The year of birth of the engineering troops in Russia is considered to be 1701. This year, Peter I, as part of the military reform he was carrying out, signed a decree on the creation of the first engineering school.
Eleven years later, in 1712, by the decree of the same Peter I, the organization of military engineers' units was fixed, the staff and number of engineering units at the artillery regiment were determined and approved. The regiment included: a pontoon team, a mine company and an engineering team.
Also, Peter I launched a large-scale engineering education and training not only for artillery regiments, but also for the rest of the regular troops in general.
The decree of Peter I of 1713 read: "It was ordered that the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Preobrazhensky regiment who were in St. Petersburg in the winter time should not spend time in idleness and gulba, but study engineering." In 1721, this order was extended to other regiments. An additional incentive for officers, when teaching engineering skills, was an increase in rank: "It is very necessary for officers to know engineering, so that non-commissioned officers will also be trained as a trainer, and when he doesn’t know either, then the manufacturer will not be higher ranks."
With the development of military engineering, the field of use of engineering units expanded and the question arose of separating the engineering service from artillery. Therefore, since 1724, the engineering units received a new state and began to be part of the troops, as separate units, they were also included in the fortress garrisons, and an engineer inspector appeared in each province.
The transformations that began to be carried out under Peter I determined the organization and development of military engineering in Russia for the entire 18th century.
At the beginning of the Seven Years War, engineering units consisted of military engineers, engineering apprentices, conductors (a military rank assigned to draftsmen and artists in the main, district and field engineering departments), a company of miners and artisans. The field army in 1756, in the first year of the war, included only a mine company and a pontoon team, which was with artillery. In the course of hostilities, it became clear that these units were clearly not enough, so in the winter of 1757 the mine company was replaced by an engineer regiment, and the pontoon team was deployed into a company of three squads, thirty people in each squad. In total, the engineering regiment numbered 1830 people and had all the equipment and tools necessary for the state.
In the course of the battles of the Seven Years War, the need often arose to quickly establish crossings, and the technique of pontoon connections was improved. Engineering and design thought began to develop, so in 1759 Captain A. Nemov designed and successfully used in combat a canvas pontoon, distinguished by its low weight, simple design and significant cheapness compared to copper pontoons.
In 1771, in addition to the already existing units, a "pioneer battalion of the general staff" was formed to assist in the crossing and bridge operations during the combat operations of the field troops. But in 1775, the battalion was disbanded, it was replaced by another pontoon company and a road and bridge specialist, who was part of the infantry regiment companies.
By the end of the 18th century, the number of engineering troops increased significantly, which, however, led to the cumbersomeness and dispersion of engineering units, and besides, in general, the engineering service remained part of the artillery, which did not meet the strategic principles of mass armies.
Therefore, at the beginning of the 19th century, in 1802, with the advent of the Ministry of War, the engineering service finally separated from the artillery and got its own department called the Engineering Expedition. Only the pontoons remained under the command of the Artillery Expedition.
In the period from 1803 to 1806, taking into account the combat experience, several more reorganizations of the engineering troops of the Russian army were carried out.
By 1812, the active army consisted of 10 mine and pioneer companies, 14 engineering companies were in the fortresses, and pontoon companies attached to artillery took part in the hostilities.
Under the command of MI Kutuzov, all the pioneer companies were united under the general command of General Ivashev, the chief of communications of the army, who organized two military brigades from them.
Kutuzov also ordered Ivashev to organize a team of mounted warriors to improve the mobility of engineering units during a counteroffensive, to fix roads in front of the advancing army. This is how the first horse-pioneer squadrons in history were created.
Before the overseas campaign, the number of engineering units was brought to 40 companies (24 pioneer, 8 mine and 8 sapper). The task of the pioneer formations was the construction of bridges, roads, field fortifications, as well as the destruction of enemy barriers and fortifications in the direction of movement of their troops. Miners and sappers were used in the construction of permanent fortifications, in the attack and defense of fortresses. The pontoon bridges were used by pontoons.
The military experience of the Patriotic War of 1812 showed the need to increase the number and the next reorganization of the engineering troops. In the period from 1816 to 1822, such a reorganization was carried out, a transition to the battalion system was carried out, each army corps received one sapper or pioneer battalion, the pioneer and sapper battalions themselves were merged into three pioneer brigades.
Since 1829, the pioneer battalions were renamed into sapper battalions, a little later in 1844, miner companies also began to be called sapper companies. From that moment, all engineering divisions became known as sappers.
The reorganization also affected the pontoon companies, they were transferred to the subordination of the engineering department and introduced into the pioneer and sapper battalions, and began to provide crossings not only for artillery, but also for other types of troops. At the same time, on the basis of the hostilities of 1812, army and guards horse-pioneer squadrons were organized.
Thus, as a result of the reorganization, by the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, the engineering troops were completely separated from artillery and received the status of an independent type of troops, as part of the active army, their number was just over 21 thousand people (2, 3% of the composition the whole army).
By the beginning of the Crimean War (1853-1856), the Russian army had three sapper brigades.
The main shortcomings of the engineering troops of that time were poor technical equipment and a significant separation of sapper battalions from the directorates of army corps and brigades that they provided.
Over time, with the development of production and technical capabilities and technology, with the emergence and construction of highways and railways, with the beginning of the widespread use of the telegraph and telephone, the technical equipment of the army also developed.
The change in the material and technical conditions of warfare led to new military reforms carried out in the Russian army from 2860 to 1874.
The engineering troops, which underwent the next necessary reorganization and significant changes, did not stand aside. Railway battalions (1870), military marching telegraph parks (1874) appeared as part of the engineering troops, pontoon battalions received the Tomilovsky metal park at their disposal.
A new specialist in underwater mine work appears in the engineering divisions. For the qualified training of such specialists, a special educational institution is being created - a technical galvanic one, which was opened in the spring of 1857.
By the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war (1877-1878), having undergone another reorganization, the engineering troops numbered 20, 5 thousand people (2, 8% of the total army). After the end of the war, new specialties were added to them: pigeon communication and aeronautics, and the number of electrical, railway and mine-fortress units increased. Additional field engineering parks were also established.
By the end of the 19th century, the engineering troops were an independent branch of the army in the field and had clearly defined tasks and goals in the conduct of hostilities. Their tasks included maintaining fortress building, ensuring combat operations for infantry, cavalry and artillery, mine warfare, performing engineering tasks during the defense and siege of fortresses, arranging crossings and routes, as well as telegraph lines. To carry out these tasks, the engineering troops included electricians, military railroad workers, signalmen, aeronautics, miners, pontoons and sappers.
At the beginning of the 20th, finally taking shape as a separate branch of the military, the engineering troops acquired the status of army innovators. Having talented design engineers in their ranks, they became the conductor of all military technical innovations, both in the army and in the navy.
The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) showed the increased role of the engineer troops and provided many examples for the provision and organization of defense. Generalization of the experience of the Russian-Japanese war in general and especially the heroic defense of Port Arthur became a significant contribution to the further development of military engineering thought. It was during this war that field fortification was finally established as a necessary means of defense, both its main and one of its most important forms - continuous long trenches. The unsuitability of the redoubts and other bulk fortifications was revealed.
For the first time, defensive positions in the rear were erected in advance. During the defense of Port Arthur, a solid, fortified position was created, the fort belt of the Port Arthur fortress was turned into it, where long-term and field fortifications mutually complemented each other. Thanks to this, the storming of the fortress cost the Japanese army huge losses, 100,000 people killed and wounded, which exceeded the number of the garrison of Port Arthur four times.
Also during this war, camouflage was used for the first time, barbed wire was used in huge quantities as a means of barrage. Electrified, mine-explosive and other obstacles are widely used.
Thanks to the order of the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops: "For each part of the troops assigned to attack a fortified point, there should be sappers and hunting teams with material to destroy obstacles", for the first time in the Russian army, defensive and engineering reconnaissance groups were created to take part in the offensive.
This was the birth of integrated combat engineering. The sappers followed at the head of the assault column, performing engineering reconnaissance and paving the way for the infantry through hard-to-reach terrain and through artificial obstacles of the enemy.
The Russo-Japanese War also gave impetus to a further increase in the number of engineering units. Before the First World War, the contingent of engineering troops consisted of 9 pontoon battalions, 39 sapper battalions, 38 aviation detachments, 7 aeronautical and 7 spark companies, 25 parks and several reserve units, which in general exceeded the number of engineering units in the German army.
With the development of new technical means of war, which were first used on the battlefield by the engineering troops, new subdivisions and units were created for the use of these means in battle, which subsequently grew into independent branches of the military.
It is the engineering troops that can be considered the ancestor of such types of troops as:
Railway troops (the first to separate from the engineering troops in 1904)
Aviation (1910-1918), Automobile and armored forces (1914-1918), Searchlight troops (1904-1916), Chemical troops (1914-1918), The initial development of the methods of using units of these types of troops was carried out within the framework of the military engineering art, by engineers and designers of the engineering troops.
With the outbreak of the First World War, all European countries appreciated the work of the Russian engineering troops, none of the countries prepared its territory for the conduct of hostilities in the way that Russia prepared it, in fact, there was no training in other countries at all.
In the course of this war, a system of field, well-fortified positions made of continuous trenches, interconnected by communication passages and reliably covered with barbed wire, was finalized, improved and put into practice.
Various barriers, especially wire ones, have received great development. Although they were quite easily destroyed, nevertheless, such barriers were widely used in the course of hostilities in the form of slingshots of spiral hedgehogs, etc.
When equipping positions, various shelters, dugouts, and shelters also began to be widely used, reinforced concrete, armor and corrugated steel began to be used. Mobile armored covers for cannons and enclosed structures for machine guns have found their application.
In the course of the hostilities of the First World War, the outlines of more flexible forms of defense organization began to emerge.
The new defense organization, which first appeared in the positional period of the First World War, also required the introduction of significant changes in the conduct and preparation of offensive operations. Now, to break through the enemy positions, a thorough engineering preparation of the initial bridgeheads began. With the help of engineering units, the necessary conditions were created for the hidden deployment of troops and the freedom of their maneuvers, the possibility of a simultaneous attack on the enemy's front edge and the further advance of troops into the depth of the defense was ensured.
Such an organization of engineering preparation for the attack was laborious, but it invariably contributed to the successful breakthrough of the enemy's defenses, such as the famous Brusilov breakthrough.
During the First World War, the engineering troops once again proved their significant role in the conduct of successful hostilities. And the art of military engineering received another branch - engineering support for offensive combat and operations, which originated and was first used precisely during the First World War.
The Civil War, which began soon after, confirmed the necessity and correctness of engineering support for the assault actions of the advancing troops. With the beginning of the war, the period of military engineering art of the Soviet era began.
Soviet engineering troops were created with the organization of the Red Army. In 1919, special engineering units were formally formed.
During the civil war, the number of engineering units of the Red Army increased 26 times. During this war, the engineering troops of the Red Army, even in the face of an acute shortage of ferry facilities, successfully organized crossings of troops across wide water barriers.
An insurmountable obstacle for Yudenich's troops was a powerful defensive center created by sappers of the Red Army on the outskirts of Petrograd.
During the offensive of General Denikin's troops on Moscow, the engineering troops of the Red Army carried out an enormous amount of work to fortify the city's defense lines.
Also, the red sappers played an important role in the capture of the Crimea.
Such a successful use of the engineering troops of the Red Army during the Civil War became possible due to the fact that when creating the Red Army, a lot of attention was paid to the training of qualified engineering units. The Engineering Academy did not stop its educational work, and in addition, at the end of 1918, the Bolsheviks, by various measures, found many academy teachers and even senior students, and returned them to their places, which made it possible to produce in the same 1918 as many as two graduations of military engineers with higher education. In the winter of 1918, classes at the Nikolaev Engineering School were resumed (1st Petrograd Engineering Courses of the Red Army), engineering courses were opened in Samara, Moscow, Kazan, Yekaterinoslav. Thus, from the very first day of its existence, the Red Army was provided with educated military engineers.
In 1924, together with the military reform that began, the structure of the engineering troops of the Red Army began to be created.
The number of engineering troops was indicated, 5% of the total number of the army (25705 people). The army had: 39 separate sapper companies, 9 separate sapper half-squadrons, 5 pontoon battalions, 10 separate sapper squadrons, 18 sapper battalions, 3 fortress mine detachments, 5 fortress sapper companies, 5 transport motor-pontoon detachments, 1 training pontoon-mine division, 1 mine detachment, 2 electrotechnical battalions, 1 training electrotechnical battalion, 1 separate searchlight company, 2 separate combat camouflage companies, 1 training camouflage company, 17 truck detachments, Petrograd motor transport battalion, 1 training motorized brigade, 39 motor vehicles, Kronstadt engineering and engineering company battalion of the Petrograd fortified region.
In the thirties, in the course of the industrialization of the country, the technical re-equipment of the engineering troops took place. During this period, the engineering troops received: mine detector IZ, mechanized folding bridge, tank bridgelayer IT-28, a set of reconnaissance equipment and overcoming electrical barriers, knife and roller trawls for T-26, BT, T-28 tanks; rubber inflatable boat A-3, small inflatable boat LMN, swimming bag for horses MPK, set of TZI for laying light floating bridges (for infantry crossing), heavy pontoon fleet Н2П (floating bridge with carrying capacity from 16 to 60 tons), light pontoon fleet NLP (a floating bridge with a carrying capacity of up to 14 tons.), (a floating bridge for railway trains), a special pontoon park SP-19, collapsible metal bridges on rigid supports RMM-1, RMM-2, RMM-4, tugboats BMK-70, NKL-27, outboard motors SZ-10, SZ-20, metal collapsible pile driver for driving piles in the construction of bridges.
In the field of military engineering science and engineering weapons, the Red Army was significantly ahead of the army of the Wehrmacht and the armies of other countries of the world.
General Karbyshev
A talented engineer, General Karbyshev during these years developed the theory of the creation of engineering barrage units and the harmonious tactics of using antipersonnel and anti-tank mines. In the same period, a large number of means of detonation of standard explosive charges (electric blasting machines, detonator caps, a fuse) were developed and adopted into service. New anti-personnel mines were developed (PMK-40, OZM-152, DP-1, PMD-6,) anti-tank mines (PTM-40, AKS, TM-35 TM-35), as well as a whole series of anti-vehicle, anti-train and object mines … A radio-controlled object mine was created (the mine was detonated using a radio signal). In 1941-42, it was with the help of these mines that the buildings in Odessa and Kharkov, in which the German headquarters were located, were blown up by a radio signal from Moscow.
High training and equipment of the Red Army engineering troops ensured the success of the hostilities on Khalkhin Gol (1939). In this desert area, they supplied the troops with the necessary amount of water, maintained the huge length of the road in working order, organized the camouflage of the troops (Japanese air reconnaissance was unable to detect the accumulation of the Red Army forces), and ensured the successful crossing of rivers when the troops attacked.
Complex tasks were solved by the engineering troops during the Soviet-Finnish war. Here they had to fight with the defensive line created by the Finns, taking into account natural natural barriers (a large number of lakes, rock ridges, mountainous terrain, woodlands), using additional reinforcements in the form of forest blockages, collapsed rocks and obstacles in the water.
It was much harder for the engineering troops in the first period of the Great Patriotic War.
By the beginning of June 1941, almost all the engineering formations of the western direction were on the construction of fortifications on the new border in Poland. At the time of the outbreak of hostilities, they did not have any weapons (only carbines) or vehicles, which allowed the Germans to easily capture the erected fortifications, the materiel of sappers, the personnel were partially destroyed, partially captured.
Therefore, the advanced formations of the Red Army entered the first battles with the Nazis without any engineering support.
It was necessary to urgently form new sapper units; for this, the engineering and pontoon regiments of the RVGK were even disbanded from the personnel of which new sapper battalions were formed.
On the Northwestern and Northern fronts, the situation with the engineering troops in the first days of the war was better. Sappers successfully covered the withdrawal of troops, destroyed bridges, created impassable zones of obstacles and destruction, and set up minefields. On the Kola Peninsula, thanks to the competent actions of the engineering troops, it was possible to stop the advance of the Germans and Finns altogether. Units of the Red Army with a small amount of artillery and infantry, with an almost complete absence of tanks, using natural obstacles and non-explosive barriers, and explosive barriers managed to create an indestructible defense. So unbreakable that Hitler gave up offensive operations in the north.
By the beginning of the battle near Moscow, the situation with the engineering troops was no longer so deplorable, the number of engineering units was brought to 2-3 battalions per army by the beginning of the battle, by the end there were already 7-8 battalions.
It was possible to create the Vyazemskaya defense line with a depth of 30-50 kilometers. Mozhaisk line of defense 120 km. from Moscow. Defensive lines were also created directly at the city's borders.
It is no exaggeration to say that the besieged Leningrad survived and did not surrender precisely thanks to the engineering troops. The city was not left without supplies thanks to the Road of Life, which passes through the ice of Lake Ladoga, laid and supported by engineering troops.
On the approaches to Stalingrad, engineering troops erected 1,200 kilometers of defensive lines. The constant communication of the city with the left bank was provided by the pontoon units of the engineering troops.
The engineering troops also played an important role in the preparation of the defense on the Kursk Bulge.
From April to July, eight defensive zones were erected, 250-300 kilometers deep. The length of the dug trenches and communication passages reached 8 kilometers per kilometer of the front. 250 bridges with a total length of 6.5 km were built and repaired. and 3000 km. roads. Only in the defense zone of the Central Front (300 km.) 237 thousand anti-tank mines, 162 thousand anti-personnel mines, 146 object mines, 63 radio explosives, 305 kilometers of barbed wire were installed. The consumption of mines in the directions of a possible strike reached 1600 minutes per kilometer of the front.
A lot of work has been done to mask objects and positions.
And even thanks to the sappers, the command was able to find out the exact time of the start of the German offensive and the direction of the strike. The sappers managed to capture their German colleague, who was engaged in making passages in our minefields, who gave the exact time of the start of the attack.
The skillful combination of mine-explosive obstacles, fortification defenses and artillery fire allowed the Red Army for the first time in the war to stand on the defensive and launch a counteroffensive.
The accumulated combat experience in the use of engineering troops also allowed them to operate successfully in all subsequent battles and battles for the liberation of their country and European countries.
Stalin, in order to emphasize the importance of the engineering troops, in 1943 issued a decree introducing the ranks of "Marshal of the Engineering Troops" and "Chief Marshal of the Engineering Troops" into the troops.
After the surrender of Germany, a war with Japan began, and here the engineering troops also successfully solved the tasks assigned to them. For the engineering units of the troops advancing from the Primorsky Territory, the main task was to lay traffic routes in the taiga, through the hills and swamps, the Ussuri, Sungach, Sungari, Daubikhe rivers and the rivers of Northeast China. In Transbaikalia, the main task of the engineering troops was to provide the troops with water, camouflage, designate paths for movement in the desert steppe terrain and lay paths for movement through the mountains.
The engineering troops also successfully completed the tasks of breaking through the long-term fortifications of the Japanese.
After the end of the war, the engineering troops, due to their increased and deservedly recognized importance, were significantly reduced in comparison with other types of troops. In addition, after the war, the engineering troops did an enormous amount of work to clear the area, restore communications, bridges and roads.
In the postwar years, a rapid technical development of the engineering troops began.
Sapper units were armed with mine detectors VIM-625 and UMIV, sets of technical means for remote disposal of ammunition, an IFT bomb detector. … In 1948, the MTU tank bridgelayer entered service. Later, it was replaced by the twenty-meter MTU-20 and MT-55 bridgelayers and a set of the heavy mechanized forty-meter bridge TMM (on 4 KRAZ vehicles). New anti-mine roller tank trawls PT-54, PT-55, later KMT-5 were adopted.
Ferry facilities - inflatable and prefabricated boats, a more advanced pontoon fleet of the CCI, and a railway pontoon fleet of PPS - have received significant development. In the early 60s, the troops received a PMP pontoon fleet.
Such a rapid technical equipping of the engineering troops quickly brought them to a qualitatively new level, when they were able to perform engineering support tasks in accordance with the mobility and firepower of the main combat arms.
With the collapse of the USSR, the army began to disintegrate, and with it, the engineering troops. The history of the new Russian army and, accordingly, the engineering troops began with it, but this is another story, modern.
