Influence of the West European traditions of military architecture on the development of engineering ideas and fortification forms in the Urals and Western Siberia in the 18th century

The article is devoted to facts having great influence on the development of military engineering in the Ural territories and in Western Siberia which came from Western Europe in the 18th century. The intensity and peculiarities of this process are also analyzed in this work. The author thinks that new fortification ideas connected with artillery development came to Russia in the 14th-15th centuries. In the 18th century, they were particularly evident. It caused to organize Russian engineer groups, artillery and engineer forces in the Military Department. The intensity of Western influence was reinforced by the translated works of leading European engineers such as Kegorn, Vauban, Sturm, Rimpler which were propagated in Russia. These works were necessary for educating Russian engineers. As a result, two directions, theoretical and practical, appeared in Russian fortification. They emerged in the design of new defence structures and lines and in the implementation of ideal projects in severe Russian conditions. The aim of this investigation is the detection of the influence of West European fortification traditions on the development of Russian fortification ideas and forms on the border lines in the Urals and in West Siberian territories. Special engineering historical documents of Uisk and Siberian defence structures and lines were studied. The discovered materials of the border fortification inspections, formed by officers of engineering teams, made it possible to identify the degree of implementing standard projects in practice. Construction features of fortresses and redoubts built on border lines and separate constructions of fortification units were also identified. The research showed that engineering innovations could not influence elements of wooden defence architecture of the previous epoch. The reduced socioeconomic opportunities of the state and terrain features could not force builders to abandon the strict requirements of Western standard projects. They adapted them to the real conditions of the Trans-Ural territory and Siberia. Traditional forms of Russian military architecture and individual design were used more widely in the fortifications of the Orenburg line and in the construction of dug works. Fortifications were guarded by fences with boards, wooden towers at the corners, stockades, slingshots. In the Siberian border lines, wooden military architecture showed more widespread Western European practices of fortification. The use of fascines for fortification of earthen fortresses along the Siberian lines also can be an evidence of Vauban's ideas propagation.

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