Russian Holidays - Military Topographer Day

It is impossible to name the exact starting point of the history of the Russian topographical service Mapping and any research in the field of topography has always been a matter of national importance Before Peter I, there was no clear division of cartography into military and civil During his reign, a quartermaster unit appeared in the army, whose task was to provide the troops with new maps The emergence of the Navigation School made it possible to train our own specialists in the field of topography and geodesy In the mid-eighteenth century, forty topographical service officers joined the General Staff This period is considered to be the time when military topographers began working Officially, the military topographical service began operating in 1812 On February 8 of this year, the Emperor signed a corresponding decree The Depot was led by a director who was personally appointed by the Emperor The work of the military topography service has always been of great importance The lives of fighters and the outcome of battles and wars depended on the correct and timely map of the battle and on the study of enemy maps Since 1940, the service has been part of the General Staff in the form of the Military Topographical Directorate Before the collapse of the Union, the service included about one hundred and forty people The range of tasks assigned to military topographers currently looks like this: • work with topographic maps: creating new ones, updating existing ones, accumulating reserves Carrying out similar work in geodesy Bringing maps and catalogs to military headquarters; • creation and accumulation of digital maps of the area, directing such resources to automatic systems for command and control of troops and weapons; • preparation of gravimetric and geodetic bases for ICBM launches, long-range aviation flights, artillery operations and combat duty of radio engineering complexes; • creation of satellite maps of the area, photographic surveys; • release of combat graphic documents; • carrying out state tasks in the field of cartography and geodesy The work of military specialists has no statute of limitations Satellite maps and images of the terrain in Syria, taken during the Soviet era, help our air forces currently fight terrorists Russian specialists are actively working on creating geospatial models, using space units and ground support groups In addition to the head center of space geodesy, navigation and cartography, the topographic service has created a geospatial information center, an expeditionary detachment, and military units of various subordination In their work, military specialists use modern technical means Among them: • ARM-EK - automated complex of workstations; • "Volynets" - self-propelled topographic system; • "Violit" - hardware and software complex; • PNGK-1 - astronomical and geodetic complex; • "Geonika-T" - navigation and geodetic system The latest technologies make it possible to deploy the necessary equipment in a minimum amount of time and begin performing combat missions No technical means can replace the experience and knowledge of a specialist I would like to wish the representatives of this most difficult profession to be at their best, to avoid losses, and to always be needed by the Motherland