Dmitry A. Kazakovsky and development of mine surveying in the USSR

Abstract

The main stages of the life and work of a prominent Soviet scientist, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor Dmitry A. Kazakovsky, whose name will forever remain in the history of Russian mine surveying, are considered. The formation of D. A. Kazakovsky as a prominent specialist in the field of mine surveying was due to a combination of several important factors. Firstly, there were objective needs of the industrial development of the USSR, in connection with which the problem of training qualified mine surveyors was actualized. Secondly, the formation of D. A. Kazakovsky was influenced by the high professionalism of the scientific environment that had formed within the walls of the Leningrad Mining Institute (now the Saint Petersburg Mining University). Finally, thirdly, to achieve significant heights in the science of D. A. Kazakovsky was largely helped by his personal qualities – energy, efficiency, responsibility for the assigned task, ability to work in a team. During his studies at the Leningrad Mining Institute, D. A. Kazakovsky chose the specialty of a mine surveyor. It was a new and very promising specialty in the field of mining for that time. Already in his student years, he showed excellent knowledge in this area. D. A. Kazakovsky made a significant personal contribution to the study of the problems of displacement of the surface and the rock mass above the minedout space, to the development of guidelines for the protection of structures from the harmful effects of mining at coal deposits, as well as to the development of electro-acoustic methods for surveying mine workings. At his suggestion, a special laboratory of electroacoustic methods of surveying mining workings was created at the Leningrad Mining Institute. Thanks to the fruitful administrative and scientific-pedagogical activity of D. A. Kazakovsky, in the national economic life of the USSR, the sonar method, which has not lost its significance even today, found ever wider application, and electroacoustic devices necessary for surveying work were actively introduced. Scientific discoveries and technical developments made by D. A. Kazakovsky became the basis for the further development of surveying in our country.