful aspects of this period of management of the Engineering Department, one cannot help but reproach General Minich, as well as de Coulomb, for what happened.
1) He paid all his attention to the corps of military engineers created in Russia, completely forgetting about the Field Engineering Troops. Although during their time the Mineral Company was doubled in size, but, for all that, the total number of Field Engineering Troops did not meet the needs of wartime, to carry out various types of work on sieges and defenses of fortresses and fortified positions.
2) Belonging to the number of foreigners called to serve in Russia, Minich and de Coulon were keen on filling the Engineering Department with foreign officers; They did not put their efforts into the education and improvement of Russian officers in the Engineering Department. Of course, this last-day circumstance was greatly facilitated by the fact that Peter’s ambassador | His successors did not, like Him, enter into all matters of internal management of each department, giving complete freedom to the orders of individual superiors. The government itself did not strictly adhere to the previous decrees and resolutions, did not hesitate in its actions and often violated the basic principles of internal management in the Engineering Department, introduced by Emperor Peter 1.
State of the Field Engineer Troops after General Minich, before the appointment of General-Feltseichmeister of Count Shuvalov. (1742-1756).