What is cap yar and where is it located? Kapustin Yar (Astrakhan region): history of the test site

HISTORY OF KAPUSTIN YAR

When did the village of Kapustin Yar appear? How did it get this name? There are two versions of the appearance of the village with this name.

FIRST VERSION

It dates back to the time of Stepan Razin, who walked along the Volga with his freemen. Rising up the river, he left guard posts on its banks to monitor and control the transportation of goods on merchant ships from Rus' to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Turkey.

For one guard post, the steep bank of the Yar was chosen, from which the Cossacks were supposed to control the Volga and the adjacent steppes. And the senior (or main) at the post was a Cossack nicknamed “Kapustin”.

SECOND VERSION

It is associated with salt mining on Lake Baskunchak.

In 1718, in order to export salt from Lake Baskunchak, by the Royal Decree of Tsar Peter I, about 100 Russian and Ukrainian families - salt carriers (Chumaks) were resettled from Central Russia and Ukraine to the Astrakhan province for permanent settlement. They transported salt from Lake Baskunchak to the city of Dmitrievsky (now Kamyshin) (Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1980, p. 541, see the word “Kamyshin”).

Upon arrival in the Astrakhan province, the settlers were allocated certain four places for permanent residence. One of them was identified near Yar, not far from the site of the future village of Kolobovka. The settlers built their settlements in the designated areas.

The settlers and their settlements were protected by a Cossack cordon (barrage detachment) led by an ataman.

To communicate with the settlement near the Yar, the ataman sent as a messenger the Cossack Kapustin, who constantly lived in the settlement along with the settlers.

Subsequently, these settlements were given the names of villages: Nikolaevka, Rakhinka, Solyanka, and near Yar - Kapustin Yar. Apparently, it received this name in honor of the Cossack Kapustin, who lived for a long time in the settlement along with the settlers.

THE BIRTH OF THE VILLAGE OF KAPUSTINA YARA

In the first place near Yar, our ancestors lived for 87 years: from 1718 to 1805. Traces of this large settlement near Yar, near the village of Kolobovki, have survived to this day. The place to live near the Yar was inconvenient for them, and after the Cossacks left, they began to look for a better, more convenient place. They found such a place near the flowing river Podstepka, not far from the Akhtuba River. In 1805, the people of Kapustinoyarsk began to build houses in this place. At the same time, Ukrainian families built their houses from the center of the chosen place to the western side, and Russian families to the eastern side.

The appearance of the village of Kapustina Yara in a new location in 1805 was its first year of formation.

The main occupation of the population of Kapustin Yar at that time was transporting salt and running a peasant farm.

Later, the residents of Kapustin Yar built a state dirt road along the meadow side, over the Volga, 60 miles long, as a trade route for the Trans-Volga region to Stavropol and other provinces.

The news of the free Trans-Volga settlements quickly spread among the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, and soon they began to become overgrown with people escaping from captivity. This was also facilitated by the fact that in the Astrakhan province there were never landowners on the zemstvos, as well as on the shared lands of the Trans-Volga region.

Spacious steppes stretching for hundreds of miles with rich arable lands; the wealth of the meadow side with its countless fishing lakes and eriks, forests and various animals and birds - all this attracted more and more business people and settlers.

Kapustin Yar is located in a very convenient place for trade. It was especially lively at fairs and during the flood of the Volga (high water), when large steamships, as well as rafts with construction timber, approached the piers.

Already in the middle of the 19th century, merchant houses, brick and wooden, two-story and one-story, with shops and basements for goods, appeared in the center of the village.

A tall brick house was built for the bank, with tall weather vanes installed on the iron roof at the corners.

The top ten famous merchants included: Shishkin, Smolyakovs, Orlovs, Ryzhkov, Polubarinov, Zayashnikov, Zaglyadkin, Popov, Linev, Tkachevs and Saushnikov.

At that time, handicrafts flourished in the village. In the past, for many generations, the people of Kapustinoyarsk remembered the names of the dynasties of carpenters and blacksmiths, stove makers and roofers, shoemakers and tailors, guards and saddlers. The best master craftsmen taught young people their skills, but the training was paid.

Official sources (BSE ed. 1, etc.) indicate that the village of Kapustin Yar, founded in 1805, already in the first half of the 19th century was a settlement of 1834 households with a population of 13,300 people.

It included:

3 churches,

4 schools with 197 students,

20 shops,

1 pharmacy,

5 drinking establishments,

2 fish gangs (apparently artels),
-1 steam oil mill,

3 fairgrounds,

120 windmills and grain mills.

The village of Kapustin Yar was more like a provincial town with a population in its best years of up to 22,000 people.

The presence in the village of famous merchants and traders, wealthy peasants and artisans of various professions indicates that Kapustin Yar at that time had not a village, but a suburban type of settlement.

(Sloboda is a large village with a non-serf population).

OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

On October 25 (November 7), 1917, the October Socialist Revolution took place. Power passed into the hands of workers and peasants - the councils of workers and peasants' deputies. The Soviet state expropriated the property of capitalists and landowners. In Kapustin Yar, the authorities expropriated the property of merchants and a banker.

The civil war began (1918-1920)

The state took a number of measures to transfer the national economy to a war footing, banned private trade, and introduced surplus appropriation for the peasants. The peasant, having handed over the surplus surplus to the state at state prices, was obligated to hand over the surplus grain at the same prices. For peasants, this procedure for delivering grain was unprofitable.

In 1921, after the end of the civil war, the state began to implement the “New Economic Policy” - NEP. It took a number of measures to restore the destroyed national economy, announced private trade, and replaced surplus appropriation for the peasants with a tax in kind. The peasant, having submitted the tax in kind, had the right to sell the surplus grain at free prices.

Already in the first year of the NEP, the peasant became convinced that this procedure for delivering grain to the state was beneficial to him: having handed over the food tax at the state price, he could take the excess grain to Zagotzerno and sell it at a price that suited him, or hand it over to an agricultural cooperative in exchange for manufactured goods or agricultural implements.

The years of NEP had a positive impact on the material situation of the peasantry. It began to produce more bread, life became better. For the peasants of Kapustin Yar, especially for the middle peasants, these years were the best time in their lives.

During the NEP, the peasantry was divided into groups:

Poor,

Serednyakov,

Kulaks using hired labor of farm laborers,

Farm laborers.

The eve of 1929 has arrived, when great changes will occur in the lives of the peasants.

ABOUT PRIVATE TRADE

As mentioned above, the state, carrying out the NEP, announced private trade. And private traders appeared in Kapustin Yar. They built their stalls and kiosks in two rows on the central square, in which they sold various goods. These traders became competitors of consumer cooperatives.

In Kapustin Yar, during the NEP years, fairs were held on the largest square, where in the center there is a high fire tower (pozharka). Particularly large fairs were held after the completion of field and haymaking work.

Peasants and private traders from other villages came to the fairs, and sometimes a small traveling circus came with its own booth, where clowns, a magician and other artists performed.

At these fairs there was an abundance of industrial goods, te-legs (carts) with agricultural products, and various livestock for sale. The entire area, even around the fire pit, was filled with people.

And in the central square, where stalls and kiosks of traders were located, markets were held on Sundays, mainly in summer and autumn, to which local peasants brought agricultural products for sale: watermelons, melons, apples and pears of various varieties, berries, as well as fresh and dried (dried) fish and other products. Private traders paid taxes to the state for the right to trade, starting in 1921. Every year they increased and in 1929, due to a large tax, traders stopped their trading activities.

In the memory of the old residents of the village, the names of the “red merchants” are still preserved, such as: Patrin, Zaglyadkin, Mayborodin, Volkov, Plaksin.

In 1929, private trade was banned by the state.

In 1921, in the house of the former merchant Shishkin, a school of the second level was opened with a five-year period of study, giving its graduates a general secondary education.

First level schools with a duration of study of 4 years provided primary education.

In 1926, a population census took place in the USSR. According to this census, over 26,000 people lived in the village of Kapustin Yar, including farmsteads.

COLLECTIVIZATION OF AGRICULTURE IN THE USSR

In 1929, the collectivization of agriculture began in the Soviet Union.

In the village of Kapustin Yar, during the collectivization of agriculture, a collective farm was created and at the same time the dispossession of kulaks was underway with the confiscation of all their property and subsequent eviction.

In December 1929, a giant collective farm was formed with the name "Lenin's Path", whose members were more than 4,600 peasants.

The livestock and property of the dispossessed kulaks were distributed among the collective farm brigades and economies.

The peasants who joined the collective farm, the livestock they had: horses, cows, sheep - whoever had what, handed it over to the collective farm, into the common herd.

In 1933, on the basis of the Lenin's Path collective farm, 6 agricultural collective farms and 1 fishing collective farm were formed with the names:

named after Kirov,

named after Shevchenko,

7th Congress of Soviets,

named after Krupskaya,

- "Lenin's Way"

- "Red Banner" - fishing.

THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941-1945

On June 22, 1941, Nazi troops suddenly began military operations against the USSR. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany began.

In Kapustin Yar, mobilization began on June 23, 1941 for several age groups at once. By the end of the year, about 2,500 people were conscripted, and in total during the war years more than 5,000, of whom every third died. The mobilized were seen off with the hope of a quick return, but the wait dragged on for many years.

During the war years, the residents of Kapustin Yar had to endure many difficult and difficult trials.

The first difficulties were harvesting the good harvest of 1941. Carts with grain on horses, bulls and camels left the steppe estuaries at night for Vladimirovka. the drivers were old men, women and teenagers.

It was necessary, as soon as possible, with the help of the civilian population to fill an earthen rampart under the railway track from the village of Solyanki to the village of Kolobovka, 22 km long. This is our section of the route Vladimirovka - Paromnaya.

From the villages: Vladimirovka, Pokrovka, Pologoye - Zaimishche, Solyanka, Kapustin Yar and the Stasov farm, 8 thousand people went out every day to fill the shaft, 70% of them were women and schoolchildren who worked together with teachers. Doctors and nurses were on duty around the clock at medical posts throughout the construction line. A lot of horse-drawn carts, cars and several tractors were mobilized throughout the villages.

In very difficult conditions of autumn and winter, people worked for 10-12 hours and finished filling the shaft ahead of schedule.

Having started work on September 20, 1941, the Kapustinoyarsk residents received the first steam locomotive on November 20, and from December 27, 1941, trains with ammunition, military equipment and food for the defenders of Stalingrad began to flow.

The section of the Vladimirovka-Paromnaya railway, called “women’s” by the builders, played a huge role in the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad.

In the summer of 1942, village residents were mobilized to build airfields in the area of ​​the Kulatsky and Bezbatchenkova farmsteads. It was necessary to manually level a huge area and build adobe caponiers to shelter aircraft. The workers are the same - women and teenagers. The airfields were prepared on time.

In the winter of 1942, evacuees from Western Ukraine and Belarus began to arrive in the village of Kapustin Yar. It was necessary to house about 5 thousand families. Up to 3 families were placed in each house.

Thousands of herds of cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs passed through Kapustin Yar to Kazakhstan from the western regions, or as they said then, “Because of the Volga.” The work of crossing them across the Volga and Akhtuba, providing them with hay and fodder, was difficult and unsafe.

Already at the beginning of 1942, fascist planes flew in every day from 10 o’clock in the morning to bomb the Ka-pustin Yar, Baskunchak, farmsteads and concentrations of livestock.

At the beginning of 1943, more than 2 thousand people received evacuated Leningraders.

The Stalingrad and Don fronts brought the front line closer and the village of Kapustin Yar became frontline. In the building of the former editorial office of the newspaper “For the Harvest”, on Victory Square, a communications center for two fronts was deployed. A.K. Kandyba was appointed head of the communications center. He remained in this position until the end of the war. There is a memorial plaque on the building.

In a short time in the summer of 1942, all buildings in the village were prepared for evacuation hospitals for the lightly wounded. Eight of them were prepared on the territory of the village, one each in the villages of Tokarev-Pes-ki and Stasov.

A model of hospital No. 4184 of the Tokarev-Peski farm is in the collections of the Stalingrad Defense Museum, as an example of military engineering art, as a tribute to people's gratitude to military doctors who returned thousands and thousands of Red Army soldiers to duty.

There are living witnesses of those legendary events among us, residents of the village of Kapustin Yar and the city of Znamensk. War does not happen without casualties and the lightly wounded also died and were found

your eternal rest in mass graves on our Kapustinoyarsk land.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Victory, memorial plaques with the names of those who were able to be identified were installed at all mass graves, near both faces.

On Victory Square, the names of Kapustinoyarsk residents who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War are immortalized on marble slabs, and the search for them continues. The state remains indebted to the memory of the fallen.

At the anniversary celebrations, memorable gifts and 1,332 government awards were presented. Almost every fifth resident of the village received them. Among those awarded, our pride and spiritual support, are 303 war veterans and disabled people, including 18 women front-line soldiers.

Former teenagers and children of the war years who worked under the slogan: “Everything for the front”, “Everything for Victory”, and whom we today call “Veterans of the Home Front”, receiving a government award and an envelope with a modest investment, with tears with their eyes they thanked the Government for remembering and not forgetting.

United by the Council of War and Labor Veterans under the “command” of N. ADononov, veterans today are for us a living example of loyalty to the Fatherland and the ideals of combat

youth, high moral principles and humanity.

CREATION OF A SPACEMODROME.

After the war, the history of the village of Kapustina Yara was unexpectedly continued. On its steppe expanses, the first cosmodrome in the USSR, “Kapustin Yar”, was created (Cosmonautics of the USSR, Moscow, 1986, p. 411).

This happened in the spring of 1946 during a flood. A longboat with a barge loaded with all sorts of boxes and various military equipment moored to the low bank of the Podstepka River, just above the main pier where the steamships docked. There were military men and people in civilian clothes. They unloaded onto the open shore and partly into the yard of Ivan Danilovich Plaksin, a front-line soldier who returned from the war in the fall of 1945.

No one knew the purpose and objectives of this river landing. Of course, the leaders of the local authorities knew - members of the executive committee of the Kapustinoyarsky district council, chairman Sivashov Ivan Fomich, secretaries of the RK CPSU (b), and also that a military unit was arriving, that it was necessary to quarter officers in rural houses and provide assistance in arrangement.

The seriousness of the military’s intentions and the upcoming changes in their lives became clear to the villagers when they learned that a decision had been made to change the boundaries of the village and to resettle about 200 families in the Bogucharovka region to areas available for development.

Compensation issued by the state in the amount of 5,000 rubles. per family for relocation, at that time it was good support, and many families, instead of the former mud hut kitchens, built themselves wooden houses. In 1949, with the help of the military, the resettlement of families was completed.

The population of the village was going through a difficult and hungry time, and the arrival of military units gave them confidence in the future. Many of the most literate residents received jobs in calculation groups, others in the KECh, in the service sector. Some signed up for long-term service.

The name of Vasily Ivanovich Voznyuk, the head of the cosmodrome, became legendary for the village residents. It is especially dear and memorable to those who had to work with it. The old-timers of the village keep many examples of how Vasily Ivanovich highly valued the dignity of the working man, how strictly he punished the bureaucratic commanders for their callous attitude towards their subordinates.

He knew very well the situation and problems of collective and state farms, the needs and demands of the villagers. He provided them with all possible assistance. Many military units had sponsored vegetable-growing brigades and farms. During the harvesting work, labor and equipment were allocated without fail.

They remember with kind words the head of the military construction department, Colonel Anatoly Aleksandrovich Prikhozhan, his interested participation and assistance in the economic construction of local collective and state farms, the improvement of roads, and the protection of the barrier shaft during floods.

Performances by military concert teams and political department lecturers in work groups were always welcome and were a great success.

Meetings between football teams of military builders and rocket scientists and local rural football players attracted numerous spectators and were real holidays for the youth of the village and town.

Two energy trains that arrived at the garrison, with a large shortage of electricity, supplied power separately: one powered military facilities, the other powered the barracks and most of the village.

With the active participation of military builders, a lot was done to improve the village.

In 1951, a water supply system with water intake columns was first built. And its construction continues.

In 1961, concreting of the central Sovetskaya street, as well as Oktyabrskaya and Lesnaya streets, was completed.

The hard surface of the area near the Lenin monument has been laid.

In October 1982, work on laying reinforced concrete slabs along Odesskaya Street was completed.

Restoration work was carried out on the preserved building of the St. Nicholas Church, which housed a club for 63 years under Soviet rule. By the feast of St. Nicholas in December 1996, the main work in the temple was completed and it received the first parishioners of the village of Kapustin Yara and the city of Znamensk for worship.

In the second half of the 50s, on the basis of collective farms created in 1933, the Kapustinoyarsky state farm was formed, which turned into a highly productive enterprise for the production of agricultural products.

The growth in agricultural production on the state farm is explained by the fact that in it, as a state enterprise, unlike collective farms, there was a different organization of labor, different production relations, and most importantly, the workers and employees of the state farm received monthly salaries, which has never been the case. was on former collective farms. All this contributed to the growth of their labor productivity.

In the Akhtubinsky district, the Kapustinoyarsky state farm was the main supplier of agricultural products. It supplied a fifth of the meat and dairy products and a fourth of the vegetable products of the regional supply plan to the state.

The formation of the state farm "Kapustinoyarsky" and the liquidation of all collective farms in the village became the main reason for the renaming of the village of Kapustin Yar into an urban village.

In 1959, by decree of the Government of the RSFSR, the village of Kapustin Yar was renamed an urban-type settlement.

Probably, a significant role in the renaming of the village into an urban settlement was played by the fact that next to the village the city of the Cosmodrome with the same name grew up - the city of Kapustin Yar, which was subsequently renamed the city of Znamensk.

SUNSET KAPUSTIN YAR

If the city of Znamensk turned into a blooming “Oasis in the desert,” then next to it the progenitor of the cosmodrome, the village of Kapustin Yar, grew old and decayed.

For many decades, there was an outflow of labor from the village to the city of Znamensk, and in the village itself the army of unemployed people increased every year. All this created a difficult socio-economic situation in Kapustin Yar.

The village of Kapustin Yar, a satellite of the closed city of Znamensk, has turned into a large “Home for the elderly”, in which there is no sewerage system, and the electricity supply is very unreliable. At the last breath are medical care and medical supplies. In a year or two there will be no place to bury the dead villagers and townspeople.

The agricultural potential of Kapustin Yar has changed. If previously the Kapustinoyarsky state farm for many years had direct connections for the sale of its products with the cities of Moscow, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and with other regions of Russia, then since 1991 these connections have been interrupted.

Back in the 80s and later, organizational measures were taken at the state farm to reduce the number of departments and other measures.

Currently, the association of farmers of the village is experiencing great difficulties in marketing their products and, in order to get out of these difficulties, it intends to establish direct connections with military units in order to supply them with products “straight from the field”, “straight from the farm”.

In recent years, 22 farms have emerged in the village. But in conditions of risky farming there are only a few of them left. Here they are:

- “Nadezhda” (Groshev V.V., Kalmukhanov Abel).

- "Loop" (brothers Kiselev and Mamontov),

- “Cherry” (Koshkarov A.G., Kalmykov N.I.) and others.

In Kapustin Yar in recent years there have been significant changes in trade and public services. The population's demand for industrial and other goods, as well as services, is increasingly being satisfied not by cooperation, but by private entrepreneurs who are engaged in trade and purchasing activities.

Private stores have appeared, many of which are trusted and respected by customers. This:

- "Rusich" (Shilyaev N.N. and Andreev A.A.), in which prices for
food group of goods are the lowest.

- "Alpha" (Bogorsukov V.Ya.) it has a varied selection of items -
varov from a needle to a mini tractor.

Customers remain satisfied from visiting the stores: "KUM" - Kondratyeva Yu.V., "Boomerang" - Lazareva A.G., as well as the auto parts kiosk - Streltsova A.V.

Cafe "Ivushka" remains not only the only public catering enterprise, but also a place of cultural leisure for the population and a decoration of the village.

Siluet LLP (director M.V. Ustyusheva) has resumed its work with a variety of household services from repairing complex household appliances to modern hairstyles.

Craftsmen are especially respected in the village. This is photographer Dobryakov Yu.M., shoemaker Sarkisyan M.S., master hairdresser Kudinova L.I. and Tkacheva N.G., artist Artyushenko A.T., carpenter Kraselnikov I.M. and jewelers Mu-kovin K.P. and Mukovina S.A.

On September 30, 1995, the residents of Kapustinoyarsk celebrated “Village Day,” its 190th anniversary of its formation.

And on October 1, a fair of agricultural products was held with the participation of enterprises in the district’s agricultural sector.

The future of the village of Kapustin Yar is seen in the creation of a single administrative-territorial entity: the city of Znamensk and its suburb - the village of Kapustin Yar, with a unified plan for socio-economic development.

CONCLUSION

So, which version of the appearance of the village with the name Kapustin Yar will be correct: the first or the second? Let's talk.

FIRST VERSION

Stepan Razin with his Cossack golytba in 1667 (in the XYII century) made a trip along the Volga and Yaik (Ural River) (Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1980, p. 1109, see “Razin Stepan Timofeevich”).

Rising on his ships up the Volga, he left guard posts on its banks to monitor and control the transportation of goods on merchant ships from Rus' to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Turkey.

For one guard post, a steep bank was chosen - a yar, from which the Cossacks were supposed to control the Volga and the adjacent steppes. And the senior (or main) at the post was a Cossack nicknamed “Kapustin”.

If the Cossacks were supposed to control the adjacent steppes, then such a yar could be located not far from the site of the current Kapustin Yar. In this case, the distance from the Yar to the Volga was at least 15 km. Could Stepan Razin, at such a distance from the Volga, create a guard post with the task of controlling the Volga and the adjacent steppes? I couldn't for the following reasons:

Firstly, due to the great distance, the Cossacks could not see the Volga and the merchant ships sailing along it, much less control them.

Secondly, to control the adjacent steppes, horses were needed with appropriate equipment, but the Cossacks did not have them.

Thirdly, there were no settlements in the Volga region in the 17th century.

The settlement and economic development of the Volga region (internal colonization) took place in the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. (Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1980, p. 610, see the word “colonization”).

Since there was no guard post on Yar and there were no settlements at that time, a village with the name Kapustin Yar could not have appeared.

Conclusion: the first version is fiction.

SECOND VERSION

There is no doubt about it.

Firstly, by royal decree in 1718, about 100 families from Ukraine and Central Russia were resettled to the Astrakhan province for eternal settlement, specifically as salt carriers (Chumaks) from Lake Baskunchak to the city of Dmitrievsky (now Kamyshin).

Secondly, our ancestors arrived in the Astrakhan province at the beginning of the 18th century, when the tsarist government began to carry out internal colonization, i.e. settlement and economic development of the Trans-Volga region (left bank of the Volga).

Thirdly, the version features the Cossack Kapustin, sent by the ataman to the settlement near the ravine as a messenger - to communicate with the Cossacks. He probably lived in the settlement with the settlers for a long time. And for his merits (what is not known), the settlement near Yar was named after him - the village of Kapustin Yar.

Conclusion: the second version is the correct version.

Kapustin Yar (Astrakhan region) is the Russian central interspecific missile military range. It is one of the oldest objects of importance. The history of the Russian shield began precisely from the Kapustin Yar region. At the same time, this area is still a research, testing center and cosmodrome.

History of the test site

The Kapustin Yar test site (Astrakhan region) began to be created after the Second World War, when Soviet scientists gained access to German technologies. Despite the fact that the USSR received only the remnants of technical documentation, this was enough to begin reproducing the FAU 1 and 2 missiles.

In May 1946, the leadership of the USSR decided to create a specialized testing site. As a result, the area of ​​the village of Kapustin Yar was chosen for these purposes. V.I. was appointed the first head of the test site. Voznyuk, Lieutenant General of Artillery. He managed the facility for 27 years. The test site was named after the village of Kapustin Yar.

Object secrecy

When the military landed on its shores with the first cargo, no one had any idea about the creation of a Soviet cosmodrome. Information about the goals and objectives of the training ground was classified, and even local authorities received orders from the leadership only to provide all possible assistance to the arriving military in their settlement.

The seriousness of the object became clear when the boundaries of the village were changed and 200 families were relocated to other areas. People received good compensation for those times. The resettlement ended in 1949. Many of the remaining residents got jobs in the calculation groups, the KECh and the service sector. Some went on long-term service.

Polygon expansion

Initially, the Kapustin Yar test facility (Astrakhan region) had only a concrete stand. In 1947 the following were built:

• bunker;
• launch pad;
• temporary technical station;
• bridge;
• editing station;
• warehouse for rocket fuel.

Somewhat later, a highway and a railway appeared, connecting the site with Stalingrad (now Volgograd). Life at the training ground was very difficult. People lived in dugouts and tents standing in the bare steppe. The management of the landfill huddled in the carriage of a special train. The first normal residential buildings began to be built only in 1948.

First tests

In the fall of 1947, the first tests were carried out at the Kapustin Yar training ground (Astrakhan region). The first ballistic missile of the USSR was launched. The tests were successful, the projectile hit the desired square. The Soviet rocket and space era was opened on October 10, 1948. In a short time, new weapons appeared for the USSR Armed Forces. For 10 years, the village of Kapustin Yar (Astrakhan region) was the only place for testing ballistic missiles.

At the same time, the test site began to be used for launching geophysical and meteorological projectiles. In 1951, the first series of rockets with dogs on board was launched from the cosmodrome. Since 1956, tests of nuclear missile weapons began. At the same time, the landfill developed more and more. New technical and launch complexes were built, the volume of research work increased, etc.

Cosmodrome

In the early 60s. the Kapustin Yar facility (Astrakhan region) was prepared for the start of space exploration. The test site received cosmodrome status in March 1962. Then the first Soviet satellite was launched into Earth orbit. In 1969, the cosmodrome received international status. Indian satellites were sent into space from the test site. Over time, launches began to decline until they stopped altogether.

In 1987, all testing at the test site was stopped, and the country's leadership mothballed the facility for 10 years. Its revival began only in 1998. Tests, launches of rockets and research facilities began again. In 2007, the cruise missile was tested, and in 2011, the Iskander-M OTRK.

In 2015, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced rapid testing of robotic systems at the test site. Preparatory work and modernization of the transmission system began. It is planned to test combat robotic systems, which should be responsible for beacons, signaling devices, etc.

One of the most famous sites associated with UFOs is America's Area 51, a secret military base that is believed to contain the wreckage of an alien ship and the bodies of its pilots. However, in the vastness of our country there is a similar place.
CLOSED RANGE
The history of Kapustin Yar began in 1946, when in the northwestern part of the Astrakhan region, near the border with Kazakhstan, then part of the USSR, the military was allocated an area of ​​about 650 square kilometers for testing missiles.
This weapon was new, outlandish, but with great potential, which everyone understood. Therefore, from the first years of its existence, the facility was surrounded by an aura of secrecy - and reliable security from machine gunners. In 1947, the first ballistic missile in the Soviet Union, the captured V-2, created by the Germans during World War II, was launched from here. And the next year, judging by the stories leaked through the veil of secrecy, something much more amazing happened here.
On June 19, 1948, an unidentified flying object, silver, cigar-shaped, suddenly appeared over the test site. As experts today believe, it was the technological innovations that were being tested that attracted his attention to Kapustin Yar. However, those on the ground did not understand the curiosity shown by the unknown aircraft.
It is worth recalling that in those years, most people in government circles were inclined to consider UFOs not as alien ships, but as secret developments of a potential enemy. Additional concern was given by the fact that in 1947 the Cold War began between the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. In general, fighter jets took off from the ground.
These were brand new Mig-15s, the first Soviet jet fighters that had just entered service. Perhaps it was precisely this fact, which played the role of a trump card that unexpectedly jumped out of the sleeve, that determined the further development of events.
The UFO, which did not expect the appearance of nimble jet aircraft, incomparably faster and more maneuverable than their piston-powered predecessors, was unable to fly away on time. An air battle ensued.
An unidentified flying object hit one of the planes with a laser beam, killing the pilot. However, another fighter managed to damage the UFO with several well-aimed hits, and the cigar-shaped device crashed to the ground.
The wreckage of the spacecraft and the bodies of the pilots on board were placed in one of the hangars at Kapustin Yar. From this moment a completely different page begins in the history of the landfill.
SECRET MATERIAL STORAGE
Kapustin Yar and the American “Area 51” are similar in that both objects were initially used as testing grounds for the latest technology, but after alien objects and alien bodies were placed in them, they acquired a completely different status.
Today this place is completely closed to civilians, and even military personnel require a special pass. Officially, this is explained by anything - the special significance of the object, the conduct of eleven nuclear explosions on the territory of the test site since the 1950s.
However, the truth is much more interesting. Like its American “colleague,” since 1948 Kapustin Yar has become the place to which all the threads of ufological investigations into the crash of alien flying objects stretch.
Judging by information from confidential sources, for a long time the wreckage of an alien aircraft shot down in 1948, and other extraterrestrial objects that fell into the hands of the Soviet military later, were stored in ordinary hangars. As a result, there were so many of them, and probably they were so important or dangerous, that it was decided to build a separate special storage facility.
In 1979, construction of Bunker 754 began and lasted ten years. Its official purpose is “to serve as a site for military nuclear physicists to test prototypes of missile warheads with special ammunition.” In fact, according to experts, the bunker has become the main Russian repository of “secret materials” related to alien activity.
Even the published design data about Bunker 754 inspires respect - the depth is up to 50 meters, the length of the corridors on each floor is about 150 meters. There are two transport routes underground - road and rail.
We can only guess what the real size of the object is: on the surface it looks like a low mound with vertical ventilation pipes. At the same time, it’s not only impossible to go underground, but also to approach the bunker: it is surrounded by rows of barbed wire through which current is passed.
We might not even have guessed the true purpose of Kapustin Yar if not for the ups and downs of the early 1990s, during which the collapsing Soviet state had no time for keeping secrets. In the last months of the existence of the USSR, the All-Union UFO Association - the largest such association in our country at that time - at its own peril and risk, made a request not just anywhere, but to the State Security Committee.
Ufologists asked for information about how true the rumors associated with UFOs stored at the test site are. Amazingly, the KGB representatives responded. It is not known what motivated them - the consideration of the pointlessness of keeping the secrets of a dying state or the desire, with the help of a broad gesture, to enlist support in the conditions of the formation of a new Russia.
But that doesn't matter. More importantly, the so-called blue package, which fell into the hands of ufologists, contained data on the artifacts stored at the site and the circumstances of their acquisition.
A “trophy plate” with the bodies of pilots that crashed near the Kazakh city of Emba; a six-meter disk shot down by the military in July 1985 in Kabardino-Balkaria; An ancient UFO unearthed in October 1981 north of Lake Balkhash is not a complete list of alien artifacts listed in the “blue package.”
It would seem that enthusiasts now have indisputable evidence of the existence of aliens. All that remains is to see the wreckage of the UFO with my own eyes... However, order, even relative, was established in the country much faster than it was possible to look into the dungeons of Bunker 754.
And the new authorities soon enough declared the data transmitted from the KGB to be fake. Therefore, the Kapustin Yar training ground remains a mysterious place today, fraught with still hidden secrets.

POLYGON KAPUSTIN YAR

Dedicated to the Fourth State Central Red Banner Order of the Red Star interspecific training ground of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Preface

It is unfair to include only Kulikovo Field, Borodino and Prokhorovka among the famous fields of Russia. There are much more great battlefields. There is no doubt that the Kapustin Yar training ground, the cradle of the Missile Forces, should also be included among them.

“In terms of national efforts,” wrote “Red Star”, “in terms of sacrifices, in terms of the spiritual effort and asceticism of their predecessors who loosened the expanses of virgin land, in terms of their role in saving humanity from a global fire, Kapustin Yar and Baikonur... are the same spiritual values ​​as Kizhi, the Kremlin, Mamayev Kurgan, Sevastopol and Kulikovo Field."

The Kapustin Yar testing ground has entered the 21st century, the new millennium. Today, the interests of the Ground Forces and Navy, Air Defense and Air Force, Strategic Missile Forces and Aerospace Forces objectively converge here. Unique experiments are taking place here, new systems are being tested, missile launches are planned and carried out in the interests of all types and branches of the military, and dozens of research topics are being developed. The training centers train logistics specialists and world-famous Topol drivers.

The interspecies training ground was and remains a hard worker.

The reader will learn about the creation, formation and development of the State Central Interspecific Test Site, formed in the Astrakhan region, about the city in which the testers live, and about the people who have devoted their entire lives to testing missile weapons.

State Central Interspecies Test Site "Kapustin Yar"

Air Force Air Defense Weapons and Military Equipment Test Center

Military unit 29139 has a fifty-year history. It was created to test the Moscow air defense system - S-25 "Berkut" on June 6, 1951, by Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 3389-1425 and by order of the commander of the artillery of the Soviet Army No. 0433. The era of guided air defense weapons began counting from this date.

The first commander of the unit was a 45-year-old front-line combat general, Hero of the Soviet Union, Guard Lieutenant General of Artillery Sergei Fedorovich Nilovsky. In the city of Znamensk one of the streets bears his name.

On May 25, 1953, for the first time in the world, a guided anti-aircraft missile shot down a target aircraft (a TU-4 bomber, an analogue of the American B-29 bomber, the so-called “flying super-fortress”). On May 7, 1955, at a meeting of the Defense Council, the S-25 system was adopted for service.

Today we remember with gratitude the pioneer testers: the first test leaders and testers - Tregub Y.I., Ananyin V.N., Mymrin N.G., Trofimchuk M.I., Legasov P.S., Penchukov I.M. , Lobzu V.N., Karletsky E.S., Kruchenetsky A.F., Demina V.I., Tarasova M.P., Kharina K.N., Krasnova I.D., Pugu B.S., Zhulaya V.F., Shibalova P.P., Kurenskova A.S., the first creators of the methodology for testing anti-aircraft guided missiles - Belotserkovsky P.S., Borodulin M.L., Gritsak P.K., Valieva R.A., Kurlanova A.D. , Spiridonova E.K., Proshlyakova N.I., Chernenko S.K., Sharakshane A.S., Edemsky V.A., Penchukova I.M. Many of them later became prominent scientists. A significant contribution to the subsequent improvement of the S-25 system was made by Bekhmetyev N.S., Sorokin V.I., Pivkin N.I., Doronenko A.A., Parshin B.V., Gladkov V.V., Timoschenko A.D. ., Borisov A.V.

Tests of the S-25 air defense system made it possible to develop an optimal test structure for the test site. It became clear that a staff separation of the functions of test engineers directly related to the conduct of combat work in experiments, recording of objective control data and operational assessment of the results of experiments is required, and research engineers, whose main work would be to develop a test methodology, evaluate test results, development and approval of reporting documents based on test results. The realization of this vision was the creation in November 1955 of NICH-1 (scientific testing unit) and NICH-2 (research unit). On June 1, 1954, the 10th Training Center of the country's Air Defense Forces was also created, which in 1955 became part of the training ground. He began training personnel to operate the S-25 air defense system.

The shooting range turned into a research institution, which in 1964 was consolidated in the form of giving military unit 29139 the status of the 8th research test range. By this time, all the necessary support units had been formed. For example, the communications system in 1951 began its existence with a telephone operator department. In March 1952, the rear service was organized. The medical service in 1951 was represented by two doctors, a paramedic and a medical instructor. The automobile and tractor service was organized in 1955, and 4 years before that, automobile military unit 03077 was formed.

The history of military unit 29139 is inextricably linked with the emergence and development of the country's air defense forces, into which it was included in August 1954, and with the changes that took place in the strategy and tactics of using air attack weapons. In accordance with the current military doctrine, the country's air defense forces are tasked with creating continuous, deeply echeloned air defense in the main strategic directions of attack by a potential enemy and creating air defense of the main strategic objects. Taking a retrospective look into the past, we today understand that the entire history of military unit 29139 is inextricably linked with the four general directions of development of the country's Air Defense Forces.

1. Creation of mobile anti-aircraft missile systems and short-, medium-range and long-range systems for the anti-aircraft missile forces.

2. Creation for fighter aviation of fighter-interceptors, aircraft interception missile systems with powerful on-board weapons, aircraft radar surveillance and guidance systems capable of conducting combat operations at long distances when controlled from guidance points and command posts ground-based and air-based.

3. Creation of radar stations and complexes with various functional purposes for radio technical troops. These are standby stations for reconnaissance of enemy air, based on information from which air defense systems are transferred to increased levels of combat readiness and a decision is made to destroy the air enemy; combat mode stations for receiving combat information, which is used to control fire weapons, including low-altitude radars , radars of medium and high altitudes, and finally, special radars for solving certain specific tasks.

4. Creation of automated control systems for anti-aircraft missile divisions, regiments and brigades, guidance points and fighter aviation regiments, radio engineering companies, battalions and brigades, command posts of divisions and air defense corps, as well as automated control systems that unite the listed structural units.

From 1957 to 1961, three modifications of the first mobile medium-range air defense system S-75 (Dvina, Desna, Volkhov) were tested at the test site. The new direction was expressed in the creation and improvement of the necessary testing and support structures for conducting overflights and live firing, including with a nuclear warhead, against target aircraft, target missiles, and parachute targets of various types. Almost simultaneously, tests of the S-125 Pechora short-range air defense system were carried out.

To organize and conduct tests of anti-aircraft missile weapons, a testing center was eventually formed - military unit 15683 and 1 research testing department, as well as new units. The first head of the 1st Scientific Research Institute was V.A. Edemsky, and the first commander of the ZRV testing center was A.A. Doronenko.

In May 1957, a separate mixed aviation squadron was formed to search for the remains of launched missiles and transport needs. Large cooperation between manufacturing plants has necessitated the concentration of all elements in one place for docking, configuration and flight testing of air defense systems and air defense systems. For this purpose, in September 1956, a docking base was created - military unit 03094. All mass-produced air defense systems and air defense systems passed through the docking base, including modifications of the S-300P medium-range air defense system, which were tested at the Sary-Shagan test site. A group of officers of the 1st Scientific Research Institute, which included Solovey V.P., Savenkov Yu.A., Korobov V.M., provided scientific and methodological support for the initial combat firing of air defense units being re-equipped with new air defense systems.

The most significant contribution to the testing of mobile medium-range air defense systems S-75 was made by test officers: Egorin K.I., Shestyorkin E.I., Parshin B.V., Zheleznyak V.F., Zabolotnikov D.G., Sinkov A. G., Parasotka A.I., Stepanov M.M., Dudkin I.E., Kartamyshev R.V., Batov E.I., Chernyshov V.N., Rybchinsky M.K. The greatest contribution to the testing of mobile short-range air defense systems S-125 was made by test officers: V.M. Khilchenko, S.A. Bychkov, V.L. Safronov, L.G. Fedosenko, I.M. Kosachev, I. Kubarev .V., Manets A.M., Pchelin A.N., Konenko I.Ya., Delichkan A.A., Pilipchuk V.V., Ditko A.I., Lagovier A.I., Dubrovin A.N. ., Faktorovich E.D. and others.

To date, tests of automated air defense control systems have no analogues in their complexity. The very first automated control system of the tactical air defense formation, called "Luch-1", the development of which was specified by Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated November 11, 1960 No. 1191-504, brought many methodological, organizational and technical problems. To accommodate its elements, the construction of positions and infrastructure began in the vicinity of the settlements of Aleksandrov Gai, Pallasovka, Gorny Balykley, Kamyshin, Kapustin Yar, a special communication system was created, and the measurement and processing system was modernized. The methodological problems of the tests initially consisted of the need to develop criteria and indicators of the quality of centralized control of radar, anti-aircraft missile weapons and fighter-interceptors, and with later modernizations - the quality of control of units and subunits of anti-aircraft missile forces, radio engineering troops and fighter aircraft. In April 1961, an ACS test center was created - military unit 73539. Its first commander was E.K. Spiridonov. It was also necessary to create a command post for aviation flight control, a navigation service and other support units. The solution to methodological problems was first entrusted to the research and development team of military unit 29139. Then these works were headed by the 2nd Research Directorate of the ACS, formed on the basis of the directive of the General Staff of the country's Air Defense Forces dated January 31, 1964 No. 524652. All questions regarding the combat use of the tested samples of KSA and ACS , communications and data transmission tests were also entrusted to this department. A.S. Kovalev became the first head of the 2nd Research Institute. The methodology for testing ACS and KSA was created in separate areas and the greatest contribution in each of these areas was made by the following testers: assessment of the quality of control of anti-aircraft missile units and subunits - Petrov E.P., Nikitin V.B., Noskov A.A., Kuznetsov V. V., Kergentsev I.Ya., Korolev V.M., Grachev N.P., Shekolyan V.V., Lonsky A.L., Sokolov A.A., Rozov A.S., Shakhov L.L., Ignatov E.N., Melchakov V.V.; assessment of the quality of fighter aircraft management - Berman M.M., Shvartsman M.Sh., Ryabov Yu.A., Boyko D.N., Velichko I.E., Kovtun N.I., Zherebtsov G.Ya., Kuzmin N. N., Savonkin Yu.I., Novosad V.V., Morozov A.V., Molodtsov V.M., Vylegzhanin V.I.; assessment of the quality of management of units and subunits of radio engineering troops - Vorobyov V. T., Grishenev R.N., Semenenko A.L., Shilenko E.N., Yakubovsky N.I., Gubashev A.Kh.; assessment of the quality of centralized and decentralized management - Karletsky E.S., Gorin I.I., Vinogradov L.V., Zyzin B.A., Deriy P.Ya., Blinov A.E., Rzhechkovsky S.M.; reliability assessment - Shubinsky I.B., Rezinovsky A.Ya., Dobrov V.I., Skorobogatko I.A., Puchkovsky A.I., Semiglazov V.I., Gruzhevsky Yu.V. The system of reliability indicators for complex systems developed at the test site is currently being adopted.

Trajectory measurements and their processing began with the launch of the first missile defense system on July 25, 1951. A VTI department was created, which was then transformed into a separate team, which in 1962 became a measuring center - military unit 07037 with the task of obtaining and recording trajectory measurements during flights and launches. The first commander of the unit was Privalov I.L.

Complex and painstaking work on mathematical processing of trajectory measurements in 1951-1952 was carried out by the calculation group of the 8th department of the calculation and measurement service, and since 1952 - by the 2nd measurement processing department, which later became part of it when NRU-1 was organized. With the start of ACS testing, the processing of measurement results was carried out by the second scientific and computing department of military unit 73539. In connection with the increase in the volume of tests carried out on the basis of departments and laboratories that had previously been involved in information processing, Directive of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces of the country No. 428309 dated March 13, 1963, March 14 A computer center was created. Its first boss was V.I. Yakovlev.

The greatest contribution to the formation of the CC, and subsequently 4 scientific research institutes, was made by the following officers: Dailid V.E., Antosik N.G., Skvortsov V.M., Kuleshov E.A., Grachev S.I., Pavlenko G.N., Semenov I.S., Ponedelchenko I.N., Mikhailovsky V.A., Misevra A.F., Manych A.D., Kuzmichev B.A., Bochkarev O.S., Kvasov E.G., Ryazantsev A.G. , Rusakov V.A., Olkhovsky L.I., Rachkov Yu.A., Lobeyko V.I., Bogdyuk B.V., Tarasenko N.N.

The implementation of tasks for testing radar weapons began in 1969. In August of this year, in accordance with the directive of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces of the country No. 1, the 3rd research and testing department was created, and in 1976 - a center for testing RLV, military unit 97670. The first head of the 3rd Research Institute was P.D. Ermolaev, and the first B.P. Brednev became the commander of the RLV center.

The variety of radars and radar systems forced each time to re-create the methodology for their testing. The first testers in this direction were A.S. Poletaikin, B.I. Mukovoz, A.E. Karamanov, V.E. Rodin, V.Ya. Kupryashkin. The methodology for testing low-altitude locators was created by B.I. Mukovoz, A.K. Tsirikov, R.L. Kamenskikh, A.N. Pryadko, A.S. Maltsev, A.A. Bondar. A great contribution to the development of the methodology for testing multifunctional radars was made by such testers as V.A. Kuritsyn, R.N. Grishenev, P.I. Kisel, O.V. Gritsepanov, V.I. Voronik, V.V. Kuznetsov. A great contribution to the testing of automated control systems, radar weapons, the creation and improvement of test methodology was made, in addition to those already mentioned, by E. K. Spiridonov, G. E. Khlynin, N. N. Raikov, A. Z. Bragin, Konoplya A.A., Ermolaev P.D., Rudakov A.I., Shipilov I.F., Chernyakhovsky D.A., Brednev B.P., Toritsin V.F., Vorobyov S.M., Ryabov S.L. ., Lozhkin S.R.

In 1976, the final formation of the structures of 8 NIIP was completed. The strict authority of the test site is supported by a high level of scientific research and a well-established system for organizing and conducting tests of the most complex weapons. The full-time postgraduate course with 6 places is designed to train its scientific personnel; scientific works of the test site are published annually by its own printing house. The development of standard methodological principles and provisions, a system of criteria and indicators for assessing the quality of complex prototypes of weapons and military air defense equipment is being completed. At the same time, limitations associated with the safety of tests, their cost and the limited characteristics of the target fleet prompted us to look for ways to obtain objective control data beyond the limits of the capabilities of the existing experimental testing base. In the early 70s, clear ideas emerged at the test site about what is today called a “virtual test site.” The need to use modeling tools was so deeply justified by the officers of the range that the Directive of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces of the country in August 1974 created the world's first semi-natural modeling center at the range. Its first boss was A.V. Kiselev.

Among the first testers of the center were officers Shats I.V., Vinogradov L.V., Zherebtsov G.Ya., Ivanov V.Ya., Kozlov A.B., Lurie Z.A., Nikitin V.B., Pavlenko N. .I., Polyavko L.I., Perekosov Yu.P., Ryazantsev A.G., Suvorov Yu.V., Starusev V.E., Trushin E.F., Rusakov V.A., Agafonov A.P. ., Gertsev V.A., Zolotarev V.F., Kalinin V.I., Saburov V.N., Stolyarov A.M., Tvarovsky V.V., Bakharev L.N., Shokhin B.P., Chipiga V.S., Chistyakov B.A. and many others. The management team solved a complex scientific and technical problem in a short time - they created a unique integrated test modeling installation. It could function in real time as part of a real air defense group and opened up promising opportunities for supplementing the existing experimental testing base with simulated means.

Officers Pesin F.B., Miniovich Yu.V., Kubasov M.N., Gaevsky V.V., Tsybulin A.M., Karpovsky I.I., Borisov A.V., Mikhailov made a significant contribution to the implementation of these works V.V., Korolevich D.Ya., Uvarov S., Vasin V.I., Bachurin G.A., Slyusarenko A.A., Navalny N.N. and many others.

At the same time, CC specialists successfully conducted research on the creation of autonomous hardware and software complexes of objective control systems that select information from communication channels connecting air defense systems during experiments. These studies culminated in the creation of these complexes, including a system for objective monitoring of the functioning of the automated control system.

Thus, the specialists of the military unit first prepared the conditions, and then developed and implemented an experimental-theoretical test method, which made it possible to determine the effectiveness of weapons and military equipment in inaccessible conditions by simulating an enemy air raid, the combat operation of fire weapons, as well as those missing in a real group of superiors , interacting and subordinate links.

The 1980s in the development of the country's air defense were marked by a transition from stationary and mobile air defense systems to mobile weapons. The first long-range S-155 missile interception aircraft complex and the A-50 radar surveillance and guidance aircraft complex are being created, and the test site is involved in testing these systems. A new generation of long-range anti-aircraft missiles is currently being tested at the Sary-Shagan training ground.

The country begins to experience economic difficulties and moves towards perestroika. Military doctrine is changing, zonal air defense is fading into oblivion. The country's air defense troops become a branch of the military and are transferred to the Air Force. “Unnecessary” air defense regiments, brigades and divisions are being disbanded. Leading military educational institutions remain abroad of the Russian Federation. Against this background, a series of organizational and staffing measures follows and reductions in the strength of military unit 29139, first by half, and then again by half. 8 NIIP turns into 8 test site, although it still includes 4 test centers and research testing departments, but there are no longer three, but two. The tasks of the 1st department are transferred to the second department, and it itself is disbanded. The Simulation Center and Computing Center continue to operate.

In August 1994, due to a new optimization of the structure of the Ministry of Defense training grounds, Air Defense Test Range 8 was disbanded. On its basis, the 708th Research Testing Center for Interspecific Air Defense Systems was created as part of the 4th Main Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which became the successor to the disbanded test site. Military unit 29139 is partially transferred to the Strategic Missile Forces, and part continues to solve the tasks of the Air Force air defense troops. The newest history of military unit 29139 begins.

The 708 Scientific Research Center includes 4 research and testing departments - anti-aircraft missile weapons, automated control systems and radar weapons, modeling tools, objective control means created on the basis of the computer center. Test centers and support units, with the exception of the communications center and the support battalion responsible for transportation and security of individual facilities, were transferred to the 4th MCMP after restructuring. The reduction of the Russian Armed Forces continues. The subsequent repeated reductions lead to the fact that 90% of the privates and sergeants of the number of units and subunits performing air defense missions of the Air Force are leaving. The lack of investment from the Air Force leads to progressive physical and moral aging of fixed assets and experimental testing facilities. Buildings are being mothballed, once-busy technological sites are being abandoned. The ACS center is disbanded, and its tasks are transferred to the RLV center. Personnel are aging and dropping out without adequate young reinforcements. Officers are faced with a heavy burden of survival tasks that are unusual for them, and the reward for patience and hard work is new, proven models of weapons and military equipment.

Tests are beginning to acquire a commercial character, and the main developers of air defense systems, in order to survive in conditions of intense competition, are beginning to focus on foreign customers. The best system of all time, the S-300PMU1, after completion of testing, is sent to the island of Cyprus and only then is its domestic analogue, the S-300PM, finalized. Display shootings and exercises are becoming the norm.

However, against this background, tests of anti-aircraft missile weapons are being carried out in the interests of the Air Force air defense. Leading testers of long-range air defense systems are V.I. Bushnev, A.A. Raev, A.G. Krutalevich, K.I. Bibik, A.M. Maksimushkin, S.N. Zharkov, M.A. Sergeenko, Yu. Demidov. A., Podlesny B.V., Samoseiko P.P., Tolstov A.S., Lebednov D.A., Korobov V.M., Doroshenko A.V., Dolgopoltsev V.G., Sitnikov S.E., Davydov G.G., Tarasov Yu.V., Fedorov V.N., Kurchavin A.G., Zarovkin Yu.V., Bukhantsev Yu.M., Chigorevsky O.V. Leading testers of the short-range anti-aircraft missile and gun complex - Surgailo O.L., Radkevich A.A., Timoschenko A.A., Fomin A.V., Mastenitsa K.P., Semin N.G., Terekhov O.V. ., Sapozhnikov V.M.

Testing of automated control systems and radars continues. The military affairs of veterans are successfully continued by a new generation of testers - Demenkov A.B., Lozhkin S.R., Parshin S.G., Arevkov G.G., Borisko S.N., Galkin F.B., Goncharov I.L., Gubin B.P., Ivanov V.S., Kochubey V.V., Melchakov V.V., Mineev S.A., Morozov S.A., Makarov V.A., Mikhailov A.G., Pavlukhin P.V. ., Pichugin A.Yu., Reznikov Yu.S., Shatalov M.A., Chernyshkov A.P., Budko S.Yu., Lobanov V.V., Milushev I.D., Mitrofanov D.V., Fedotov Yu.I., Belov E.A., Grishinev A.A., Malov S.N., Slyusarenko A.A., Prelov M.M.

The year 2005 is significant. The outdated KIMU was replaced by a modern integrated modeling installation KIMU-2000. Officers of NIIU-3 took an active part in its creation: Solod A.A., Epur I.I., Zabenko B.A., Terziev O.N., Tyumentsev V.M., Zhuk A.M., Motchenko V. A., Aseev A.M., Shcherbakov E.V., Smirnov V.R., Golovan A.M., Lakoza D.A., Shakhov I.V., Sukhov M.V., Slyusarenko A.A. , Popovichev A.V., Gulya N.N., Somov V.G. and others.

The 708 Scientific Research Center successfully uses an objective control system for the combat training of crews of the S-300PM air defense system, which has proven itself in international exercises at the Ashuluk training ground, and a mobile control point for full-scale experiments. Officers of NIIU-4 Olkhovsky L.I., Korkin A.S., Maryshev A.A., Privalov A.I., Taranov V.G., Svishchev A.G. were directly involved in their creation and development of mathematical support.

These achievements in the field of modeling tools and objective control crown the many years of work of the officers of the 708th Scientific Research Center on the development and development of an experimental and theoretical testing method. For the first time in many years, the experimental testing base of military unit 29139 began to be revived, acquiring a high modern level.
Over the entire existence of military unit 29139, many tens of thousands of officers, warrant officers, sergeants, soldiers and employees provided testing and maintained the unit’s infrastructure. Testing centers, a measurement center, transport, security, energy supply, communications departments, numerous services, headquarters, rear services, control centers, medical institutions and other important departments - all honestly performed and are performing their work today. We cannot list their names, but we, today, remember you, thank you and bow to you.

Currently, there are 708 NIITs under the leadership of Colonel N.G. Kadolin. At the same time, it tests a whole series of the latest weapons and military equipment for air defense troops, and carries out scientific research on more than 10 topics.

The center today has personnel hardened by experience in conducting tests, a unique experimental testing base, and is capable of solving problems of testing promising weapons and military equipment. During the existence of military unit 29139, about two hundred new complex weapons systems and military equipment for air defense troops were tested. The team served and worked with 12 laureates of the Lenin and State Prizes in the field of science and technology, 5 doctors of technical sciences, 3 of whom later became academicians, 107 candidates of technical sciences. 446 research and testing topics have been completed, the relevance of which is difficult to overestimate. 505 copyright certificates and patents for inventions were received. More than 500 military personnel received state awards.

When solving problems of testing and research, today the leading scientific personnel of the center make a significant contribution: Doctor of Technical Sciences V.I. Lobeiko, Candidates of Technical Sciences S.P. Sokolov, A.M. Zhuk, V.R. Smirnov, N.N. Tarasenko. , Radkevich A.A., Arevkov G.G., Olkhovsky L.I., Kuzmin N.N., Kupryashkin V.Ya., Kuritsyn V.A., Borisov A.V.

Chiefs of Staff:
Zhurav M.A. (1960-1962),
Liventsov A.I. (1962-1969),
Pivkin N.I. (1970-1979),
Popkov V.A. (1979-1981),
Ilyichev Yu.M. (1984-1994),
Knyazev A.I. (1994-1998),
Kapustin B.M. (1998-2000),
Chuprygin V.A. (2000-2001),
Anisimov G.N. (since 2001)

Deputies for technical work - first deputies for research and testing work:
Tregub Ya.I. (1951 - 1957),
Penchukov I.M. (1957 - 1960),
Edemsky V.A. (1960 - 1962)

Deputies for research and testing work:
Khlynin G.I. (1963 -1972),
Petrov E.P. (1972-1982),
Kuritsyn V.A. (1982-1992),
Korolev V.M. (1992-1994),
Lagovier A.I. (1994-1995),
Kuzmin N. N. (1995-1999),
Raev A.A. (1999-2003),
Krutalevich A.G. (2003 - 2004),
Sokolov S.P. (since 2005)

Information sources

POLYGON KAPUSTIN YAR - Volzhsky, JSC "Alliance" Yugpoligrafizdat", Volzhsky Printing Plant, 2006

The Kapustin Yar test site will be involved in testing promising missile weapons. Major General Oleg Kislov, the head of the 4th State Center for Marine Transport, stated this in an interview with journalists on the eve of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the first launch of the A-4 long-range ballistic missile.

- What is unique about the MCMP, what tasks does the Kapustin Yar training ground perform today? Could the test site become a cosmodrome in the future? It seems that in archival documents it once appeared as a cosmodrome, or was it an operational cover?

For seventy years, intensive work has been carried out at the test site to test promising and serial models of missile weapons and military equipment in the interests of all types and branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Figuratively speaking, our test site is not only the main testing base of the country, but also the “capital” of strategic tests. Today, the State Central Interspecific Test Site (SCMP) is a unique research and testing center that makes a significant contribution to the creation of new weapons and military equipment.

The uniqueness of the MCMP lies in the fact that all these years it has acted as a scientific testing site, which has combat fields, an experimental testing base, and specialists capable of providing comprehensive testing of weapons samples in the interests of various types and branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Today, the test site solves a wide range of problems. Let's focus on the highest priority ones.

Firstly, the transfer to the troops of new serial models of air defense systems of new generations occurs only after initial combat firing at aerial targets has been carried out at our training ground. Firing is carried out by combat crews who will operate this instance of the system among the troops, with the direct supervision and participation of specialists from our range.

Secondly, the test site provides research on the creation and testing of weapons and military equipment based on new physical principles.

Third, testing of unified interspecific means of automation of command posts, the so-called “Universal Combat Command Posts,” is being carried out here. At the same time, unification is achieved through a unified software environment, through the synthesis of special software for solving specialized problems in managing the branches and branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Fourthly, as part of the creation of a unified Aerospace Defense of the country, the test site is entrusted with the task of testing the means of the missile attack warning system and the country's air defense.

Fifthly, the test site is working to create a promising silo-based missile system using the Yasny-Kura route.

One of the most significant issues remains the development of promising combat equipment for the RK Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy using the unique Kapustin Yar-Balkhash route using special carriers;

It is also necessary to say something about testing promising elements of the aerospace defense system.

It is impossible not to mention the tests of the Iskander OTN missile launcher, as well as missiles and MLRS with improved tactical and technical characteristics.

You see, soon there won’t be enough fingers on our hands, and all this is far from a complete list of issues that the test site solves.

It must be emphasized that the tasks of the test site, set even at its creation, included testing missiles, rocket and jet technology intended for arming all types and branches of the Armed Forces. At that time, there were no other test sites, so it is not surprising that the first launches of animals into space and geodetic studies of outer space were carried out from the Kapustin Yar test site. However, there was no goal to build a cosmodrome in the Astrakhan steppes.

The main purpose of the test site, after all, was the creation of missile weapons. Previously, the test site actually carried out tasks typical of a cosmodrome, and yet the specificity of the test site is aimed at testing missile weapons and military equipment. In the future, the test site can also be used as a cosmodrome, but this will require financial costs to create the appropriate infrastructure and a certain amount of time.

- Can the Kapustin Yar test site, at least hypothetically, replace the Baikonur Cosmodrome?

This is not advisable, since currently the Russian Federation has 1 State Test Cosmodrome “Plesetsk”, and the Vostochny Cosmodrome is also intended for these purposes.

Currently, the Baikonur Cosmodrome is successfully fulfilling its tasks of providing launch services for launching payloads for various purposes into space.

- What significance did the test site have on the development of domestic rocket science and astronautics in general?

The first rocket test site "Kapustin Yar" is, so to speak, the cradle of rocketry and the birthplace of astronautics. The following space exploration programs were carried out at the test site:

— the first launch of a ballistic missile in the country, which became the starting point for the exploration of outer space in the world (October 18, 1947);

- the world's first launch of a Soviet satellite in the interests of international cooperation in space exploration (Interkosmos-1, 1969);

- the world's first launch of a foreign satellite (Indian "Ariabat" 1975). In total, the test site launched satellites for more than 10 countries;

— the country’s first launch of maneuvering satellites of the “Cosmos” series, which became the first aerospace vehicles (1979);

— launches of military and civil spacecraft using the Voskhod rocket and space complex.

- Are there plans to use KapYar’s infrastructure when testing modern manned systems?

- As already mentioned, such tasks are not currently assigned to the test site. The capabilities of existing and newly created cosmodromes fully meet the necessary needs for testing modern manned space systems.

- Will KapYar be involved in testing promising carriers and combat equipment? What tests need to be carried out in the northern space harbor, that is, at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, and which ones in Kapyar?

Undoubtedly, the Kapustin Yar test site will be involved in testing promising models of missile weapons, both during flight design tests and as part of state flight tests of promising models of combat equipment for strategic missiles. In order to confirm a whole set of tactical and technical requirements for promising missile weapons, it is necessary to conduct flight tests (LT) along various routes, including the Plesetsk launch area and the waters of the Barents and White Seas and the Kura fall area.

The test site tests new missile systems. In addition, using the Topol research missile system, advanced combat equipment for missile systems of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy is being tested. Tasks for testing promising missile weapons are distributed between the Plesetsk and Kapustin Yar test sites, primarily based on the characteristics and capabilities of the routes they use. As is known, the Plesetsk-Kura route allows testing at intercontinental ranges, subject to the use of the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, launch vehicles for missile systems are being tested in Plesetsk.

The KapYar-Balkhash route is unique in that it is an internal route that does not allow foreign states to use reconnaissance equipment on the final part of the trajectory, which makes it possible to ensure the secrecy of testing the characteristics of the new combat equipment being tested. Therefore, the MCMP mainly carries out tasks to test the combat equipment of missile systems.

- What happens at the test site every day and every year? Which of the events held recently were the most significant? What changes have occurred at the site recently?

At the test site there is ongoing, planned, painstaking and hard work related to the experimental testing of promising weapons and military equipment. There is no need to talk about the significance of this or that work. The test site faces unique challenges in testing missile weapons. Moreover, any result, even negative, is very important. After all, any experimental work makes it possible to bring design solutions embodied in prototypes to finished products that meet all the requirements of the Ministry of Defense and are capable of entering service with the Russian Army.

The test site conducts tests of new types of weapons and military equipment in accordance with the Test Work Plan approved by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. In addition, tasks are being carried out to confirm the specified tactical and technical characteristics of weapons and military equipment in service, and demonstration firing is being carried out for foreign customers of our weapons. These are the main areas of work. The site's specialists conduct scientific research, as well as work to improve the methodology for testing modern weapons and military equipment. All this work continues at the site every day throughout the year.

Among the most significant events carried out recently, one can note the completion of interdepartmental tests of a new missile for the . The main change in the operating procedure of the test site can be noted in the increase in the volume of implementation of the test plan compared to previous years. In addition, intensive work is being carried out to modernize the experimental testing facilities of the test site, construct new and modernize existing structures. Modernization of the means of the polygon measuring complex.

- Why are most tests on the subject of the Strategic Missile Forces carried out in the dark?

The effectiveness of flight test tasks largely depends on favorable weather conditions during launches. These include, among other things, such environmental factors as the time of day, the state of the atmosphere along the flight path, the absence of clouds and areas of high humidity. All these conditions largely determine the efficiency of the on-board transceiver systems, as well as ground-based systems of the range measuring complex, which include optical measuring instruments, the effectiveness of which at a given time increases significantly.

Carrying out tests in the dark is necessary to obtain measurement information when using special markers on tested missile weapons in flight.

- What is the role of the test site in testing new weapons systems? In the interests of what types and types of weapons and military equipment are being tested at the test site today? How many weapons have been tested at the test site over 70 years?

Kapustin Yar is one of the main testing grounds for testing promising models of combat equipment for strategic missiles. Its unique experimental base makes it possible to solve a wide range of problems in testing various types of weapons and military equipment for various branches and types of troops. At the State Central Interservice Test Site of the Ministry of Defense, tests of military equipment are carried out in the interests of the Aerospace Forces, the Navy, the Ground Forces, and the Strategic Missile Forces:

— missile systems for strategic, operational-tactical, tactical purposes and their elements;
— means of combat equipment of missile systems (combat units and complexes of missile defense penetration systems);
— means of combat control and communications of strategic nuclear forces, automated control systems; means of protecting important military and government facilities from precision weapons;
- anti-aircraft missile systems, anti-aircraft missile systems, etc.

In total, since 1947, the GCMP has completed a colossal amount of testing work. Ballistic missiles R-1, R-5, R-12, R-13, R-14, the first silo launchers, and the legendary S-25 Berkut, S-75 Volkhov, S-125 Niva air defense systems were tested ", S-300, air defense systems "Tunguska", "Pantsir", target systems, the first mobile ground-based missile systems "Temp", "Pioneer", combat control and communication systems, automated control systems for all types of the Armed Forces, defense systems "Mozyr" ", "Blockade", military satellites and the first habitable space objects, aerospace aircraft and models of the Buran spacecraft, missile defense systems "A", "A-35", "A-135", missile defense systems "Aldan" " and "Argun", new systems for collecting and processing data, operational-tactical and tactical missile systems "Luna", "Oka", "Tochka", "Iskander", mobile command posts, satellites and geodetic missiles, air defense systems of the Ground Forces "Buk" , "Thor", the first long-range field rocket artillery systems and modern powerful multiple launch rocket systems "Smerch".

In total, more than 100 complexes and samples of weapons and military equipment were tested at the test site and put into service. It must be said that behind every topic, behind every tested or undergoing testing system are the names of General and Chief Designers, engineers and factory workers who made a significant contribution to the development of Russian missile weapons. More than 30 renowned enterprises and institutes work closely with the test site in testing and testing weapons and military equipment, as well as in carrying out scientific research in the interests of ensuring the country's defense capability.

- What are the specifics of missile defense tests? Do other countries have similar testing sites?

The MCMP includes the Sary-Shagan test site. It was created in accordance with the Government Decree of February 3, 1956 and is intended for development and testing of experimental and experimental samples of missile, space and anti-aircraft defense systems, combat equipment of missile systems of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy. From its creation to the present, the test site has unique capabilities for testing aerospace defense systems and complexes, testing combat equipment for missile systems of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Navy, as well as conducting military exercises of various scales.

Unique capabilities make it possible to simultaneously test both missile defense penetration systems and missile defense defense systems. In addition, create a dueling situation when testing warheads and their interception systems. These opportunities include the presence of a powerful experimental and testing base, which includes:

— a multi-channel missile defense system of the latest generation, on the basis of which it is planned to test key technologies of promising aerospace defense systems;

— special radar “Neman-P”;

— a polygon measuring complex, which includes a network of stationary measuring points equipped with a full range of measuring instruments, including unique optical-electronic systems;

— a system for collecting, processing and analyzing experimental data.

- Is the experimental testing facility being modernized at the test site? When will it be completed? Are there new optical-electronic stations coming? Is the testing equipment updated?

A large amount of construction work is currently being carried out at the test site as part of the modernization of the experimental and testing base of the MCMP. As part of the capital construction of facilities, construction work and reconstruction of buildings and structures are being carried out at the technical and launch positions, facilities of the control and testing base of the scientific and testing center for weapons and military equipment of the Strategic Missile Forces. This work will be completed in December 2017.

In addition, as part of the modernization of the PIK test site, it is planned to build stationary measuring points to ensure measurements in the meeting zone of anti-aircraft guided missiles and target missiles. Prepared concrete platforms will be built at the test site to accommodate mobile measuring systems in areas that periodically fall into the “danger zone.” Great importance is given to the construction of fiber-optic communication lines for the transmission of large volumes of information (with a capacity of at least 10 Gbit/s with the possibility of expansion), in connection with the equipment of modern highly informative measuring instruments.

Currently, the development of a multi-channel radar measuring system with a phased array antenna, combined with a high-precision optical tracking system, is also underway to improve the technical capabilities of the PIC when measuring the parameters of test objects. It is also necessary to carry out mass production of a new optical-electronic station for trajectory measurements (OES TIK) and deliver 10 such kits to the test site by 2025 to replace the worn-out FRS-2 ​​stations. In addition, it is planned to equip the PIK with the latest stationary optical-electronic systems by 2025.

- Are subordinate structural units being re-equipped, for example, the Sary-Shagan training ground?

Yes, it is carried out. Currently, the multi-channel firing complex is being modernized, and the communication and data transmission system is being modernized.

- What is the reason for the increase in the intensity of testing at the test site in recent years? What topics are emphasized? How many tests are planned to be carried out in 2017? What significant events await the test site in the anniversary year?

This is due to an increase in the State Defense Order for the development of the latest weapons and military equipment. There is not much emphasis on specific topics. Development and testing are carried out in all branches and branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In accordance with the Test Plan for weapons and military equipment of the State Center for Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, this year tests are being carried out on 160 topics in the interests of all types and branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

- In what cases is the Kapustin Yar test track - Kura battlefield used, will it be used in the future? Does the site need new test tracks?

No such route exists. You probably meant the Yasny-Kura route. The existing routes ensure the fulfillment of all the tasks assigned to the test site for testing promising weapons and military equipment.

- Why is the Topol missile system used to test promising combat equipment?

The Topol research missile system is located at the training ground for combat equipment. The development of this complex was completed in 2009, after which this complex became the main one for testing combat equipment. The use of this complex became expedient after the RK missiles that had expired their warranty periods were removed from combat duty, but their condition allows them to be used as an inexpensive carrier. In addition, missiles of this class have a high degree of reliability and high performance characteristics.

The capabilities of the ICBMs of this complex to perform LI tasks as a special carrier have already been confirmed by dozens of successful tests at the Kapustin Yar test site. This special carrier is most suitable for testing promising elements of the combat equipment of the RSN, currently being developed and tested.

- Is there interaction with the State Flight Test Center named after. V.P. Chkalova?

The polygon interacts very closely with 929 GLITS. This consists not only in the joint use of our battlefields, but also in carrying out joint work to develop promising models of weapons and military equipment. The test site helps to test the GLITs using elements of air defense systems and systems of the aircraft being tested, and the GLITs, using aviation assets, helps to test new means of anti-aircraft missile and radar aviation control systems. In addition, the experimental and testing base of our test sites is also used jointly on various topics.