Background
Vladimir Kavrayskiy was born on April 22, 1884, in Zherebyatnikovo, Simbirsk Governorate, Russian Empire. He was born into a family of landed gentry and government officials.
1903
Moscow University Moscow, Russia
In 1903 Kavrayskiy entered the mathematical section of Moscow University. His involvement in the revolution of 1905 forced Kavraysky to leave the University of Moscow.
1916
Kharkov University Kharkov, Ukraine
In 1916 Kavrayskiy graduated with distinction from Kharkov University.
1944
Kavrayskiy was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1944.
1945
Kavrayskiy was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1945.
Kavrayskiy was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1944 and 1947.
Владимир Владимирович Каврайский
Astronomer cartographer geodesist scientist
Vladimir Kavrayskiy was born on April 22, 1884, in Zherebyatnikovo, Simbirsk Governorate, Russian Empire. He was born into a family of landed gentry and government officials.
In 1903 Kavrayskiy graduated from the Simbirsk Gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the mathematical section of Moscow University, where one of his teachers was the mathematician Boleslaw Mlodzeewski, who greatly influenced Kavraysky’s development as a scientist. His involvement in the revolution of 1905 forced Kavraysky to leave the University of Moscow; not until 1916 did he graduate with distinction from Kharkov University, where one of his chief professors was Ludwig Struve, director of the astronomical observatory.
Kavraysky earned his living by teaching mathematics and physics in various educational institutions in Saratov and later in Kharkov. In 1915-1916 he worked as a calculator at the Kharkov University observatory. Even before 1916 he showed a deep interest in astronomy and geodesy, and from 1910 published ten articles in various scientific publications. Among them was “Graficheskoe reshenie astronomicheskikh zadach” (“A Graphic Solution of Astronomical Problems”; 1913). In this work he proposed the so-called “Kavraysky grid,” a transverse grid of equally spaced azimuthal projection, which was widely distributed.
In 1916 Kavraysky also entered naval service in Petrograd as assistant chief, and later chief, on the workshop producing nautical instruments for the Main Hydrographical Administration of the Navy. From 1918 to 1926 he served as astronomer at the Administration’s observatory. In 1921 he began teaching at the Faculty of Hydrographics of the Naval Academy and in 1922 at the Mining Institute - first mining surveying and later the theory of instruments, astronomy, and mathematical cartography. From 1926 through 1930 Kavraysky was extraordinary astronomer at the Pulkovo observatory, conducting studies in astronomy and geodesy.
In 1930-1938 Kavraysky was a member of the newly created Leningrad Institute of Geodesy and Cartography (now the Central Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Photography, and Cartography in Moscow). His scientific authority was so great that he was asked to participate in all important cartographic and geodesic projects. Kavraysky retired in 1949 with the title of engineer-rear admiral. He devoted the last years of his life to the preparation of Rukovodstva po matematicheskoy kartografii (“Guide to Mathematical Cartography”), which remained unfinished. But all that he had written was included in volume II of the work Izbrannye trudy (“Selected Works”).
Kavraysky’s scientific activity covered many fields, each of which must be considered separately. All of his publications are distinguished by unusual clarity and mastery of exposition. After a statement of the history of a problem and survey of the literature, Kavraysky expressed the mathematical essence of the problem and gave not only an exhaustive solution but also all the information necessary for practical use of the solution, including tables, a list of possible variants, and an estimate of error. In this manner he worked out in detail the mathematical aspects of the introduction into the Soviet Union of a unified system of two-dimensional rectangular coordinates on a Gauss projection for all geodesic and cartographic work.
Kavraysky’s work for many years was connected with mathematical cartography, the establishment of strict criteria for evaluating cartographic projects, and the development of the most useful projects for various problems. Volume II of the Izbrannye trudy (“Selected Works”) includes many - but not all - of his works in this area. These works gave him the opportunity to propose original projections for maps of the world and of individual sections of the earth’s surface. Many maps and atlases have been published with these projections. Kavraysky also worked on the computations associated with the making of globes. He gave an extraordinarily clear and strict statement of the complex problem of cartographic projection in his articles in Bolshaya sovetskaya entsiklopedia.
A special group of Kavraysky’s works is connected with the solution of practical problems of navigation, including the major investigation, Graficheskie sposoby opredelenia mesta korablya po radiopelengam (“Graphic Methods of Determining Positions of Ships by Radio Bearings”), in which all problems are solved by the construction of “position lines.”
Part of Kavraysky’s theory of astronomical observations is the improvement and simplification of known methods of solving problems in practical astronomy and geodesy, as is a series of original methods of simultaneous determination of time and latitude, which proved highly effective in the high northern latitudes (from 60° to 80°). Kavraysky developed methods of determining locations near the pole for the first Soviet expedition to the North Pole and developed the necessary tables and nomograms for this project. In essence, all of Kavraysky’s scientific works were devoted to the solution of problems of navigation.