Andrey Alexandrovich Bolshev, (Андрей Александрович Большев; 1828 – 1904) was a Russian surveyor, geographer, and cartographer holding the rank of Major General, who was head of the Topographic Department of the Imperial Army's General Staff. Born in Novgorod province, he studied at the Russian Empire's Military Topographic School (Военно-топографическое училище) and joined the Military Topographic Depot (Военно-топографическом депо). He is best known for overseeing the production of a massive 1884 map of 'Russian Asia' (Карта Азиатской России) that he and his team spent twenty years researching. He was deeply involved in the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (Русское географическое общество) and was considered one of the foremost experts in Russia on the geography of Siberia and the Russian Far East. His younger brother, Colonel Loggin Alexandrovich Bolshev (Логгин Александрович Большев; 1834 - 1880), was also a military cartographer who made significant contributions to geographical knowledge of 'Russian Asia,' most notably leading an 1874 expedition to map most of the coast of the Sea of Japan and the Tatar Strait from Plastun Bay to Chikhachev Bay. More by this mapmaker...

Loggin Alexandrovich Bolshev (Логгин Александрович Большев; September 10, 1834 – August 3, 1880) was a Russian topographer, cartographer, surveyor and explorer. Born in Novgorod Province, he followed in the footsteps of his older brother Andrey Alexandrovich Bolshev (Андрей Александрович Большев; 1828 – 1904) and studied at the Russian Empire's Military Topographic School (Военно-топографическое училище). After undertaking surveying work near St. Petersburg and in the Baltics, he studied astronomy at the Imperial Observatory at Pulkowo and then spent several years engaged in astronomical and geodetic work in Finland. In 1872, he was appointed assistant chief of the Military Topographic Department of the East Siberian Military District in Irkutsk and became active in the East Siberian Department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. In 1874, he led an expedition to survey the east coast of the Russian Far East, resulting in a wealth of cartographic, astronomical, and ethnographic knowledge. Although holding a lower rank than his brother Andrey, Loggin was and has remained the better known of the two due to his cartographic and geographic output. His son Nikolai (1871 – 1925) also served as an officer in the Imperial Army before defecting to the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, while his grandson (Loggin Nikolaevich, 1922 - 1978) was a decorated fighter pilot in World War II and a Professor of Mathematics as Moscow State University. Learn More...

Russian Military Topographic Depot (Военно-топографическом депо; January 27, 1812 - present) was an arm of the Russian Imperial Army charged with the organization, production, and publication of cartographic data compiled by the Russian military. It built on the foundation of the Map Depot (Депо карт), founded in 1796 to create state-of-the-art maps of the empire for military use. The Depot was abolished in 1863, when its functions were transferred to the Military Topographic Section of the Directorate of the General Staff (управления Генерального штаба). In 1866, it became the basis for the Corps of Military Topographers (Корпус военных топографов), which underwent several reorganizations and name changes throughout the 20th century. During the Cold War period, it was known as the Military Topographic Directorate of the General Staff (Военно-топографическое управление Генерального штаба, often abbreviated as VTU). Even today, as part of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, it retains a similar name and function as in imperial times. Learn More...