This chapter assesses the destroyed landscape of war and the cities of earth that soldiers built to survive, crafting a semi-urban space using standard issue spades and attempting to recreate aspects of civilian life. During the Great Patriotic War, survival at the front was virtually impossible without the help of an ancient hand tool: the spade. Indeed, the idea of the spade as a loyal friend became a major trope of military propaganda. That such a humble object received so much attention is telling. The spade was the key to soldiers' reading, shaping, and using the landscape. The soldier's small spade was an anonymous object, standard to everyone, and manuals taught soldiers to dig trenches according to a regular plan, yet Red Army soldiers excavated highly personalized spaces. Ultimately, the small, relatively primitive object and the labor it facilitated were central to the experience of millions of people in one of the most technologically advanced conflicts in world history.
Overview of Primitive Object Volatile Explorer (PrOVE) CubeSat or Smallsat concept