Zasiadko, Aleksandr

Born 1779 in the village of Liutenka, in present-day Gadiach Raion, Poltava Oblast; died May 27 (June 8), 1837, in Kharkov. Russian artillery officer, a rocket expert; promoted to lieutenant general in 1829. Graduate of the Artillery and Engineering Szlachta Cadet Corps (1797).

Zasiadko served in the Italian campaign of the Russian Army in 1799 under A. V. Suvorov’s command, in the Russo-Turkish war of 1806-12, and in the Patriotic War of 1812. In 1815 he began to work on creating combat gunpowder rockets. He designed launching installations that made it possible to conduct a volley fire of six rockets, created training devices, and worked out tactics for using rocket weapons in combat. From 1820, Zasiadko was chief of the St. Petersburg Arsenal and of the Okhta Gunpowder Plant and Pyrotechnical Laboratory, as well as of the first artillery college in Russia. Heading the staff of the artillery of the Russian Army in 1827, Zasiadko fought in the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-29, organized rocket production in a special “rocket establishment,” and formed the first rocket unit in the Rus-sian Army. In 1834 he retired for reasons of health. A formation on the far side of the moon has been named after Zasiadko.