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HISTORIOGRAPHY AND SOURCE STUDIES
УДК 930(47)«1753/1762»:358
V.N. Benda
The national historiography of the contribution of General
Feldzeugmeister Petr Ivanovich Shuvalov to the development of Artillery and Engineering in Russia in the middle of the XVIII century
Отечественная историография о вкладе генерал-фельдцейхмейстера Петра Ивановича Шувалова в развитие артиллерии и инженерного дела России в середине XVIII в.
The article analyzes some of the national sources, which contain different perspectives on the fecundity of the reforms carried out by P. I. Shuvalov in the fields of Artillery and Engineering in the middle of the XVIII century. The author focuses on the fact that a lot of researches belonging to reputable and well-known military historians, researchers and groups of authors contain completely opposite views on the authorship of those or other artillery tool project, which was accepted for arming of Russian Army in the end of the 50-s of the XVIII century. Some of these points of view by the way do not correspond to the historical reality.
В статье анализируются некоторые из отечественных работ, в которых приводятся различные точки зрения на результативность реформ, проведенных П.И. Шуваловым в области артиллерийского и инженерного дела в середине XVIII столетия. Автор акцентирует внимание на том факте, что во многих работах и исследованиях авторитетных и известных военных историков, ученых и авторских коллективов, изданных в разные периоды, иногда приводятся совершенно противоположные мнения по поводу авторства тех или иных проектов новых образцов артиллерийских орудий, разработанных и принятых на вооружение русской армии в конце 50-х гг. XVIII в,. причем некоторые из них не соответствуют исторической действительности.
Key words: the middle of the XVIII century, General Feldzeugmeister, P.I. Shuvalov, The Russian Army, The Artillery, The Corps of Engineers, the ordnance.
Ключевые слова: середина XVIII в.; генерал-фельдцейхмейстер;
П.И. Шувалов; русская армия; артиллерия; инженерный корпус; артиллерийские орудия.
According to the Empress Elizabeth I decree from the 31th of May, 1756, The Earl Petr Ivanovich Shuvalov was appointed Chief of The Artillery and The Corps of Engineers (General Feldzeugmeister - V. B.)
© Benda V.N., 2015
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[1. D. 960. L. 16]. He became the seventh General Feldzeugmeister and the second of russian nationality. By that time Russian Artillery and Corps of Engineers functioned without a chief for a long time because there was nobody appointed this position after the sudden death of the previous General Feldzeugmeister, V.A. Repnin, in 1748. The long-time absence of the head of The Military Collegium (1746-1760) and the head of The Office of Artillery and Fortification (1748-1756) caused the decay of these two central departments of military control. It negatively influenced the organization of everyday-life of The Russian Army in general and The Corpses of Artillery and Engineers in particular.
The situation was perfectly described in the report to The Coferention (the deliberative department of Elizaveta Petrovna's time consisted of close to The Empress people which influenced the functioning of central departments of the state governance including The Senate and The Collegiums - V. B.). According to this report The Artillery «... in conditions of the frequent change of lower-rank commanders and concomitant this defects and failures The Artillery has come in such a deplorable state...», that without new chief appointment there will be very complicative, maybe even impossible, to reform the organization of The Artillery and The Corps of Engineers [1. D. 958.
L. 15 ob.].
The researches of the artillery and engineering development history published in the pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet periods contains a lot of materials about The Earl Petr Ivanovich Shuvalov and his activity in the civil and military fields [2, p. 300-308; 4, p. 41-51; 5, p. 180-263; 11, p. 262-271; 13, p. 479-490; 16, p. 28-29; 17, p. 225-240, 259-262; 18, p. XXXVII-XLIV etc.].
The national historiography have few negative opinions and estimations of the results of P.I. Shuvalov's activity as a Chief of The Artillery and The Corps of Engineers, the evaluations mostly are positive.
As an example, well-known Russian historian of The Artillery, The Lieutenant General N.E. Brandenburg noted that «... the Shuvalov's period, despite it did not last for a long time, was one of the most operose and substantial periods, the more that all the time it was accompanied by outer military events, in which the artillery played an important role. The Seven Year's War gives a variety of military merit to the Shuvalov's artillery ...» [4, p. 58].
The teacher of The Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, The Colonel A. A. Nilus noted that P. I. Shuvalov managed to make the right conclusions of the defect of Russian artillery of that time - insufficient maneuverability and a large variety of the ordnance, - and tried to solve this problems by creating such ordnance system that could remain in arming up to the introduction of the rifled artillery [11, p. 264].
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The main merit of P. I. Shuvalov as a Chief of engineers is that he, without an introduction to anything new, sistematized everything established before his assignment. The Earl Shuvalov's ruling The Corps of Engineers was lightest page in the history of this department for the second half of the XVIII century [18, p. XLII-XLIII].
Well-known Soviet historian of The Artillery, The Major-General of The Artillery D. E.Kozlovskii, noted that the period after Peter I in the history of artillery development was stagnant. Even if any changes existed they mostly worsened the situation. Professor D.E.Kozlovskii thought that widescale and favorable changes of the Russian artillery came with the P.I. Shuvalov's appointment to the position of General Feldzeugmeister. Though he was not an artilleryst, «... he introduced a lot of new and useful things thanks both to his initiative and ingenuity and to inventors» [8, p. 80].
«The history of national artillery» tells us that after the stagantion of the second quarter of the XVIII century the rapid development came in the middle of this century. The Russian ordnance produced not long before The Seven Year's War was the best in the world and later its design features were borrowed by Western artillery [5, p. 265].
One of the contemporary researches tells us that the Russian artillery has acquired its former glory with the beginning of The Seven Year's War, when the influential and enterprising Earl P.I. Shuvalov was appointed to the position of the Chief of artillery. He has fundamentally reorganized artillery and armed it with the perfect ordnance [14, p. 70].
The excellent results of artillery transformations made by P.I. Shuvalov were even caroled by M. V. Lomonosov [17, p. 26]:
С Елизаветой бог и храбрость генералов
(There are The God and generals' bravery with Elizabeth)
Российска грудь, твои орудия, Шувалов.
(the Russian chest, your ordnance, Suvalov.)
The famous Russian historian and academic, Vasilii Osipovich Klyuchevskii, wrote about P.I. Shuvalov: «There is a stirring
enterpreneur-inventor of the Peter I epoch who resurrected in the Elisabeth's Senator, The Earl P.I. Shuvalov. The financier, the codificator, the land surveyor, the military organizer, the tax farmer, the engineer and the artilleryst, the inventor of the special «secret» howitzers, that made a lot of wonders in the time of The Seven Year's War. Shuvalov was supposed to have an answer to any question and to have a solution project to any problem, especially to the financial one» [6, p. 283].
There are different perspectives on the authorship of new types of ordnance in the military historical literature of different periods. Some sources say that the inventor of the new types of ordnance was P.I. Shuvalov, the other consider the artillery officers Bishev,
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M.V. Danilov and M.G. Martynov to be the inventors. The last say that P.I. Shuvalov gave their inventions for his own ones.
N.E. Brandenburg does not cast doubt on the P.I. Shuvalov's involvement in the invention of new types of the ordnance. Describing this or that new type of the ordnance Nikolai Efimovich underlines the authorship of P.I. Shuvalov by using such phrases as: «the most significant Shuvalov's project is the project of the long howitzers suggested by him in 1757» [4, p. 45], «... Shuvalov managed to apply in practice his new ordnance...» [4, p. 46] and so on.
N.E. Brandenburg in his research makes not a single mention of Bishev, Danilov and Martynov.
Another well-known historian of national artillery, A. A. Nilus, casts doubt on the categoricity of M. V. Danilov's assertions about the fact that there were he and Martinov who invented the new types of ordnance, so-called «bliznyata» and «unicorns», and P.I. Shuvalov just used their projects. A. A. Nilus noted that at the same time «... lots of others try to take away the honor (meaning the Shuvalov's honor of the authorship of the new types of ordnance - V. B.) ...» [11, p. 262-263].
The research of the group of authors «The history of the national artillery» categorically asserts that «the inventors of «the unicorns» were the outstanding Russian artillerysts, M.V. Danilov and M.G. Martinov» [5,
p. 262].
Another research of the same kind, «The Artillery», says that the significant innovation in the ordnance «...has become the new type of the ordnance invented by M.V. Danilov and M.G. Martinov and named «the unicorn»» [10, p. 22].
Yet another research describing the history of the Russian artillery development during the six centuries even doesn't mention the new types of Russian ordnance in the beginning of the XVIII century. It only mentions in passing that Russian artillery showed off its outstanding quality in the period of The Seven Year's War [12, p. 38].
To be fair lets note that the researches of the Soviet historians also contain opposite opinions. Thus the Soviet military historian, D.E. Kozlovskii, directly points that the authorship of the «unicorns» and «secret new-invented howitzers» projects belongs to P.I. Shuvalov [8, p. 81].
Considered to be a military historian A.B. Shirokorad wrote that mentioned in «The Atlas of the new artillery» samples of 6- and 12-pounders guns in fact were the prototypes of the universal artillery guns, the so-called «mortar-kanon» invented by the captain of Artillery, Bishev, in the beginning of the second half of the XVIII century, and that Shuvalov in «The Atlas ...» has not a single reference of the author of the invention (meaning Captain Bishev - V.B.) [16, p. 28].
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Basing on everything mentioned above it is possible to say that the authors of national historiography do not come to an agreement on the authorship of the new types of ordnance («bliznyata» and «unicorns») and the fact of Shuvalov's involovement in this process. Some assert that the samples of these types of ordnance were designed by Danilov and Martinov [5, p. 186-187, 262; 10 p. 22], some give preference for P.I. Shuvalov [4, p. 45-46], yet another authors admit the authorship of P.I. Shuvalov and M.V. Danilov [3, p. 21], and there also were the researchers who supposed «... the engineer Martinov» to be the inventor of the new types of ordnance guns [9, p. 78].
As a conclusion lets note that the question of the new types of ordnance systems authorship itself is not so significant in the process of reformation of the artillery organization structure and its rearmament with the new types of ordnance in the end of 50-s - the beginning of 60-s years of the XVIII century. The fact to pay attention to is that the new weaponry performed much better tactical and technical characteristics than the systems of the previous period. The new ordnance guns had better maneuverability as they were lighter in weight than the previous ones; they also required bigger firepower and combat rate; they also were easier in use and service; the number of the artillery calibers was reduced as well.
References
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