History
The Main Artillery Directorate (GAU) was established on 28 December 1862 by Order No. 375 issued by Count Dmitry Milyutin, the Minister of War of the Russian Empire. The GAU supervised the supply of the Imperial Russian Army, not only with artillery guns and ammunition, but also with small arms, and also supervised the combat training and staffing of artillery units. State-owned military factories were subordinate to it. The GAU was headed by a General–Feldtseykhmeyster (the chief of the artillery) and in 1908 the specific position of Chief of the GAU was introduced .
During the First World War, the GAU played a key role in supplying the Russian army with weapons and ammunition. During this period it was headed by General of Artillery Dmitry Kuzmin-Karavaev (ru:Kuzmin-Karavaev, Dmitry Dmitrievich) until May 1915, when he was replaced by General of Artillery Alexey Manikovsky.
In December 1917, in connection with the October Revolution and the final collapse of the Russian military, the GAU was reorganized by the Bolsheviks into the Artillery Directorate. It continued its work uninterrupted and no fundamental changes were made to it. On 15 October 1918, the position of Inspector of Artillery was established for the leadership and management of artillery at the headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. From August 1921, the position was renamed Chief of Artillery of the Red Army. The same year, the Artillery Directorate became the Main Artillery Directorate. In accordance with his duties, the Inspector of Artillery supervised the combat activity of the Red Army's artillery, the creation of new artillery formations, the recruitment of personnel, and the preparation of key documents concerning the development of artillery. The total number of employees was 734.
From June 1922 to 1924, the former General-Lieutenant, Red Commander (Kraskom) Georgi Sheideman (ru:Шейдеман, Георгий Михайлович) led the artillery efforts. The number of guns and mortars available to the troops rose from 10,700 in 1932, to 34,000 by the beginning of the Second World War, in 1939.
"The central warehouses of the GAU, as a rule, were of the 1st category. In the military districts there were warehouses of all categories, but warehouses of the 3rd and 4th categories prevailed. In 1940, all warehouses that had equipment and assembly shops and turned into large military production enterprises were renamed bases."
"The most intensive construction of central ammunition depots was noted in the third five-year plan (1938-1940), when 13 warehouses with a design storage capacity of 3,000 wagons of ammunition each were built and continued. Under favourable conditions, the construction of such a warehouse was completed within four years."
"Depending on the storage capacity and the availability of production workshops, all artillery depots were divided into 4 categories, as a rule, according to operational capacity:
a) warehouses of the 1st category, which included production workshops and storage capacities of up to 5000 wagons of cargo;
b) warehouses of the 2nd category had storage capacities of 700 and more wagons;
c) warehouses of the 3rd category - up to 500 wagons of cargo, respectively;
d) warehouses of the 4th category - up to 200 wagons of cargo, respectively."
"The average capacity of the central warehouse (base) for the specified period increased from 1800 to 2100 wagons, and the average capacity of the warehouse of district subordination decreased from 610 to 415 wagons. The construction of low-power district depots was due to the need to disperse mobilization stocks of ammunition, which, as a result of their advancement to the state border, became more vulnerable to air strikes."
There were at least 33 central weapons/ammunition bases in five districts (Moscow, OrVO, KhaVO, Volga Military District, and the Ural Military District of the European part of the USSR at the beginning of the German Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion.
The 357th Central base of depots and Ammunition was located in Yuski (now in Udmurtia).
Marshal of Artillery Nikolai Yakovlev became head of the GAU at the beginning of the invasion, and held the post throughout the war.
Materiel shortages during the Battle of Moscow in 1941 forced the introduction of strict rationing of ammunition supply at the Front level, and the centralization of munitions storage and distribution in the Central Bases of the People's Commissariat for Defence (NKO).
Larger storage and manufacturing sites, arsenals began to appear after the end of the Second World War. The 47th Arsenal at Tsvetokha in the Slavuta Raion of the Khmelnytsky Oblast was established in 1945. Military Depot No. 61 of the NKO was formed on May 13, 1938, at Lozovaya in Kharkiv Oblast, and on August 1, 1960 it was transformed into the 61st Arsenal of the Ministry of Defence. It was part of GRAU during the 1980s.
Ammunition depots were established for the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War. From August 8-10, 1988, there were fires and explosions in the 3704th Ammunition Depot (в/ч 77824 - 3704 артиллерийский склад вооружения и боеприпасов) of the 40th Army (Soviet Union), located in the Kelgai Valley near Puli Khumri. The detonation of the explosives storage facility, according to eyewitnesses, resembled a nuclear one with the appearance of a characteristic "mushroom cloud". Eight soldiers and one civilian cook may have been killed, with others wounded. Western sources reported that the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union) denied there had been any casualties.
After the declaration of independence of Ukraine, the 61st Arsenal at Lozovaya with a technical area of 247 hectares and a total area of 488.4 hectares was transferred to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. On August 27, 2008, a fire broke out at the arsenal, which led to the explosions of shells.
There has been large-scale use of ammunition since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has led to much of the Soviet-era ammunition being used up.
Russia
Ministry of Defence
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