Tsar-gun - not the gun at all: what is standing in the Kremlin

In a row with the king-gun, the poet Alexander Roslavlev put even the famous monument to Alexander III of the work of Trubetskoy:

Third wild toy

For Russian Hall:

There was a king bell, king gun,

And now the king is ...

But, alas, our mastic historians and dissidents-anecdotchiks are not right. First, the king gun shot, and secondly, this to the gun is not a gun at all.

But start in order. The king-gun was cast by the famous Russian master Andrei Chokhov (until 1917 he was listed by Chekhov) by order of Tsar Fyodor John. The giant gun weighing 2400 pounds (39,132 kg) was cast in 1586 on the Moscow Cannon Yard. The length of the tsar gun is 5345 mm, the outer diameter of the barrel is 1210 mm, and the diameter of the thickening of the blow - 1350 mm.

Currently, the king cannon is located on a cast-iron decorative boat, and there are decorative cast iron kernels, which were cast in 1834 in St. Petersburg at the Chugan-Round Bird Plant. It is clear that it is physically impossible to shoot from this cast-iron bootheet, nor use cast iron nuclei - the tsar-gun will smash! Documents on testing tsar-guns or its use in combat conditions are not preserved, which gave the basis for long-term disputes on its purpose. Most of the historians and the military in the XIX and the beginning of the twentieth centuries believed that the king-gun was a shotgun, that is, an instrument designed to shoot a fraction, which in the XVI-XVII centuries. / BM9ICG \u003d\u003d\u003d\u003e EKAH consisted of small stones. A smaller part of the specialists generally excludes the possibility of combat use of the gun, believing that it is made specifically in order to scare foreigners, especially the ambassadors of the Crimean Tatars. Recall that in 1571, Khan Devlet Garyu burned Moscow.

In the XVIII - early twentieth centuries, the king-gun was called in all official documents by a shotgun. And only the Bolsheviks in the 1930s decided to increase her rank in propaganda and began to be magnificent a gun.

The mystery of the king gun was revealed only in the 1980s, when a large car crane took her away from the boiler and placed on a huge trailer. Then the powerful KRAZ was taking a tsar-gun in Serpukhov, where at the plant in / h No. 42708 was repaired cannon. At the same time, a number of specialists of the Artillery Academy. Dzerzhinsky produced its inspection and measurement. The report for some reason was not published, but from the preserved draft materials it becomes clear that the king gun ... was not a gun!

Raisin guns - his channel. At a distance of 3190 mm, it has a cone type, the initial diameter of which is 900 mm, and the final is 825 mm. Then there is a charging chamber with reverse taper - with an initial diameter of 447 mm and a finite (in the treasury part) 467 mm. The length of the cameras is 1730 mm, and the bottom is flat.

So this is a classic bombard!

For the first time, bombards appeared at the end of the XIV century. The name "Bombard" originated from the Latin words of Bombus (thunder sound) and Arder (burn). The first bombards were made from iron and had a fusion camcor. So, for example, in 1382 in the city of Ghent (Belgium), the Bombard "Fucking Margarita" was made, named so in memory of the FLAND CHAIRS MARGARIET. Caliber Bombard - 559 mm, Stem length - 7.75 caliber (CLB), and channel length - 5 bb. The weight of the guns is 11 tons. "Mad Margarita" shot stone cores weighing 320 kg. The bombard consists of two layers: the internal, consisting of longitudinal bands cooked with each other, and the outer - of 41 iron hoops, cooked with each other and with the inner layer. Separate valve cameras consists of one layer of disks cooked with each other and is equipped with the nests where the lever is inserted when it is screwed and disinfect.

For charging and aiming of large bombard spent about a day. Therefore, in the siege of the city of Pisa in 1370, whether the precipitating was preparing to make a shot, the deposited went to the opposite end of the city. The precipitating, using this, rushed to the attack.

The charge of the bombard was not more than 10% of the core weight. Tsazf and flaws were not. The guns were laid on wooden decks and logs, and the piles were clogged behind or brick walls were erected. Original elevation angle has not changed. In the XV century, primitive lifting mechanisms began to use and cast copper bombards.

We will pay attention - the king cannon has no Herf, with the help of which the angle of elevation is given to the tool. In addition, she has an absolutely smooth rear section of a stateless part, which she, like other bombards, rested in a stone wall or a log house.

Defender Dardanwell

By the middle of the XV century, the most powerful siege artillery was at ... Turkish Sultan. Thus, during the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Hungarian urban founder was cast by the Turks copper bombardment with a 24-inch caliber (610 mm), which arrived by stone cores weighing about 20 pounds (328 kg). It took 60 bulls and 100 people for its transportation to position. To eliminate rollback, behind the weapon of the Turks built a stone wall. The rapidity of this bombard was 4 shots per day. By the way, the rapidity of large-caliber Western European bombard was about the same order. Before taking Constantinople, a 24-inch bombard ripped. At the same time, her designer Urban was killed. Turks appreciated large-caliber bombards. Already in 1480, during the battles on the island of Rhodes, they used a bombard of 24-35-inch caliber (610-890 mm). The casting of such giant bombard was required, as indicated in the ancient documents, 18 days.

It is curious that the bombards of the XV-XVI centuries. Ekov in Turkey were in service until the middle of the XIX century. So, on March 1, 1807, during the forcing Dardanelle, the English squadron of Dukworth admiral, the marble core of a 25-inch caliber (635 mm) weighing 800 pounds (244 kg) hit the bottom Dec of the ship "Windsor Castle" and ignored several cards with gunpowder, resulting in There was a terrible explosion. 46 people were killed and injured. In addition, many sailors with fright rushed overboard and drowned. The same kernel fell into the Active ship and struck a huge hole in board above the Waterlinia. In this hole, several people could knock out their heads.

In 1868, over 20 huge Bombard still stood on the forts defended Dardanelles. There is information that during the Dardanelle operation of 1915 in the English armadiole "Agamemenon" fell a 400-kilogram stone core. Of course, it was not possible to break through the armor and only rushing the team.

Let's compare the Turkish 25-inch (630-mm) copper bombard, cast in 1464, which is currently kept in the museum in Vulvich (London), with our king gun. The weight of the Turkish bombard is 19 tons, and the full length is 5232 mm. The outer diameter of the trunk is 894 mm. The length of the cylindrical part of the channel is 2819 mm. Camora length - 2006 mm. Bottom cameras rounded. Bombard shot stone nuclei weighing 309 kg, the charge of gunpowders weighed 22 kg.

The bombard at one time defended Dardanelles. As you can see, externally and on the channel of the channel it is very similar to the king gun. The main thing and the fundamental difference is that the Turkish bombard has a wobble state part. Apparently, according to the sample of such a bombard and a king gun was made.

Tsar-shotgun.

So, the king cannon is a bombard designed for firing by stone nuclei. The weight of the stone kernel of the king gun amounted to about 50 pounds (819 kg), and the cast-iron core of such a caliber weighs 120 pounds (1.97 tons). As a shotgun, the king gun was extremely ineffective. At the cost of costs, 20 small shotguns could be made instead of it, for the charging of which you need much less time - not a day, but only 1-2 minutes. I note that in the official inventory "at the Moscow Arsenal of Artillery" # for 1730, 40 copper and 15 cast-iron shotguns were listed. Pay attention to their calibers: 1500 pounds - 1 (this is the king gun), and then follow the calibers: 25 pounds - 2, 22 pounds - 1, 21 pound - 3, etc. The largest number of shotguns, 11, falls on a 2-pound caliber.

And nevertheless she shot

Who and why did you write the tsar gun in the shotgun? The fact is that in Russia all the old guns who were in the fortresses, with the exception of the Mortira, eventually listed in shotguns, that is, in the case of the siege of the fortress, they had to shoot a fraction (stony), and later - a cast-iron case on infantry coming At the assault. Use old tools for firing with nuclei or bombs was inappropriate: And suddenly the trunk will separate, and the new guns have ballistic data much better. So the king gun was recorded in shotguns, at the end of the XIX - the beginning of the twentieth centuries about the orders in the smooth-born fortress artillery, the military forgot, and civilians did not know at all and by the name "shotgun" decided that the king cannon was supposed to be used exclusively as an antspecturous Tools for firing "stone fraction".

Point in the dispute, whether the king gun shot, put specialists from the Academy in 1980. Dzerzhinsky. They explored the canal tools and for a number of signs, including the presence of burnt powder particles concluded that the tsar gun was shot at least once. After the tsar was cast and separated on the gun yard, they dragged her to the Spassky Bridge and put it on the ground next to the Pavlin gun. # To move the gun, to eight brackets on his trunk tied ropes, these ropes were injected at the same time. Horses, and those rolled the gun lying on huge logs - rinks.

Initially, the instruments of the "king" and "peacock" lay on Earth at the bridge leading to the Spasskaya Tower, and Kashpirov cannon - at the Zemsky order, located where the historical museum is now located. In 1626 they were raised from the ground and installed on log fires, tightly stuffed grounds. These platforms were called Roskati. One of them, with a king-gun and "Pavlin", set as a frontal place, the other, with a cospica gun, - at the Nikolsky gate. In 1636, wooden roskats were replaced by stone, inside which warehouses and shops were arranged.

After the "Narva Conclusion", when the royal army lost all the siege and regimental artillery, Peter I ordered urgently pouring new guns. The king, the necessary for this, I decided to get the swallowing of bells and old cannons. According to the "registered decree" it was "ordered to pour into the cannon and mortar casting the gun" Peacock ", which in China has a frontal place in Roskat; Punny Kashpirov, which has a new cash yard, where there was a Zemskaya order; the gun "Echidna", which is under the village of Voskresensky; The gun "Grades" the core of the pound of ten pounds; The gun "Solovna" is a core of 6 pounds, which in China on the square. "

Peter, due to its uneducation, did not spare the most ancient instruments of the Moscow casting and made an exception only for the largest guns. Among them, naturally, the king cannon, as well as two Mortira casting Andrei Chokhov, who are currently being in the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg.