The first firearms? - mattresses? - were iron. Only two Russian small iron tools from the late 14th-early 15th centuries have reached us. One mattress was kept in the museum of Kalinin (Tver) until the winter of 1941 and mysteriously disappeared after the Germans captured the city. The second mattress was kept in the Ivanovo Historical Museum, but it also disappeared no less mysteriously during the years of “perestroika”.

The Italian Aristotle Fioravanti, who arrived in 1473 from Venice with the Russian embassy, ​​taught Moscow craftsmen how to cast copper cannons. In 1475, not far from the Frolovskaya (now Spasskaya) tower of the Kremlin, Fioravanti built a factory for casting cannons? - Cannon Hut.

In 1488, during the great Moscow fire, the Cannon Hut burned down, but a few months later on the left bank of the river. Neglinnaya built a new Cannon Hut, which already consisted of a number of wooden buildings.

Aristotle Fioravanti is usually remembered by our historians as the builder of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. However, in the 70s? - 80s of the 15th century, he was better known as a destroyer of cities. It was he who controlled the fire of Moscow artillery during the siege of Tver and Novgorod.

The exact date of death of Aristotle Fioravanti is unknown, but most historians believe that he died in Moscow in 1486.

Not a single gun cast by Fioravanti has reached us. There is information that one of the cannons was cast by him and his assistant Yakov in 1483. Its length was 2.5 arshins (179 cm), and its weight was 16 pounds (262 kg). This cannon defended Smolensk in 1667, and then disappeared somewhere.

The oldest surviving copper weapon (pishchal) was cast in 1491 by the same master Yakov. Now it is kept in the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, engineering troops and signal troops in St. Petersburg. Its caliber is 66 mm, length 1370 mm, weight 76 kg. The gun has no trunnions, no dolphins, no brackets. The breech ends with a flat bottom. This weapon was sent to Siberia at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, thanks to which it survived. In 1756 it was discovered in the Orenburg fortress.

In 1488 in Moscow, the Italian master Pavel Debosis cast a huge weapon from copper, which was called the Tsar Cannon. Unfortunately, we do not know either the structure of the first Tsar Cannon or its fate.

From 1550 to 1565, work at the Moscow Cannon Yard was supervised by Kishpir Ganusov (Ganus), apparently a German by nationality. In the chronicles there are references to eleven guns cast by him, but not a single one has reached us. The largest copper cannon, cast by Ganusov in 1555, was called the Kashpirova cannon. Its weight was 19.65 tons.

In the same 1555, Moscow master Stepan Petrov cast the Peacock cannon, weighing 16.7 tons. The Peacock’s caliber was determined to be 13 pounds. But calculating the caliber in millimeters is quite difficult, since both the “Peacock” and the Kashpirova gun fired only stone cannonballs with a density of 2.8–3.4 t/m3, and cast iron cannonballs with a density of 7.4–7.8 t/m m 3 at the end of the 16th century were just “coming into fashion” in Western Europe.

It is curious that Ivan the Terrible ordered both huge cannons to be delivered to Polotsk, besieged by the Russians. On February 13, 1563, the tsar ordered the governor, Prince Mikhail Petrovich Repnin, to “place the large guns of Kashpirov and Stepanov, the Peacock, the Eagle, and the Bear and the entire outfit of the wall and top close to the city gates” and shoot “without resting, day and night.” Did the earth tremble from this shooting? - “The large cannons have twenty pounds of cannonballs, and some cannons have a little lighter.” The next day the gate was destroyed and several breaks were made in the wall. On February 15, Polotsk surrendered to the mercy of the victors.

In 1568, Kashpir’s young student Andrei Chokhov (until 1917 he was written as Chekhov) cast his first weapon? - a copper arquecal caliber 5 hryvnias and weighing 43 pounds (704 kg).

To date, 14 guns of Andrei Chokhov have been preserved, of which 5 are in the Moscow Kremlin, 7? - in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg and 2? - in Sweden at Gripsholm Castle.

The most famous weapon of Andrei Chokhov was the Tsar Cannon. It was cast by order of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. A giant cannon weighing 2,400 pounds (39,312 kg) was cast in 1586 at the Moscow Cannon Yard. The length of the Tsar Cannon is 5345 mm, the outer diameter of the barrel is 1210 mm, and the diameter of the thickening at the muzzle is 1350 mm.

Currently, the Tsar Cannon is on a decorative cast-iron carriage, and next to it lie decorative cast-iron cannonballs, which were cast in 1834 in St. Petersburg at the Berda iron foundry. It is clear that it is physically impossible to either shoot from this cast-iron carriage or use cast-iron cannonballs? - The Tsar Cannon will be smashed to smithereens!

Documents about the testing of the Tsar Cannon or its use in combat conditions have not been preserved, which gave later historians the basis for lengthy debates about its purpose. Most historians and military men believed that the Tsar Cannon was a shotgun, that is, a weapon designed to fire shot, which in the 16th-17th centuries consisted of small stones. A minority of experts generally exclude the possibility of using the gun in combat, and it was made to frighten foreigners, especially the ambassadors of the Crimean Tatars. Let us remember that in 1571 Khan Devlet-Girey burned Moscow.

In the 18th - early 20th centuries, the Tsar Cannon was called official documents shotgun. And only the Bolsheviks in the 1930s decided to increase its rank for propaganda purposes and began to call it a cannon.

The secret of the Tsar Cannon was revealed only in 1980, when a large truck crane lifted it from its carriage and placed it on a huge trailer. Then the powerful KrAZ transported the Tsar Cannon to Serpukhov, where the cannon was repaired at the military unit No. 42 708 plant. At the same time, a number of specialists from the Artillery Academy named after. Dzerzhinsky inspected and measured the gun. For some reason the report was not published, but from the surviving draft materials it becomes clear that the Tsar Cannon... was not a cannon!

The highlight of the gun is its channel. At a distance of 3190 mm, it has the shape of a cone, the initial diameter of which is 900 mm, and the final diameter is 825 mm. Then comes the charging chamber with a reverse taper - with an initial diameter of 447 mm and a final diameter (at the breech) of 467 mm. The length of the chamber is 1730 mm, and the bottom is flat.

So this is a classic bombard!

Bombards first appeared at the end of the 14th century. The name "bombarda" comes from the Latin words bombus (thunderous sound) and arder (to burn). The first bombards were made of iron and had screw-mounted chambers. So, for example, in 1382 in the city of Gate (Belgium) the bombard “Mad Margaret” was made, so named in memory of the Countess of Flanders Margaret the Cruel. The caliber of the bombard is 559 mm, the barrel length is 7.75 caliber (klb), and the bore length is 5 klb. The weight of the gun is 11 tons. “Mad Margaret” fired stone cannonballs weighing 320 kg. The bombarda consists of two layers: an inner layer, consisting of longitudinal strips welded together, and an outer layer, consisting of 41 iron hoops, also welded to each other and to the inner layer. A separate screw chamber consists of one layer of disks welded together and is equipped with sockets for inserting a lever when screwing it in and for unscrewing it.

Loading and aiming large bombards took about a day. Therefore, during the siege of Pisa in 1370, every time the besiegers prepared to fire a shot, the besieged went to the opposite end of the city. The besiegers, taking advantage of this, rushed to attack.

The bombard's charge was no more than 10% of the core's weight. There were no trunnions or carriages. The guns were laid on wooden blocks and frames, and piles were driven in behind or brick walls were erected for support. Initially, the elevation angle did not change. In the 15th century, primitive lifting mechanisms began to be used and bombards were cast from copper.

Let us pay attention? - The Tsar Cannon does not have trunnions, with the help of which the gun is given an elevation angle. In addition, it has an absolutely smooth rear section of the breech, with which it, like other bombards, rested against a stone wall or frame. (Diagram 1).

Scheme 1. Typical installation of a heavy bombard of the 15th–16th centuries. (IN in some cases masonry was made between wooden piles and beams)

By the middle of the 15th century, the most powerful siege artillery was… Turkish Sultan. Thus, during the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Hungarian foundry maker Urban cast the Turks a copper bombard with a caliber of 24 inches (610 mm), which fired stone cannonballs weighing about 20 pounds (328 kg). It took 60 bulls and 100 people to transport it to the position. To eliminate the rollback, the Turks built a stone wall behind the gun. The rate of fire of this bombard was 4 shots per day. By the way, the rate of fire of large-caliber Western European bombards was of the same order. Just before the capture of Constantinople, a 24-inch bombard exploded. At the same time, its designer Urban himself died (Diagram 2).

Scheme 2. Transporting a bombard to a combat position. (In fact, there were much more servants, but the medieval artist removed the people, otherwise the body of the weapon itself would not have been visible behind them)

The Turks appreciated large-caliber bombards. Already in 1480, during the battles on the island of Rhodes, they used 24-35-inch (610-890 mm) bombards. Casting such giant bombards required, as indicated in ancient documents, 18 days.

It is curious that bombards of the 15th–16th centuries in Turkey were in service until the mid-19th century. Thus, on March 1, 1807, during the crossing of the Dardanelles by the English squadron of Admiral Duckworth, a marble core of 25 inches (635 mm) caliber weighing 800 pounds (244 kg) hit the lower deck of the ship Windsor Castle and ignited several caps with gunpowder, which resulted in a terrible explosion. 46 people were killed and wounded. In addition, many sailors jumped overboard in fright and drowned. The Active ship was hit by the same cannonball and punched a huge hole in the side above the waterline. Several people could stick their heads through this hole.

In 1868, over 20 huge bombards still stood on the forts defending the Dardanelles. There is information that during the Dardanelles operation of 1915, the English battleship Agamemnon was hit by a 400-kilogram stone core. Of course, it was unable to penetrate the armor and only amused the team.

Let's compare the Turkish 25-inch (630 mm) copper bombard, cast in 1464, which is currently kept in the museum in Woolwich (London), with our Tsar Cannon.

The weight of the Turkish bombard is 19 tons, and the total length is 5232 mm. The outer diameter of the barrel is 894 mm. The length of the cylindrical part of the channel is 2819 mm. Chamber length 2006 mm. The bottom of the chamber is rounded. The bombard fired stone cannonballs weighing 309 kg, the gunpowder charge weighed 22 kg.

Bombarda once defended the Dardanelles. As you can see, in appearance and in the design of the channel it is very similar to the Tsar Cannon. The main and fundamental difference is that the Turkish bombard has a screw-in breech. Apparently, the Tsar Cannon was made based on the model of such bombards. (Ch. 3, 4).

Diagram 3. 25-inch copper Turkish bombard, cast in 1464.

Diagram 4. The Tsar Cannon, cast in Moscow in 1586. As we can see, this and the Turkish bombard are very similar in appearance

So, the Tsar Cannon? is a bombard designed to fire stone cannonballs. The weight of the stone core of the Tsar Cannon was about 50 pounds (819 kg), and a cast iron core of this caliber weighs 120 pounds (1.97 tons). As a shotgun, the Tsar Cannon was extremely ineffective. At the cost of the cost, instead, it was possible to produce 20 small shotguns, the loading of which would take not a day, but only 1–2 minutes. I note that in the official inventory “At the Moscow Arsenal of Artillery” in 1730 there were 40 copper and 15 cast iron shotguns. Let's pay attention to their calibers: 1500 pounds? - 1 (this is the Tsar Cannon), followed by calibers: 25 pounds? - 2, 22 pounds? - 1, 21 pounds? - 3, etc. The largest number of shotguns , 11, falls on the 2-pound gauge. Rhetorical question? - Where did our military think when they recorded the Tsar Cannon as shotguns?

Interesting detail, in 1980, specialists from the Academy named after Dzerzhinsky concluded that the Tsar Cannons were fired at least once.

After the Tsar Cannon was cast and finished at the Cannon Yard, it was dragged to the Spassky Bridge and laid on the ground next to the Peacock cannon. To move the cannon, ropes were tied to eight brackets on its barrel; 200 horses were harnessed to these ropes at the same time, and they rolled the cannon, which lay on huge logs? - rollers.

Initially, the “Tsar” and “Peacock” guns lay on the ground near the bridge leading to the Spasskaya Tower, and the Kashpirov cannon? - near the Zemsky Prikaz, located where the Historical Museum is now. In 1626 they were lifted from the ground and installed on log frames tightly packed with earth. These platforms were called roskats. One of them, with the Tsar Cannon and the Peacock, was placed at the Execution Ground, the other, with the Kashpirova cannon, at the Nikolsky Gate. In 1636, the wooden rolls were replaced with stone ones, inside which warehouses and shops selling wine were built.

After the “Narva embarrassment”, when royal army lost all siege and regimental artillery, Peter I ordered new cannons to be urgently poured. The king decided to obtain the copper necessary for this by melting down bells and ancient cannons. According to the “nominal decree”, it was “ordered to cast the Peacock cannon, which is on the rampart in China near the Execution Ground, into cannon and mortar casting; the Kashpirov cannon, which is near the new Money Dvor, where the Zemsky order was located; the Ekhidna cannon, near the village of Voskresensky; “Krechet” cannon with a ten-pound cannonball; "Nightingale" cannon with a 6-pound cannonball, which is in China on the square."

Peter, due to his lack of education, did not spare the most ancient tools of Moscow casting and made an exception only for the largest tools. Among them, naturally, was the Tsar Cannon, as well as two mortars cast by Andrei Chokhov, which are currently in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg.

We are talking about a 15-pound mortar, cast in 1587. Its caliber is 470 mm, length 1190 mm, weight 1265 kg. The mortar fired stone cannonballs weighing 6 pounds 25 pounds (109 kg). The 15-pound mortar was called based on the weight of the cast-iron core of its caliber. It is clear that she could not shoot a cast iron cannonball weighing 246 kg.

The second mortar was called the “Impostor’s Mortar”, since it was cast in 1606 by order of Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich (aka monk Grigory, in the world Yushka Otrepiev). The caliber of the mortar is 30 pounds (I repeat, based on the weight of the cast iron core) and, accordingly, 534 mm, barrel length 1310 mm, weight 1913 kg.

Both giant mortars have cylindrical charging chambers, but, unlike the Tsar Cannon, they are equipped with trunnions.

It is curious that the “Impostor’s Mortar” has trunnions in the middle of the barrel, and the rear section of the breech is smooth

I would venture to suggest that this mortar was intended to be used for flat shooting, and it is a hybrid of a mortar and a bombard.

In addition, Peter preserved Andrei Chokhov's Troilus and Aspid cannons, cast in 1590. Both guns currently stand near the walls of the Arsenal in the Kremlin.

The Troilus cannon is named after the king of Troy. On its torso, an image of this king was made in a rather caricatured form, as best they could... The trunk is equipped with trunnions and dolphins. The gun caliber is 195 mm, length is 4350 mm, weight is about 7 tons.

The Aspid cannon is named after a fantastic creature, a cross between the Serpent Gorynych and a crocodile. On the top of the muzzle of the cannon you can see a relief image of a beast with a wriggling tail. The inscription reads: "Aspid". On the middle part of the trunk? - dolphins and trunnions. There is a cast inscription on the treasury: “By the grace of God, by the command of the Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ivanovich of All Rus', this Aspid arquebus was made in the summer of 1590. Made by Ondrei Chokhov.” The “Aspida” caliber is 190 mm, length is 5150 mm, weight is about 6 tons. The barrel has trunnions, a torus and a wing, made in the form of a flattened ball.

The Troil and Aspid cannons were installed on cast iron fake carriages in 1843.

The guns cast in late XVII century by Moscow master Martyan Osipov. His first gun, a regimental arquebus, was made in 1666, and his last, in 1704. Osipov’s largest gun was the Unicorn cannon, named after the fairy-tale beast.

The image of a unicorn? - a monster with the body of a bull (and later? - a horse) and one horn is found in Indian chronicles of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Later, unicorns entered ancient Greek and Christian mythologies. It was believed that unicorns brought victory to knights, and the beast itself was patronized by the Virgin Mary. In the Middle Ages, the unicorn appeared on the coats of arms of many dukes and counts, and even English kings.

In Rus' in the 15th–17th centuries, the unicorn was called an inrog. It is curious that back in the 16th century we liked to call heavy guns “Inrogs”. The oldest weapon with this name. which has survived to this day and is kept in the Artillery Museum is a 68-hryvnia (caliber 216 mm) arquebus “Inrog”, cast from copper in 1577 in Moscow by master Andrei Chokhov. The weight of the gun body is 7435 kg, length 5160 mm. The cannon has no vining rod, and the flat torel is decorated with cast images of a unicorn.

The history of this weapon is very interesting. "Inrog" took part in the Livonian War, and in 1633–1634. was part of the Russian siege artillery near Smolensk. There he was captured by the Poles and sent to the Elbing fortress. On December 3, 1703, Elbing was taken by the Swedish king Charles XII, and the Inrog was sent to Stockholm as a trophy. In 1723, the Swedish merchant Yagan Prim sawed the arquecha into three parts and delivered it to Russia by sea. By order of Peter I, craftsman Semyon Leontyev skillfully soldered the barrel, after which Inrog was sent to the St. Petersburg Arsenal.

The caliber of the Unicorn cannon cast by Martyan Osipov is 225 mm, length 7.56 m, and weight 12.76 tons. The cannon is decorated with a lush ornament of leaves and herbs, including figures of people and bears. On the right side of the muzzle there is a relief image of a unicorn. The barrel rests on a cast-iron decorative carriage, cast in 1835 at the Byrd factory.

The Gamayun cannon, cast by Osipov in 1670, has much smaller dimensions. Its caliber is 6 pounds (95 mm), barrel length is 4380 mm, weight is 1670 kg. But its highlight is the faceted barrel. The muzzle of the gun is round, and the middle and breech parts are fourteen-sided. The faceted part of the barrel is very similar to existing images of Western European cannons from the early 16th century, and the stripes of floral patterns completely coincide with the decor of a Polish cannon cast in 1521 (we will talk about it later). Let me note that among Russian guns, a faceted barrel is quite a rare occurrence. The image on a breech cut of ice with a hole for a ring in the mouth is completely uncharacteristic of Moscow casting.

Interestingly, the name of the gun was not taken by chance. The fabulous bird Gamayun came to us from Aryan mythology at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the Middle Ages in the East it was revered as the royal bird. And in the Western Russian lands in the 14th century, the Gamayun bird was considered the patroness of artillery. At the end of the 16th century, the bird Gamayun, sitting on the breech of a cannon, became the coat of arms of the Smolensk Principality. (Ch. 5, 6).

Scheme 5. Smolensk Pulo of the late 14th century.

Scheme 6. Coat of arms of Smolensk from the charter

During the war with Poland 1653–1667. many Polish siege weapons were captured. Several of them are on display in the Kremlin. Among them is the Persian cannon, cast in 1619 by Master Leonard Rothenberg. Its characteristic external feature is a cast barrel. In 1685, Martyan Osipov made a “remake” of it - the “New Persian” cannon. Gun caliber 43 pounds (180 mm), length 4.98 m, weight 5782 kg. The muzzle of the barrel is twisted, and the middle part is scaly. On the flat rear section of the breech, instead of a vingrad, there is a cast bas-relief with a bust of a Persian in a turban.

In 1693, Martyan, by decree of Peter I, cast a 45-pound (185 mm) Eagle cannon according to the “Dutch manir”. The length of the gun is 3556 mm, and the weight is 3.6 tons. It, like all Kremlin guns, is placed on a cast-iron fake carriage.

An interesting thing is the Onager cannon, cast in Moscow in 1581 by master Kuzmin the First. Its caliber is 190 mm, length 4.18 m, weight 5.12 tons. A figurine of a wild donkey, an onager, seems to be glued to the muzzle of the gun. Historian K. Ya. Tromonik believed that the image of the animal was soldered to the barrel, but in fact it was cast integrally with the barrel, which is evidence of the high level of skill of Moscow foundry workers.

A remake of Chokhov's Troilus cannon was the New Troilus cannon, cast in 1685 in Moscow by master Yakov Dubina. Its caliber is 43 pounds (180 mm), length 4935 mm, weight 6584 kg.

Of the ancient foreign cannons located on fake cast-rune carriages in Moscow, the “Bison” cannon, cast in 1629 in Danzig by master Ludwig Wichtendahl, is interesting. I note that in our literature the “Bison” cannon is called the “Buffalo”. Its caliber is 25 pounds (150 mm), length is 2947 mm, weight is 1523 kg.

Among the Polish trophies of the war of 1653–1667, located in the Kremlin, in addition to the already mentioned “Persian,” there is a “Basilisk” cannon, cast in 1581 by master Hieronicus Vitoli.

But the oldest Polish cannon, cast in 1547 (its name and maker are unknown), entered the new millennium with a sign: “70-mm copper cannon. Cast in 1547 Moscow. Weight 1 ton. Length 2.5 m.”

Although I am accustomed to mistakes in the plates for guns in our museums, I succumbed to the provocation and included a photo of this gun with the indicated signature in my “Encyclopedia of Russian Artillery”.

Another question is that this is clearly not a “blunder”, since the Kremlin’s guns have been studied by serious specialists for more than 200 years, but most likely politics. Nowadays, few people know that in 1921 Poland imposed on the young Soviet republic a shameful and predatory world, taking advantage of the temporary weakness of our country.

Thus, Russia had to transfer only railway property worth 18,245 thousand rubles in gold in 1913 prices, including 555 steam locomotives, 17 thousand cars, etc. Moreover, the Polish government demanded that all valuables ever be transferred to it exported during the period following the first partition of Poland. The Poles made demands on many monuments stored in the Artillery Historical and Suvorov Museums. They were given 57 cannons of the 16th–18th centuries, 67 banners and standards. After carefully comparing coats of arms, mottos and other heraldic symbols on banners and standards, the historian P. I. Belavenets established that they were not Polish, but Swedish, and presented such convincing evidence to the Polish side that the Poles abandoned their claims. But in 1932 the demand was renewed, and the Russian side, “in order not to spoil relations,” still unfairly gave what was demanded.

From the collection of the Suvorov Museum, which was kept at that time in the Artillery Historical Museum, the Poles took the keys to Warsaw and silver kettledrums presented to A.V. Suvorov by the Warsaw magistrate in 1794, many Polish banners, weapons and other items of those times. By the way, the Inrog arquebus, taken by the Poles near Smolensk, was later bought back by Russian merchants with gold.

By the way, all these valuables, taken by force from Russian museums, were of no use to the Poles. In 1939, they became trophies of the Germans, and were mainly privatized by the German command. So Suvorov’s keys and timpani went to the new winners of Warsaw.

Poles in the Kremlin for obvious reasons They didn’t let me in and, apparently, they lied that there were no Polish guns there. The Persian and Basilisk cannons are located on the eastern side of the Arsenal, where our “stompers” do not allow anyone with a lantern during the day. But people walked past the 1547 cannon in the 1960s? - 1990s, and they stuck a fake sign on it.

The last Kremlin gun worth mentioning is the Lev. It was cast in 1705 by master Karl Balashevich in the city of Glukhov in Ukraine. The cannon itself is not a masterpiece of artillery of that time, although I note that in Ukraine from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries, local craftsmen made excellent guns for the hetman’s troops, which were not inferior to, and often superior to, Polish and Moscow models.

Special attention“Lev” did not attract historians, but in 1980, employees of the Academy named after. Dzerzhinsky found out that it was... loaded, and this was done at the very beginning of the 18th century. The cannon defended some Ukrainian fortress, either from the troops of Charles XII, or from the troops of Peter I, and it was loaded with a special charge to repel the assault.

The caliber of the Lev gun is about 125 mm. As befits a gun, there is no charging chamber. The bottom of the channel is rounded. Initially, a powder charge was poured into the channel, then a wooden wad 163 mm long, then a cast iron core with a diameter of 91 mm, then again a wooden wad 166 mm long. And then a charge of large buckshot was sent, and the bullets were spherical cast iron with a diameter of 23 mm and 30 mm. There were obviously not enough bullets, so they added several stones with a maximum size of 70 to 40 mm. To prevent stones and bullets from flying out, a third wooden wad 183 mm long was hammered into the barrel last. (Ch. 7).

Diagram 7. Layout of the charge removed from the barrel of the Lev gun. 1? - ​​wad with a diameter of 119 x 183 mm, wood; 2-fraction approx. 70x60x40 mm, stone; 3? - buckshot with a diameter of 23 mm and 30 mm, cast iron; 4? - wad with a diameter of 93 x 166 mm, wood; 5? - core with a diameter of 91 mm, cast iron; 6? - wad with a diameter of 124 x 163 mm, wood; 7? - gunpowder residues

After the end of hostilities, they forgot to unload the cannon, and it remained loaded for 271 years. Almost all the old guns were stored in our outdoors filled with cigarette butts. Let’s imagine a funny picture? - Some “stomper” in the 1930s? - In the 1940s, he would have put an unextinguished cigarette into the flash hole of the “Lion”. A shot would ring out... The NKVD would have more worries!

What came first? - a gun or a cannon? Can I safely answer? - A serf gun. In any case, the first known pyroballistic devices? - Arab madfaas of the 13th century, in appearance, dimensions and ballistic data, are more suitable for serf guns than, say, cannons or muskets.

In Rus', serf guns were called zatyny squeaks. Backed squeaks have become widespread. They were made not only in Moscow, but also in Tver, Veliky Novgorod, and even in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Unfortunately, the squeaks of the 15th century have not reached us.

The oldest backed arquebus is kept in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg. Its caliber is 37 mm, barrel length is 1250 mm, total length is 1760 mm, weight is 40.6 kg. The pischal was made at the beginning of the 16th century and until 1876 was in the Tikhvin Monastery.

Most of the arquebuses of the 15th–16th centuries were forged iron, but occasionally cast copper (bronze) were also found. Thus, in 1864, in a settlement on the banks of the Sukhona River, a arquebus from the second half of the 16th century with a copper barrel of 23 mm caliber was found. Its barrel length is 1088 mm, weight is 20 kg.

From the beginning of the 18th century, serf muskets with flintlocks were manufactured at the Moscow Cannon Yard. Their design differed little from infantry muskets, but the length and weight were 1.5–2 times greater.

The surviving fortress muskets have a caliber of 16.2–16.3 mm, a barrel length of 720–735 mm, total length 1145–1153 mm and weight 8.5–8.7 kg.

The most powerful serf guns were dubelgak, introduced by decree of Peter I on November 11, 1724. The name dubelgak comes from German word Doppelhaken. The historian Saint-Rémy wrote that the dubelgac is something between a musket and a cannon. Dubelgaks were smooth-bore and fired lead bullets weighing from 50 to 100 g. In the 20-30s of the 18th century there was no single model of dubelgaks, and their caliber ranged from 20 to 30 mm. In terms of barrel weight, the dubelgak was close to the falconet, but the dubelgak's shooting accuracy was significantly higher.

In 1747, the production of a standard dubelgak of the 1747 model began in Tula. Its caliber was 25 mm, the barrel length was 1490–1500 mm, the length of the entire system was about 2 m. The weight of the dubelgak was 18–19 kg. The weight of the lead bullet is 64 g, the weight of the propellant charge is 34 g.

In the 20s of the 18th century, rolling fuses were adopted (raskatnaya? - from the ancient Russian word “roskat”? - a platform in a fortress where cannons were installed). Rolling fusee? - a type of long-barreled small-caliber serf gun. Its caliber of 16–16.5 mm was significantly smaller than the caliber of an infantry (19.8 mm) and even a dragoon (17.3 mm) gun, but the length of the fusée reached 2140 mm.

In 1730, blunderbusses were introduced into the serf weapons. Each fortress was supposed to have from 60 to 70 blunderbusses, and in all fortresses - 4950. Initially, the fortresses were supplied with ordinary infantry blunderbusses. In the second half of the 18th century, several types of serf blunderbuss were adopted. As an example, consider a 28-mm fortress blunderbuss made in 1787 in Tula.

The barrel of the blunderbuss is iron, round. The length of the blunderbuss is 1230 mm, weight is about 6 kg. Lead bullet weighing 38 g, charge weight 17 g.

In 1790, a 25-mm smooth-bore fortress gun and an 18.7-mm fortress fitting were simultaneously created. Both systems were manufactured at the Tula Gun Plant.

The barrel of a fortress gun is round with one top edge, barrel length 1150–1170 mm. Flintlock with trigger safety? - hook-dog. The length of the gun is about 1.6 m. The weight of the gun is 28–30 kg. Rate of fire? - 1 shot in 60–90 seconds. The smoothbore fortress gun of the 1790 model was in service with the St. Petersburg fortress until the mid-20s of the 19th century, and in the Siberian and Orenburg fortresses until the 50s–60s of the 19th century.

The 1790 model fitting had an 8-sided barrel with a length of 1251 mm. The channel is rifled with eight semicircular riflings. The lock is the same type as a smoothbore gun. The length of the fitting is 1665 mm, weight 7.5 kg. The bullets were loaded using an iron ramrod with a brass head. A significant drawback of the gun was its low rate of fire - one shot for 4–5 minutes.

Then came a 50-year intermission in the design of fortress rifles. This was partly due to the maneuverable nature Napoleonic wars. And in general, Alexander I paid little attention to the construction and armament of fortresses. His brother Nicholas I, being Tsarevich, received engineering education, and, having become emperor, began to modernize old and build new fortresses.

In 1837–1838 a system of fortress guns of the 1838 model was designed. And in 1839, the fortress gun of the 1839 model was adopted. The gun was a modification of the French fortress gun "Rampard", created by the famous gunsmith Falis in 1831.

The 1839 model shotgun became the first domestic percussion rifled shotgun. The caliber of the gun is 8.33 lines, that is, 21.16 mm. The barrel length is 1274 mm, and the entire gun is 1811 mm. The weight of the gun is 10.94 kg (Ch. 8).

Scheme 8. Fortress rifle mod. 1839

The barrel has 8 grooves of constant steepness with a depth of 0.84 mm and a width of 3.15 mm. The sighting device consisted of a copper retractable front sight and a sight consisting of one fixed (for 100 steps) and two hinged shields (for 200 and 300 steps). The maximum sighting range was 747 m. The gun was loaded from the breech.

The barrel, which had a quadrangular shape from the breech, was equipped with trunnions, with which it was inserted into an open iron box, rectangular on top, attached at its rear end to the gun stock. The box contained an iron chamber that could rotate around the pins attached to it. In this chamber a recess was made to place gunpowder and bullets. The chamber had a cone in front, which fit tightly into the corresponding recess at the end of the gun barrel.

To load the gun, it was necessary to turn the chamber vertically, insert the charge and bullet, return the chamber to its previous position, and move it forward so that the cone fits into the recess of the barrel. Then close the bolt, which prevents the chamber from moving back when fired.

The gun was fired with round (weighing 57.5 g) and conical (weighing 73.2 g) lead bullets. The charge consisted of 14.3 g of musket powder. Rate of fire? - 1 shot per minute.

The first batch of rifles of the 1839 model was sent to the Caucasian Corps to arm the fortifications, which were subject to continuous attacks by the highlanders. It is now fashionable to say that “the peoples of the Caucasus fought for freedom against Russian imperialism.” In fact, Russian troops fought against robber mountain tribes who had been robbing their neighbors - the inhabitants of the valleys - for centuries. At the same time, the highlanders had, in the full sense of the word, ultra-modern weapons. Thus, a significant part of the highlanders had rifled guns (fittings) of English and French production, the maximum range of which significantly exceeded the firing range of smooth-bore guns of the Russian infantry. I'm not even talking about the appearance in 1818–1821. in the Caucasus, English mountain cannons on iron carriages. In the Russian army, iron carriages were adopted only in the late 60s of the 19th century.

Fortress rifles of the 1839 model were to some extent compensate for the superiority of the highlanders in rifled weapons. However, the guns of the 1839 model did not justify themselves. The bolts broke, and when fired, gases burst through the bolt. In this regard, Colonel Kulikovsky, based on a gun of the 1839 model, created a muzzle-loading fortress fitting of the rod system. In 1851, the Kulikovsky fitting was put into service and received the name “fortress fitting of the 1851 model.” The caliber of the fitting is 8.5 lines (21.59 mm). The barrel length was reduced to 800 mm. The dimensions of the rifling and their steepness have not changed compared to the gun of the 1839 model. The sighting range of the fitting? - 1000 steps, that is, 711 m. The walnut stock reached half the trunk. Under the fore-end, somewhat in front of the lock, a thick handle was attached, which the shooter grasped with his left hand while aiming, firmly resting the butt against his shoulder; moreover, to reduce recoil, a leather case with a felt cushion was put on the butt. The muzzle part was placed on the parapet when aiming. Steel ramrod with copper head (Diagram 9).

Scheme 9. Fortress rod fitting arr. 1851

Shooting from the fitting was carried out with pointed cylindrical lead bullets with two protrusions (“ears”) and a cast-iron peg in the head, which protected the bullet from flattening when struck with a ramrod. The weight of the bullet is 77 g, the weight of the propellant charge is 6 g. The design of the bullet also belonged to Colonel Kulikovsky.

The fortress fitting of the 1851 model turned out to be generally successful. The accuracy of the battle was twice as high as that of the Falis and Model 1839 rifles, and the loading time was even slightly shorter. But the rod system was still complex, inconvenient to clean, and hitting the bullet with a cleaning rod did not expand it enough for it to fill the deep rifling of the barrel.

Fortress fittings of the 1851 model became relatively widespread in fortresses. Thus, according to the state, the Sevastopol fortress was supposed to have 199 fortress fittings, but by the beginning of the defense of Sevastopol they were not delivered there, and the fittings had to be delivered from the Bendery fortress.

With the introduction of breech-loading rifles into infantry service, fortress fittings remained only in the Caucasus, Orenburg and Siberian fortresses in the 60s of the 19th century.

The reason for starting the design of a new Russian fortress gun was the successful use of the Prussian needle fortress gun of the 1865 model during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–1871. Thus, during the siege of the French fortress of Strasbourg, the Prussian and Baden troops formed special teams from the best rifle infantry units, armed with fortress guns of the 1865 model. The servants of the French fortress guns suffered significant losses from the fire of these teams.

In this regard, at the end of 1870, the Weapons Department of the Artillery Committee of the Main Artillery Directorate (GAU), with the participation of the Engineering Committee, developed the tactical and technical requirements of the new fortress gun. Fortress guns were supposed to be used both in defense and in the siege of fortresses. The effective fire range must be at least 500 fathoms (1067 m). The bullets of a fortress gun must pierce a glander tour or three earthen bags.

In 1873, Colonel Baron T.F. Gan, a member of the Artkom of the GAU, designed an 8-line (20.3 mm) fortress gun. The length of the gun barrel was 914 mm. The barrel had 8 grooves with a depth of 0.38 mm and a constant slope of 50 calibers. The weight of the gun is 20.5 kg.

The bolt of the Krnka folding system did not differ in anything, except for its size, from the bolt of the 6-line (15.24 mm) infantry rifle of the Krnka system, adopted by the Russian army in 1869. The forend of the stock only reached the middle of the barrel. A special feature of the stock design was the presence of devices to reduce the effect of recoil. A bronze hook was screwed onto the middle part of the barrel, which was hooked during shooting onto an earthen bag that served as a support for the gun. The butt is fitted with a bronze cap, which looks like a lid.

Two recesses are drilled into the rear wall of the butt. Each of them contains a spiral spring, one end of which rests on the bottom of the recess, and the other on the back of the head. A bolt is screwed into the center of the back of the head and fits into a corresponding recess in the butt. At the end of the bolt there was a longitudinal slot through which passed the end of a threaded screw screwed into the butt from the side. With this device, the back of the head did not touch the back surface of the butt and therefore the impact of the butt when fired was softened by the elasticity of the spiral springs.

The shooting was carried out with a unitary cartridge with a composite sleeve. The composite sleeve made of brass tape with an internal cup was designed by the same Hahn. Cartridge weight 204 g, propellant weight 23.4 g. Bullet weight 128 g, initial speed bullets 427 m/s. Two types of bullets were used: lead to defeat openly located manpower and steel to penetrate shelters. A lead jacket was soldered to the steel bullet.

Accuracy tests of the Gan 8-line gun gave good results. When shooting at 600 steps (427 m), the average dispersion radius was 335 mm, and at 1200 steps; (853 m)? - 860 mm, at 1500 steps (1067 m)? - 1045 mm.

A steel bullet penetrated 2.5 bags of earth at 1000 steps, and one bag at 1500 steps. When firing at a 7.62 mm armor plate from a distance of 1200 steps, all the bullets pierced it through, and from 1500 steps only half of the bullets pierced the plate, and half of the bullets got stuck in it.

After testing the Gan gun on February 9, 1876, the GAU presented it for adoption. In the same year, it was put into service under the name “8-line serf gun model 1876.” (Ch. 10)

Diagram 10. 8-line fortress gun Ghana mod. 1876

The Gan gun became the last Russian serf gun. On the one hand, this was due to the appearance of repeating 3-line Mosin rifles and Maxim machine guns, which, it was believed, could replace serf guns, and on the other hand, due to the fact that during the reign of Nicholas II our generals became very interested in the ideas of maneuver warfare and were convinced that the war could only be won with a 3-line rifle and a 3-inch gun.

The Russian army paid with great blood for this “French fashion” in 1914–1918. During the war, new types of weapons were required. And, by the way, they remembered the already forgotten Gan gun. At the beginning of 1915, a proposal was made to use the 8-line Hahn gun for shooting at armored vehicles. Indeed, the gun effectively penetrated the armor of German and Austrian armored vehicles. So, by right, the Gan gun can be called the grandmother of domestic anti-tank guns.

At the end of 1914, on the basis of the Gan gun, Captain Rdultovsky created... a mortar. The barrel of the gun was shortened to 305 mm. Firing was carried out with over-caliber ball and cylindrical-conical mines. The ball mine weighed 2.56 kg and contained 256 g of gunpowder. The cylindrical-conical mine weighed 2.46 kg and contained 170 g of TNT. A shank (mine rod) was inserted into the barrel. A cartridge case from a 3-line cartridge and an additional bag of gunpowder were inserted from the breech. The initial speed of the mine is about 61 m/s. Firing range? - up to 350 steps (250 m).

In January 1915, Artkom GAU tested the Rdultovsky mortar. Soon, Rdultovsky’s mortar was put into service under the name “20-mm Rdultovsky mortar.” These mortars were successfully used during the war. However, Rdultovsky’s mortars did not become widespread due to the fact that by 1915, Gan guns were available in small quantities only in remote warehouses, for example, in Tiflis.

The last mention of Rdultovsky's mortars was found by the author in the order of the Artillery Department dated February 2, 1923. By this order, all mortars available in the Red Army were divided into three categories: those left in service, those subject to issue to the troops with special permission, and those subject to withdrawal. Rdultovsky's 20-mm mortar was in the second category.

No wonder they say that history moves in a spiral. In the 20s? - 40s of the XX century, serf guns were revived in the form of anti-tank rifles, and in the 1980s? - in the form of large-caliber sniper rifles.

November 20, 1805, village of Austerlitz. Guards Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments retreat, disrupting the ranks. The Guards cavalry was sent to their aid? - The Horse Regiment and the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. At the sight of the cavalry, the advancing mustache giants in bearskin hats quickly reformed into a square. Should they be afraid of cavalry? They beat the Austrian cuirassiers and the ferocious Mamelukes more than once.

But then ahead of the heavy cuirassiers, overtaking the hussars, rushed at a frantic pace... guns. No, that's not a typo. The cannons, harnessed to six horses, were flying, rumbling over potholes. This was the Guards Horse Artillery Company of Colonel Kostenetsky. There are already 50 meters left to the square, the faces of the French are clearly visible. Stop! In a matter of seconds, the servants dismount, the guns are removed from the limbers and deployed. 1Sartech? - fire! Point-blank grapeshots wash away gaps in the square. A few more seconds, and a forest of broadswords of Russian cuirassiers takes off in these gaps. The French flee in confusion, but, alas, this brilliant attack did not decide the outcome of the battle. The Russian cavalry, carried away by the pursuit, itself came under fire from the French horse artillery and was attacked by French horse grenadiers and horsemen.

The Battle of Austerlitz? - the battle of three emperors was lost. In honor of the victory, Napoleon ordered a huge Vendôme Column to be cast from the barrels of captured guns and installed on the square of the same name in Paris. But in this column there was not a single gram of bronze from Kostenetsky’s guns. His company made its way through the ranks of the French with grapeshot and broadswords, and even just banniks. 2 years later in Tilsit, Napoleon asked Alexander I about the fate of Kostenetsky. And 5 years later, the horse guns of Major General Kostenetsky met the enemy on the Borodino field.

How could cannons outrun cavalry? And not only could they, but they were also obliged to do this according to the charter. “When the horse batteries begin to reorganize their cavalry for a mounted attack from the reserve order into the combat order, they must jump out dashingly, at full quarry, forestalling their cavalry, quickly dismount and, not paying attention to the enemy’s artillery and machine guns, open rapid fire on the enemy cavalry.” , - this is what was said in the dry language of the “Manuals for the operation of field artillery in battle” of 1912.

And here’s how the novelist described the movement of horse artillery: “Is this some kind of incomprehensible hurricane of screaming horsemen and carriages rearing up on potholes, horses’ teeth bared in neighing and the sparkling of copper helmets? - all this rushes forward in the fury of battle passion, and those who were knocked out saddles were immediately trampled and crushed in the onslaught of wheels, drawbars, hooves and axles of charging boxes. No matter what happens, still don’t linger? forward!

Horse artillery? - march-march!

How was it possible to achieve such a driving speed, and even off-road? Firstly, the lightest field guns were selected, sometimes they were even specially designed for horse artillery. The number of shots carried in the limber was reduced, and most importantly, during the march, the servants who rode on horseback next to the gun were permanently removed from the limber and carriage. Of course, the horses, both for harnessing the gun and the charging box, and for the servants, were selected to be the most resilient. Typically, compared to a gun of the same caliber in foot artillery, a horse-mounted gun was harnessed by a couple more horses.

For the first time, our servants were put on horses by Peter the Great. His bombardment company rode horses in the battles of Gummelshof (1702) and Lesnoy (1707).

In those days, if necessary, the servants of the regimental artillery used to ride on horseback. But this was not horse artillery yet, but forced improvisation. What could we talk about when neither the Petrovsky bombardment company nor the regimental artillery even had their own regular horses, and they were recruited at the beginning of hostilities, usually by buying or requisitioning from the population.

In pre-revolutionary literature, the idea of ​​​​equipping an independent permanent cavalry artillery unit was attributed to Platon Zubov. Formally, there is some truth here. Indeed, in September 1794, Zubov submitted to Catherine II a proposal to establish five horse artillery companies. In fact, Plato held two dozen of the most important positions in the state, including the position of general-feldtzeichmeister (chief) of artillery. It was a complete fiction. Platon Zubov was constantly in the empress’s apartment. When Catherine wanted to relax a little, she pulled the cord, the bell rang in Zubov’s room, and Platosha ran to fulfill his main state duty.

One way or another, at the beginning of February 1796, the formation of five horse artillery companies was completed.

But on November 5, 1796, Catherine dies, and Paul I ascends the throne. He immediately disbanded the horse companies and re-created the horse artillery on the basis of the “Gatchina artillery.”

Thus, Count Alexei Andreevich Arakcheev can rightfully be considered the creator of domestic horse artillery. Yes! Yes! The same Arakcheev? - a reactionary and organizer of military settlements. Our reader is accustomed to dividing historical figures only into positive or negative and cannot imagine that the same person can have enormous services to the fatherland in one area and be a complete scoundrel in another. Arakcheev’s example is not unique. The same Russian ballet star Matilda Kshesinskaya, from 1894 to 1917, siphoned millions of rubles from the Military Department with the help of her lover, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, who was in charge of the ballet and, concurrently, artillery.

Returning to Arakcheev, it should be said that he played a decisive role in the radical reorganization of Russian artillery, carried out from 1796 to 1805. Artillery control significantly improved, its maneuverability increased, and its numbers increased sharply. Arakcheev created a system of artillery guns of the 1805 model, which was significantly superior in firepower to the guns of Catherine’s era. The gun system of the 1805 model, with minor changes made in 1838, was in service until 1867.

According to the state of 1798, the horse artillery included one guards horse company and a horse battalion consisting of four companies. Each company had 12 guns. By the beginning of 1812, the troops already had 272 horse guns. Their specific gravity in field artillery was small (17%). But their effectiveness on the battlefield from 1805 to 1815 was significantly higher than that of foot field artillery. There was not a single battle where our horse artillery distinguished itself.

Horse artillery fought from Maloyaroslavets to Paris, where it carried out a brilliant operation on March 25, 1814.

In the battle of Fer-Champenoise, Russian cavalry, supported by horse artillery, completely defeated two French infantry corps of Marmont and Mortier. By the way, on this day the 23rd horse artillery company under the command of Markov saved Alexander I and the Prussian king from captivity, whose headquarters were attacked by the French from the rear.

The horse artillery distinguished itself in Russian-Turkish war 1828–1829 Here is just one episode of the battle on May 30, 1829 near Kulevcha. The 45,000-strong army of the Turkish vizier moved against the 18,000-strong Russian army under the command of General Dibich. Under pressure superior forces The Turks completely lost the Murom Regiment, the 11th and 12th Jaeger Regiments suffered heavy losses and retreated. The 2nd Hussar Division rushed into a counterattack, along with the 19th Horse Artillery Company of Major General Arnoldi. His company suddenly appeared from behind the mountain, quickly turned around and met the Turks with grapeshot. The Turks attacked three times and were repulsed three times. The Russians then went on the offensive along the entire front. Cavalry Company No. 19 crossed a deep ravine and, emerging from it, installed cannons on a hill under Turkish cannonballs. A well-aimed shot from the guns of the 19th company blew up several Turkish charging boxes at once. “Fear and confusion instantly spread throughout the Turkish troops, and the vizier, who was observing the progress of the battle, was the first to signal a retreat.”

Since the time of Paul I, horse artillery has been armed with 6-pound cannons and 1/4-pound unicorns.

The 6-pounder (95.5 mm) cannon fired cannonballs and grapeshot. They were preferred over long distances and when destroying vertical obstacles: ramparts, fences, house walls, etc. 1/4-pound (123 mm) unicorns fired fragmentation, grapeshot and incendiary spherical grenades, as well as buckshot.

In 1833, horse companies were renamed batteries. Since 1833, horse light and horse battery batteries were introduced into the horse artillery. I apologize to the reader, but this is not a tautology, but the terminology of that time. Each gun had 8 guns, but the light gun had four 6-pound guns and four 1/4-pound unicorns, and the battery had eight 1/2-pound (155 mm) unicorns.

In 1860, rifled guns were introduced into Russian artillery for the first time. And the first battery to receive rifled guns was Guards Cavalry Light Battery No. 1.

The first rifled 4-pounder copper guns had 6 grooves and fired oblong projectiles, the zinc lugs of which cut into the rifling of the bore. Loading was still done from the muzzle; the old wooden carriages remained. Externally, muzzle-loading rifled guns were no different from the old smooth-bore ones (Diagram 11).

Scheme 11. 4-pound horse gun mod. 1867

In 1867, the rifling system of the 1867 model was introduced into the Russian artillery. The projectiles of the 1867 model had a lead shell, which was cut into the bore rifling. Loading was carried out from the breech using wedge gates. The horse artillery adopted the 4-pound field gun of the 1867 model.

In 1877, the rifling system of the 1877 model was introduced. The shells already had copper belts embedded in the channel rifling. The rifling system of the 1877 model, with some changes, has been preserved to this day in rifled guns. The horse artillery received a specially designed horse cannon of the 1877 model. This is a relatively rare case when the caliber is missing from the name of the gun. The caliber of the gun was 4 pounds, that is, 87 mm, but in order not to confuse it with the old 4-pound gun of the 1867 model, the new gun was simply called a horse gun. The horse cannon was in service for about 30 years, until in 1902–1907. was not replaced by the troops with 3-inch (76 mm) guns of the 1900 and 1902 models - the famous three-inch guns.

Mounted 3-inch guns were almost indistinguishable from ordinary 3-inch foot field guns. The 3-inch horse gun of the 1902 model turned out to be heavier in the traveling position (over 1.7 tons), and a special 3-inch horse gun of the 1913 model was created to replace it. The new gun was put into service by the Highest order of June 24 1913, but its production was delayed due to the scams of the private Putilov plant, and then, with the outbreak of the First World War, it was completely disrupted. Thus, the 3-inch gun of the 1902 model remained in service for almost 50 more years - until the disbandment of horse artillery batteries after the Great Patriotic War.

By August 1914, the troops consisted of 65 horse batteries with 6 guns, that is, a total of 390 horse guns. In 1914–1917 42 horse batteries were formed, of which 30 were Cossack.

Contrary to the expectations of the Russian generals, maneuver warfare quickly turned into positional warfare, where the role of cavalry was reduced to a minimum. There were practically no meeting battles between cavalry divisions, which were an integral element of the Napoleonic wars, and which the Russian cavalry so carefully practiced in exercises before the war. If Russian cavalry appeared against the German or Austro-Hungarian cavalry, the Germans and Hungarians usually dismounted and took up defensive positions. Therefore, Russian horse artillery acted like conventional field artillery.

Of course, there were some exceptions. For example, on August 21, 1914, in Galicia, near the village of Yaroslavice, the 4th Austrian cavalry division with an attached infantry regiment attacked the 10th Russian cavalry division. Immediately, two Don Cossack horse batteries “jumped out” to the heights near the Berimovsky forest and opened fire on the Austrians. The first shrapnel exploded over the middle of the 13th Lancer Regiment, which rushed towards Yaroslavitsa in complete disorder, followed by other regiments. It was possible to put them in order only on the outskirts of Jaroslavice under the cover of Austrian horse batteries, which opened fire on the Russian batteries.

The commander of the 10th Cavalry Division, General Keller, decided to attack the Austrians. Russian squadrons, openly performing formation changes, represented good goal for enemy horse batteries, which could easily shoot them. But by that time they were suppressed by the fire of our horse batteries. During the Russian attack, the hussar squadron captured 8 Austrian horse cannons, and the attack of the hussars from the flank and the Cossacks from the rear led to the final defeat of the dragoon and uhlan regiments of the 4th Austrian division. It is interesting that at the climax of the battle, the Russian artillery violated its regulations and rained fire on the enemy batteries, and not on the cavalry, as pre-war regulations and instructions intended.

After the end of the maneuver period of the war, Russian horse artillery was in the vast majority of cases used as light field artillery. There would have been no happiness, but misfortune helped? - The disadvantages of the 3-inch horse gun turned out to be advantages. The weight of the gun no longer played a significant role, and the unification of materiel, ammunition and firing tables with field guns increased the effectiveness of the use of field horse artillery in trench warfare.

Once again, horse artillery began to be used for its intended purpose already in the years Civil War. For example, during the defeat of Denikin’s troops. Thus, two horse artillery divisions of three batteries operated as part of the cavalry corps. The divisions were regular members of the 4th and 6th Cavalry Divisions and bore their numbers. Horse artillery was usually assigned to cavalry brigades and regiments by division and battery. In battles, the batteries were in cavalry combat formations and, if necessary, acted by platoon and even by gun. Several times the horse artillery fought artillery duels with white armored trains. During the battle near Lgov, three batteries of the 8th Cavalry Division forced the surrender of 5 armored trains, “locked” by sappers on a limited section of the railway track.

For the first time with enemy tanks of the 1st unit Cavalry Army met in January 1920 in the Sultan Sady area, 25 km northwest of Rostov. The advancing 3rd Brigade of the 6th Cavalry Division was counterattacked by White infantry supported by three tanks. The horse battery of D.Z. Kompaneets was advanced towards the tanks, which opened direct fire with high-explosive grenades and knocked out two tanks, and the infantry accompanying the tanks was scattered by shrapnel fire.

After the Civil War, horse artillery was still considered a fairly effective means of warfare. Thus, according to the states that existed on June 22, 1941, each cavalry division was supposed to have a horse artillery division consisting of 32 3-inch guns of the 1902 model and 16- and 45-mm anti-tank guns.

The last horse gun in world history was the 76.2 mm 7-5 horse gun. It was designed in 1937 in the KV-3 under the leadership of designer L.I. Gorlitsky, and a prototype began to be manufactured at Plant No. 7 (formerly St. Petersburg Arsenal).

The “7-5” gun had significant advantages over both the divisional and regimental guns that were in service with the Red Army by 1941. According to ballistic data, it occupied an intermediate place between the 76-mm regimental gun of the 1927 model and the 76-mm divisional guns. mm sample 1902/30, F-22 and USV (the last three guns had the same ballistics). The barrel length of a horse gun was 19 calibers versus 16.5 calibers for regimental guns and 40 calibers for divisional guns. For the “7-5” gun, the initial velocity of a projectile weighing 6.23 kg was 500 m/s, and the maximum range was 10,250 m. For comparison, for a regimental gun with the same projectile these figures were 387 m/s x 6000 m , and for divisional guns? - 635 m/s and 11,000 m, respectively. As we can see, the range of the new horse gun was almost as good as that of the division guns, especially since the task of the division guns was never to fire at a distance of more than 10 km.

The new horse gun compared favorably with regimental and divisional guns high angle elevation (-7°; + 60°), which made it possible to conduct mounted fire, especially in the presence of separate-case loading. Let me note that our regimental guns had a maximum elevation angle of +25°, while the German 7.5 cm and 15 cm infantry guns had a maximum elevation angle of +75°, which allowed them to fire almost like a mortar along very steep trajectories. The horizontal guidance angle of the "7-5" gun was limited to 8°.

The height of the firing line was 750 mm, the rollback length was 700 mm, and the stroke width was 1250 mm. The weight of the system in firing position is 800 kg. Accordingly, regimental guns of the 1927 model with metal wheels? - 903–920 kg; the divisional gun of the 1902/30 model has 1350 kg, and the F-22 has 1620 kg.

The "7-5" gun had a semi-automatic wedge breech, which allowed a rate of fire of up to 25 rounds per minute. The gun could be transported at a maximum speed of up to 25 km/h; more was not required for horse traction.

Unfortunately, the war interrupted work on the 76-mm 7-5 horse gun, and after 1945 no one thought about horse guns.

Naturally, by 1941, both cavalry and horse artillery were significantly inferior in effectiveness to tank and mechanized units. Nevertheless, during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet horse artillerymen honestly fulfilled their duty to their Motherland.

Notes:

1 The flourishing state of the All-Russian state. M.: Nauka, 1977. pp. 115–116.

Wonder weapons of the Russian Empire [with illustrations] Shirokorad Alexander Borisovich

Chapter 1. Secrets of the Kremlin guns

What are the most secret guns in Russia now? I bet you won't guess. All guns in service are well described in domestic and foreign literature, including the “Encyclopedia of Artillery” I wrote. Latest developments, sometimes not reaching the stage of military testing, are famously exhibited at foreign weapons exhibitions. But the ancient Russian cannons installed near the walls of the Arsenal in the Kremlin remain completely inaccessible to independent historians. Even in Brezhnev times, children of Kremlin visitors could climb onto the cannons near the southern wall of the Arsenal, but no one was ever allowed to approach the other wall.

With the advent of democracy and glasnost, previously free entry to the Kremlin began to cost a pretty penny, and with each new president the public is being pushed further away from the Arsenal cannons. It’s good that the Tsar Cannon remains available!

High-ranking politicians and famous journalists have been “pushing water in a mortar” for 15 years now? - Is it necessary to remove Ilyich from the Mausoleum and liquidate the necropolis near the Kremlin wall? I would like to ask these demagogues only two questions. Firstly, how much will it cost to demolish the Mausoleum and rebury all those buried near the Kremlin wall? And secondly, isn’t it better to solve another one instead of this scholastic question? - to allow Muscovites and guests of the capital to walk around the entire Kremlin at least once a year, without even going into top-secret premises. I note that from the time of Ivan Kalita until 1918, Muscovites moved freely around the Kremlin, even when it was the residence of the head of state.

In the meantime, let's take a virtual walk past the Kremlin cannons.

The first cannons appeared in Moscow in 1382. Who brought them? - It is not known for certain. Firearms could have reached Moscow from the Germans, Lithuanians and Tatars. The reader can read about this in more detail in my book “Secrets of Russian Artillery.”

The first firearms? - mattresses? - were iron. Only two Russian small iron tools from the late 14th-early 15th centuries have reached us. One mattress was kept in the museum of Kalinin (Tver) until the winter of 1941 and mysteriously disappeared after the Germans captured the city. The second mattress was kept in the Ivanovo Historical Museum, but it also disappeared no less mysteriously during the years of “perestroika”.

The Italian Aristotle Fioravanti, who arrived in 1473 from Venice with the Russian embassy, ​​taught Moscow craftsmen how to cast copper cannons. In 1475, not far from the Frolovskaya (now Spasskaya) tower of the Kremlin, Fioravanti built a factory for casting cannons? - Cannon Hut.

In 1488, during the great Moscow fire, the Cannon Hut burned down, but a few months later on the left bank of the river. Neglinnaya built a new Cannon Hut, which already consisted of a number of wooden buildings.

Aristotle Fioravanti is usually remembered by our historians as the builder of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. However, in the 70s? - 80s of the 15th century, he was better known as a destroyer of cities. It was he who controlled the fire of Moscow artillery during the siege of Tver and Novgorod.

The exact date of death of Aristotle Fioravanti is unknown, but most historians believe that he died in Moscow in 1486.

Not a single gun cast by Fioravanti has reached us. There is information that one of the cannons was cast by him and his assistant Yakov in 1483. Its length was 2.5 arshins (179 cm), and its weight was 16 pounds (262 kg). This cannon defended Smolensk in 1667, and then disappeared somewhere.

The oldest surviving copper weapon (pishchal) was cast in 1491 by the same master Yakov. Now it is kept in the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps in St. Petersburg. Its caliber is 66 mm, length 1370 mm, weight 76 kg. The gun has no trunnions, no dolphins, no brackets. The breech ends with a flat bottom. This weapon was sent to Siberia at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, thanks to which it survived. In 1756 it was discovered in the Orenburg fortress.

In 1488 in Moscow, the Italian master Pavel Debosis cast a huge weapon from copper, which was called the Tsar Cannon. Unfortunately, we do not know either the structure of the first Tsar Cannon or its fate.

From 1550 to 1565, work at the Moscow Cannon Yard was supervised by Kishpir Ganusov (Ganus), apparently a German by nationality. In the chronicles there are references to eleven guns cast by him, but not a single one has reached us. The largest copper cannon, cast by Ganusov in 1555, was called the Kashpirova cannon. Its weight was 19.65 tons.

In the same 1555, Moscow master Stepan Petrov cast the Peacock cannon, weighing 16.7 tons. The Peacock’s caliber was determined to be 13 pounds. But calculating the caliber in millimeters is quite difficult, since both the “Peacock” and the Kashpirova gun fired only stone cannonballs with a density of 2.8–3.4 t/m3, and cast iron cannonballs with a density of 7.4–7.8 t/m m 3 at the end of the 16th century were just “coming into fashion” in Western Europe.

It is curious that Ivan the Terrible ordered both huge cannons to be delivered to Polotsk, besieged by the Russians. On February 13, 1563, the tsar ordered the governor, Prince Mikhail Petrovich Repnin, to “place the large guns of Kashpirov and Stepanov, the Peacock, the Eagle, and the Bear and the entire outfit of the wall and top close to the city gates” and shoot “without resting, day and night.” Did the earth tremble from this shooting? - “The large cannons have twenty pounds of cannonballs, and some cannons have a little lighter.” The next day the gate was destroyed and several breaks were made in the wall. On February 15, Polotsk surrendered to the mercy of the victors.

In 1568, Kashpir’s young student Andrei Chokhov (until 1917 he was written as Chekhov) cast his first weapon? - a copper arquecal caliber 5 hryvnias and weighing 43 pounds (704 kg).

To date, 14 guns of Andrei Chokhov have been preserved, of which 5 are in the Moscow Kremlin, 7? - in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg and 2? - in Sweden at Gripsholm Castle.

The most famous weapon of Andrei Chokhov was the Tsar Cannon. It was cast by order of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. A giant cannon weighing 2,400 pounds (39,312 kg) was cast in 1586 at the Moscow Cannon Yard. The length of the Tsar Cannon is 5345 mm, the outer diameter of the barrel is 1210 mm, and the diameter of the thickening at the muzzle is 1350 mm.

Currently, the Tsar Cannon is on a decorative cast-iron carriage, and next to it lie decorative cast-iron cannonballs, which were cast in 1834 in St. Petersburg at the Berda iron foundry. It is clear that it is physically impossible to either shoot from this cast-iron carriage or use cast-iron cannonballs? - The Tsar Cannon will be smashed to smithereens!

Documents about the testing of the Tsar Cannon or its use in combat conditions have not been preserved, which gave later historians the basis for lengthy debates about its purpose. Most historians and military men believed that the Tsar Cannon was a shotgun, that is, a weapon designed to fire shot, which in the 16th-17th centuries consisted of small stones. A minority of experts generally exclude the possibility of using the gun in combat, and it was made to frighten foreigners, especially the ambassadors of the Crimean Tatars. Let us remember that in 1571 Khan Devlet-Girey burned Moscow.

In the 18th-early 20th centuries, the Tsar Cannon was called a shotgun in all official documents. And only the Bolsheviks in the 1930s decided to increase its rank for propaganda purposes and began to call it a cannon.

The secret of the Tsar Cannon was revealed only in 1980, when a large truck crane lifted it from its carriage and placed it on a huge trailer. Then the powerful KrAZ transported the Tsar Cannon to Serpukhov, where the cannon was repaired at the military unit No. 42 708 plant. At the same time, a number of specialists from the Artillery Academy named after. Dzerzhinsky inspected and measured the gun. For some reason the report was not published, but from the surviving draft materials it becomes clear that the Tsar Cannon... was not a cannon!

The highlight of the gun is its channel. At a distance of 3190 mm, it has the shape of a cone, the initial diameter of which is 900 mm, and the final diameter is 825 mm. Then comes the charging chamber with a reverse taper - with an initial diameter of 447 mm and a final diameter (at the breech) of 467 mm. The length of the chamber is 1730 mm, and the bottom is flat.

So this is a classic bombard!

Bombards first appeared at the end of the 14th century. The name "bombarda" comes from the Latin words bombus (thunderous sound) and arder (to burn). The first bombards were made of iron and had screw-mounted chambers. So, for example, in 1382 in the city of Gate (Belgium) the bombard “Mad Margaret” was made, so named in memory of the Countess of Flanders Margaret the Cruel. The caliber of the bombard is 559 mm, the barrel length is 7.75 caliber (klb), and the bore length is 5 klb. The weight of the gun is 11 tons. “Mad Margaret” fired stone cannonballs weighing 320 kg. The bombarda consists of two layers: an inner layer, consisting of longitudinal strips welded together, and an outer layer, consisting of 41 iron hoops, also welded to each other and to the inner layer. A separate screw chamber consists of one layer of disks welded together and is equipped with sockets for inserting a lever when screwing it in and for unscrewing it.

Loading and aiming large bombards took about a day. Therefore, during the siege of Pisa in 1370, every time the besiegers prepared to fire a shot, the besieged went to the opposite end of the city. The besiegers, taking advantage of this, rushed to attack.

The bombard's charge was no more than 10% of the core's weight. There were no trunnions or carriages. The guns were laid on wooden blocks and frames, and piles were driven in behind or brick walls were erected for support. Initially, the elevation angle did not change. In the 15th century, primitive lifting mechanisms began to be used and bombards were cast from copper.

Let us pay attention? - The Tsar Cannon does not have trunnions, with the help of which the gun is given an elevation angle. In addition, it has an absolutely smooth rear section of the breech, with which it, like other bombards, rested against a stone wall or frame. (Diagram 1).

Scheme 1. Typical installation of a heavy bombard of the 15th–16th centuries. (In some cases, masonry was made between wooden piles and beams)

By the middle of the 15th century, the most powerful siege artillery was... the Turkish Sultan. Thus, during the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Hungarian foundry maker Urban cast the Turks a copper bombard with a caliber of 24 inches (610 mm), which fired stone cannonballs weighing about 20 pounds (328 kg). It took 60 bulls and 100 people to transport it to the position. To eliminate the rollback, the Turks built a stone wall behind the gun. The rate of fire of this bombard was 4 shots per day. By the way, the rate of fire of large-caliber Western European bombards was of the same order. Just before the capture of Constantinople, a 24-inch bombard exploded. At the same time, its designer Urban himself died (Diagram 2).

Scheme 2. Transporting a bombard to a combat position. (In fact, there were much more servants, but the medieval artist removed the people, otherwise the body of the weapon itself would not have been visible behind them)

The Turks appreciated large-caliber bombards. Already in 1480, during the battles on the island of Rhodes, they used 24-35-inch (610-890 mm) bombards. Casting such giant bombards required, as indicated in ancient documents, 18 days.

It is curious that bombards of the 15th–16th centuries in Turkey were in service until the mid-19th century. Thus, on March 1, 1807, during the crossing of the Dardanelles by the English squadron of Admiral Duckworth, a marble core of 25 inches (635 mm) caliber weighing 800 pounds (244 kg) hit the lower deck of the ship Windsor Castle and ignited several caps with gunpowder, which resulted in a terrible explosion. 46 people were killed and wounded. In addition, many sailors jumped overboard in fright and drowned. The Active ship was hit by the same cannonball and punched a huge hole in the side above the waterline. Several people could stick their heads through this hole.

In 1868, over 20 huge bombards still stood on the forts defending the Dardanelles. There is information that during the Dardanelles operation of 1915, the English battleship Agamemnon was hit by a 400-kilogram stone core. Of course, it was unable to penetrate the armor and only amused the team.

Let's compare the Turkish 25-inch (630 mm) copper bombard, cast in 1464, which is currently kept in the museum in Woolwich (London), with our Tsar Cannon.

The weight of the Turkish bombard is 19 tons, and the total length is 5232 mm. The outer diameter of the barrel is 894 mm. The length of the cylindrical part of the channel is 2819 mm. Chamber length 2006 mm. The bottom of the chamber is rounded. The bombard fired stone cannonballs weighing 309 kg, the gunpowder charge weighed 22 kg.

Bombarda once defended the Dardanelles. As you can see, in appearance and in the design of the channel it is very similar to the Tsar Cannon. The main and fundamental difference is that the Turkish bombard has a screw-in breech. Apparently, the Tsar Cannon was made based on the model of such bombards. (Ch. 3, 4).

Diagram 3. 25-inch copper Turkish bombard, cast in 1464.

Diagram 4. The Tsar Cannon, cast in Moscow in 1586. As we can see, this and the Turkish bombard are very similar in appearance

So, the Tsar Cannon? is a bombard designed to fire stone cannonballs. The weight of the stone core of the Tsar Cannon was about 50 pounds (819 kg), and a cast iron core of this caliber weighs 120 pounds (1.97 tons). As a shotgun, the Tsar Cannon was extremely ineffective. At the cost of the cost, instead, it was possible to produce 20 small shotguns, the loading of which would take not a day, but only 1–2 minutes. I note that in the official inventory “At the Moscow Arsenal of Artillery” in 1730 there were 40 copper and 15 cast iron shotguns. Let's pay attention to their calibers: 1500 pounds? - 1 (this is the Tsar Cannon), followed by calibers: 25 pounds? - 2, 22 pounds? - 1, 21 pounds? - 3, etc. The largest number of shotguns , 11, falls on the 2-pound gauge. Rhetorical question? - Where did our military think when they recorded the Tsar Cannon as shotguns?

An interesting detail: in 1980, specialists from the Academy named after A. Dzerzhinsky concluded that the Tsar Cannons were fired at least once.

After the Tsar Cannon was cast and finished at the Cannon Yard, it was dragged to the Spassky Bridge and laid on the ground next to the Peacock cannon. To move the cannon, ropes were tied to eight brackets on its barrel; 200 horses were harnessed to these ropes at the same time, and they rolled the cannon, which lay on huge logs? - rollers.

Initially, the “Tsar” and “Peacock” guns lay on the ground near the bridge leading to the Spasskaya Tower, and the Kashpirov cannon? - near the Zemsky Prikaz, located where the Historical Museum is now. In 1626 they were lifted from the ground and installed on log frames tightly packed with earth. These platforms were called roskats. One of them, with the Tsar Cannon and the Peacock, was placed at the Execution Ground, the other, with the Kashpirova cannon, at the Nikolsky Gate. In 1636, the wooden rolls were replaced with stone ones, inside which warehouses and shops selling wine were built.

After the “Narva embarrassment,” when the tsar’s army lost all siege and regimental artillery, Peter I ordered new cannons to be urgently cast. The king decided to obtain the copper necessary for this by melting down bells and ancient cannons. According to the “nominal decree”, it was “ordered to cast the Peacock cannon, which is on the rampart in China near the Execution Ground, into cannon and mortar casting; the Kashpirov cannon, which is near the new Money Dvor, where the Zemsky order was located; the Ekhidna cannon, near the village of Voskresensky; “Krechet” cannon with a ten-pound cannonball; "Nightingale" cannon with a 6-pound cannonball, which is in China on the square."

Peter, due to his lack of education, did not spare the most ancient tools of Moscow casting and made an exception only for the largest tools. Among them, naturally, was the Tsar Cannon, as well as two mortars cast by Andrei Chokhov, which are currently in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg.

We are talking about a 15-pound mortar, cast in 1587. Its caliber is 470 mm, length 1190 mm, weight 1265 kg. The mortar fired stone cannonballs weighing 6 pounds 25 pounds (109 kg). The 15-pound mortar was called based on the weight of the cast-iron core of its caliber. It is clear that she could not shoot a cast iron cannonball weighing 246 kg.

The second mortar was called the “Impostor’s Mortar”, since it was cast in 1606 by order of Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich (aka monk Grigory, in the world Yushka Otrepiev). The caliber of the mortar is 30 pounds (I repeat, based on the weight of the cast iron core) and, accordingly, 534 mm, barrel length 1310 mm, weight 1913 kg.

Both giant mortars have cylindrical charging chambers, but, unlike the Tsar Cannon, they are equipped with trunnions.

It is curious that the “Impostor’s Mortar” has trunnions in the middle of the barrel, and the rear section of the breech is smooth

I would venture to suggest that this mortar was intended to be used for flat shooting, and it is a hybrid of a mortar and a bombard.

In addition, Peter preserved Andrei Chokhov's Troilus and Aspid cannons, cast in 1590. Both guns currently stand near the walls of the Arsenal in the Kremlin.

The Troilus cannon is named after the king of Troy. On its torso, an image of this king was made in a rather caricatured form, as best they could... The trunk is equipped with trunnions and dolphins. The gun caliber is 195 mm, length is 4350 mm, weight is about 7 tons.

The Aspid cannon is named after a fantastic creature, a cross between the Serpent Gorynych and a crocodile. On the top of the muzzle of the cannon you can see a relief image of a beast with a wriggling tail. The inscription reads: "Aspid". On the middle part of the trunk? - dolphins and trunnions. There is a cast inscription on the treasury: “By the grace of God, by the command of the Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ivanovich of All Rus', this Aspid arquebus was made in the summer of 1590. Made by Ondrei Chokhov.” The “Aspida” caliber is 190 mm, length is 5150 mm, weight is about 6 tons. The barrel has trunnions, a torus and a wing, made in the form of a flattened ball.

The Troil and Aspid cannons were installed on cast iron fake carriages in 1843.

Also interesting are the tools cast at the end of the 17th century by the Moscow master Martyan Osipov. His first gun, a regimental arquebus, was made in 1666, and his last, in 1704. Osipov’s largest gun was the Unicorn cannon, named after the fairy-tale beast.

The image of a unicorn? - a monster with the body of a bull (and later? - a horse) and one horn is found in Indian chronicles of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Later, unicorns entered ancient Greek and Christian mythologies. It was believed that unicorns brought victory to knights, and the beast itself was patronized by the Virgin Mary. In the Middle Ages, the unicorn appeared on the coats of arms of many dukes and counts, and even English kings.

In Rus' in the 15th–17th centuries, the unicorn was called an inrog. It is curious that back in the 16th century we liked to call heavy guns “Inrogs”. The oldest weapon with this name. which has survived to this day and is kept in the Artillery Museum is a 68-hryvnia (caliber 216 mm) arquebus “Inrog”, cast from copper in 1577 in Moscow by master Andrei Chokhov. The weight of the gun body is 7435 kg, length 5160 mm. The cannon has no vining rod, and the flat torel is decorated with cast images of a unicorn.

The history of this weapon is very interesting. "Inrog" took part in the Livonian War, and in 1633–1634. was part of the Russian siege artillery near Smolensk. There he was captured by the Poles and sent to the Elbing fortress. On December 3, 1703, Elbing was taken by the Swedish king Charles XII, and the Inrog was sent to Stockholm as a trophy. In 1723, the Swedish merchant Yagan Prim sawed the arquecha into three parts and delivered it to Russia by sea. By order of Peter I, craftsman Semyon Leontyev skillfully soldered the barrel, after which Inrog was sent to the St. Petersburg Arsenal.

The caliber of the Unicorn cannon cast by Martyan Osipov is 225 mm, length 7.56 m, and weight 12.76 tons. The cannon is decorated with a lush ornament of leaves and herbs, including figures of people and bears. On the right side of the muzzle there is a relief image of a unicorn. The barrel rests on a cast-iron decorative carriage, cast in 1835 at the Byrd factory.

The Gamayun cannon, cast by Osipov in 1670, has much smaller dimensions. Its caliber is 6 pounds (95 mm), barrel length is 4380 mm, weight is 1670 kg. But its highlight is the faceted barrel. The muzzle of the gun is round, and the middle and breech parts are fourteen-sided. The faceted part of the barrel is very similar to existing images of Western European cannons from the early 16th century, and the stripes of floral patterns completely coincide with the decor of a Polish cannon cast in 1521 (we will talk about it later). Let me note that among Russian guns, a faceted barrel is quite a rare occurrence. The image on a breech cut of ice with a hole for a ring in the mouth is completely uncharacteristic of Moscow casting.

Interestingly, the name of the gun was not taken by chance. The fabulous bird Gamayun came to us from Aryan mythology at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the Middle Ages in the East it was revered as the royal bird. And in the Western Russian lands in the 14th century, the Gamayun bird was considered the patroness of artillery. At the end of the 16th century, the bird Gamayun, sitting on the breech of a cannon, became the coat of arms of the Smolensk Principality. (Ch. 5, 6).

Scheme 5. Smolensk Pulo of the late 14th century.

Scheme 6. Coat of arms of Smolensk from the charter

During the war with Poland 1653–1667. many Polish siege weapons were captured. Several of them are on display in the Kremlin. Among them is the Persian cannon, cast in 1619 by Master Leonard Rothenberg. Its characteristic external feature is a cast barrel. In 1685, Martyan Osipov made a “remake” of it - the “New Persian” cannon. Gun caliber 43 pounds (180 mm), length 4.98 m, weight 5782 kg. The muzzle of the barrel is twisted, and the middle part is scaly. On the flat rear section of the breech, instead of a vingrad, there is a cast bas-relief with a bust of a Persian in a turban.

In 1693, Martyan, by decree of Peter I, cast a 45-pound (185 mm) Eagle cannon according to the “Dutch manir”. The length of the gun is 3556 mm, and the weight is 3.6 tons. It, like all Kremlin guns, is placed on a cast-iron fake carriage.

An interesting thing is the Onager cannon, cast in Moscow in 1581 by master Kuzmin the First. Its caliber is 190 mm, length 4.18 m, weight 5.12 tons. A figurine of a wild donkey, an onager, seems to be glued to the muzzle of the gun. Historian K. Ya. Tromonik believed that the image of the animal was soldered to the barrel, but in fact it was cast integrally with the barrel, which is evidence of the high level of skill of Moscow foundry workers.

A remake of Chokhov's Troilus cannon was the New Troilus cannon, cast in 1685 in Moscow by master Yakov Dubina. Its caliber is 43 pounds (180 mm), length 4935 mm, weight 6584 kg.

Of the ancient foreign cannons located on fake cast-rune carriages in Moscow, the “Bison” cannon, cast in 1629 in Danzig by master Ludwig Wichtendahl, is interesting. I note that in our literature the “Bison” cannon is called the “Buffalo”. Its caliber is 25 pounds (150 mm), length is 2947 mm, weight is 1523 kg.

Among the Polish trophies of the war of 1653–1667, located in the Kremlin, in addition to the already mentioned “Persian,” there is a “Basilisk” cannon, cast in 1581 by master Hieronicus Vitoli.

But the oldest Polish cannon, cast in 1547 (its name and maker are unknown), entered the new millennium with a sign: “70-mm copper cannon. Cast in 1547 Moscow. Weight 1 ton. Length 2.5 m.”

Although I am accustomed to mistakes in the plates for guns in our museums, I succumbed to the provocation and included a photo of this gun with the indicated signature in my “Encyclopedia of Russian Artillery”.

Another question is that this is clearly not a “blunder”, since the Kremlin’s guns have been studied by serious specialists for more than 200 years, but most likely politics. Nowadays, few people know that in 1921 Poland imposed a shameful and predatory peace on the young Soviet Republic, taking advantage of the temporary weakness of our country.

Thus, Russia had to transfer only railway property worth 18,245 thousand rubles in gold in 1913 prices, including 555 steam locomotives, 17 thousand cars, etc. Moreover, the Polish government demanded that all valuables ever be transferred to it exported during the period following the first partition of Poland. The Poles made demands on many monuments stored in the Artillery Historical and Suvorov Museums. They were given 57 cannons of the 16th–18th centuries, 67 banners and standards. After carefully comparing coats of arms, mottos and other heraldic symbols on banners and standards, the historian P. I. Belavenets established that they were not Polish, but Swedish, and presented such convincing evidence to the Polish side that the Poles abandoned their claims. But in 1932 the demand was renewed, and the Russian side, “in order not to spoil relations,” still unfairly gave what was demanded.

From the collection of the Suvorov Museum, which was kept at that time in the Artillery Historical Museum, the Poles took the keys to Warsaw and silver kettledrums presented to A.V. Suvorov by the Warsaw magistrate in 1794, many Polish banners, weapons and other items of those times. By the way, the Inrog arquebus, taken by the Poles near Smolensk, was later bought back by Russian merchants with gold.

By the way, all these valuables, taken by force from Russian museums, were of no use to the Poles. In 1939, they became trophies of the Germans, and were mainly privatized by the German command. So Suvorov’s keys and timpani went to the new winners of Warsaw.

For obvious reasons, the Poles were not allowed into the Kremlin and, apparently, they lied that there were no Polish guns there. The Persian and Basilisk cannons are located on the eastern side of the Arsenal, where our “stompers” do not allow anyone with a lantern during the day. But people walked past the 1547 cannon in the 1960s? - 1990s, and they stuck a fake sign on it.

The last Kremlin gun worth mentioning is the Lev. It was cast in 1705 by master Karl Balashevich in the city of Glukhov in Ukraine. The cannon itself is not a masterpiece of artillery of that time, although I note that in Ukraine from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries, local craftsmen made excellent guns for the hetman’s troops, which were not inferior to, and often superior to, Polish and Moscow models.

“Lion” did not attract much attention from historians, but in 1980, employees of the Academy named after. Dzerzhinsky found out that it was... loaded, and this was done at the very beginning of the 18th century. The cannon defended some Ukrainian fortress, either from the troops of Charles XII, or from the troops of Peter I, and it was loaded with a special charge to repel the assault.

The caliber of the Lev gun is about 125 mm. As befits a gun, there is no charging chamber. The bottom of the channel is rounded. Initially, a powder charge was poured into the channel, then a wooden wad 163 mm long, then a cast iron core with a diameter of 91 mm, then again a wooden wad 166 mm long. And then a charge of large buckshot was sent, and the bullets were spherical cast iron with a diameter of 23 mm and 30 mm. There were obviously not enough bullets, so they added several stones with a maximum size of 70 to 40 mm. To prevent stones and bullets from flying out, a third wooden wad 183 mm long was hammered into the barrel last. (Ch. 7).

Diagram 7. Layout of the charge removed from the barrel of the Lev gun. 1? - ​​wad with a diameter of 119 x 183 mm, wood; 2-fraction approx. 70x60x40 mm, stone; 3? - buckshot with a diameter of 23 mm and 30 mm, cast iron; 4? - wad with a diameter of 93 x 166 mm, wood; 5? - core with a diameter of 91 mm, cast iron; 6? - wad with a diameter of 124 x 163 mm, wood; 7? - gunpowder residues

After the end of hostilities, they forgot to unload the cannon, and it remained loaded for 271 years. Almost all of our old guns were stored in the open air, filled with cigarette butts. Let’s imagine a funny picture? - Some “stomper” in the 1930s? - In the 1940s, he would have put an unextinguished cigarette into the flash hole of the “Lion”. A shot would ring out... The NKVD would have more worries!