The Katyusha is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area more intensively than conventional artillery, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload. They are fragile compared to artillery guns, but are cheap, easy to produce, and usable on almost any chassis. The Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union, were usually mounted on ordinary trucks. This mobility gave the Katyusha, and other self-propelled artillery, another advantage: being able to deliver a large blow all at once, and then move before being located and attacked with counter-battery fire.
A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found in warfare and sports.
Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich was a Russian revolutionary who took part in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II as the main explosive expert for Narodnaya Volya, and was also a rocket pioneer. He was a distant cousin of revolutionary Victor Serge.
A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile.
Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov , sometimes Semenov, Semionov or Semenoff was a Soviet physicist and chemist. Semyonov was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanism of chemical transformation.
Georgy Erikhovich Langemak was a Soviet engineer in the Soviet space program, working on rocket design applications. He is chiefly remembered for being the co-designer and directing the development of the aircraft unguided rockets, such as the RS-82 and RS-132, which were modified to be used with such success in the Katyusha rocket launchers of World War II. The crater Langemak on the Moon is named in his honor.
RS-82 and RS-132 were unguided rockets used by Soviet military during World War II.
Rocket artillery is artillery that uses rockets as the projectile. The use of rocket artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used. Fire arrows were also used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. The first true rocket artillery was developed in South Asia by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. In the late nineteenth century, due to improvements in the power and range of conventional artillery, the use of early military rockets declined; they were finally used on a small scale by both sides during the American Civil War. Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II, in the form of the German Nebelwerfer family of rocket ordnance designs, Soviet Katyusha-series and numerous other systems employed on a smaller scale by the Western allies and Japan. In modern use, the rockets are often guided by an internal guiding system or GPS in order to maintain accuracy.
Vladimir Andreyevich Artemyev was a Soviet Russian rocket scientist at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory, and was one of the inventors of the Katyusha. The first rocket propelled by smokeless trotyl-pyroxylin powder was launched under his direction in 1928. Artem'ev crater is named in his honour.
The Moscow State Academy of Choreography, commonly known as The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools of ballet in the world, located in Moscow, Russia. It is the affiliate school of the Bolshoi Ballet. Founded on December 23, 1773 as the second ballet school in Russia, it entered into a contract with the Italian teacher-choreographer Filippo Becari, who must was “the most capable of dancing” children to learn “to dance with all possible precision and to show themselves publicly in all pantomime ballets”.
Nikolay Nikolayevich Benardos (1842–1905) was an inventor from the Russian Empire who was of Greek descent who in 1881 introduced carbon arc welding, which was the first practical arc welding method.
Viktor Ivanovich Petrik is a Russian businessman. He claims to have made many scientific breakthroughs that he markets through his company, Goldformula. Mainstream scientists dismiss his inventions as pseudoscience. Petrik gained notoriety in Russia during the scandal, dubbed Petrikgate, related to the involvement of politicians in promotion of Petrik's pseudo inventions.
The Ministry of General Machine-Building, also known as Minobshchemash, was a government ministry of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1957 and from 1965 to 1991. The ministry supervised the research, development, and production of ballistic missiles as well as launch vehicles and satellites in the Soviet space program.
Cornflowers is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Russian artist Sergei Ivanovich Osipov (1915–1985), executed in 1976 and related to his most famous works in the genre of still life.
Soviet rocketry commenced in 1921 with development of Solid-fuel rockets, which resulted in the development of the Katyusha rocket launcher. Rocket scientists and engineers, particularly Valentin Glushko and Sergei Korolev, contributed to the development of Liquid-fuel rockets, which were first used for fighter aircraft. Developments continued in the late 1940s and 1950s with a variety of ballistic missiles and ICBMs, and later for space exploration which resulted in the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite ever launched.
Jacob Stepanovich Esipov was a Russian inventor. In 1799-1801 he developed a technology for obtaining sugar from sugar beets under industrial conditions in Russia.
Dmitry Dmitriyevich Mishin was a Soviet and Russian physicist, Doctor (habilitate) of physical and mathematical sciences, professor, founder of the scientific school of magnetic scienсе in Tver State University.
Vasily Ivanovich Bakalov was a Soviet and Russian military engineer and designer who worked on the designs of armoured vehicle defence systems and anti-tank guided missiles.
Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) (Russian: Газодинамическая лаборатория) was the first Soviet research and development laboratory to focus on rocket technology. Its activities were initially devoted to the development of solid propellant rockets, which became the prototypes of missiles in the Katyusha rocket launcher, as well as liquid propellant rockets, which became the prototypes of Soviet rockets and spacecraft. At the end of 1933 it became part of the Reactive Scientific Research Institute (RNII). A number of craters on the far side of the Moon are named after GDL employees.
Reactive Scientific Research Institute was one of the first Soviet research and development institutions to focus on rocket technology. RNII developed the Katyusha rocket launcher and its research and development were very important for later achievements of the Soviet rocket and space programs.
