Saint Petersburg Mining Institute
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The G. V. Plekhanov Saint Petersburg State Mining Institute and Technical University is Russia's oldest higher education institute devoted to engineering. Located in Saint Petersburg, the institute is one of the oldest mining schools in Europe, and home to one of the world's finest and most exclusive collections of minerals, gem samples and mining equipment miniatures used for teaching purposes.
The Institute was founded on October 21 OS/ November 1 NS 1773 by order of Empress Catherine II. It was known as the Mining School (Горное училище) until 1804 when it became the Mining Cadet's Corps (Горный кадетский корпус); in 1833, it became the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers (Институт корпуса горных инженеров). Since 1866, it has been known as the Mining Institute (Горный институт).
During the Soviet period, it was renamed after Georgi Plekhanov, who attended the institute in the 1870s, and became known as "the G. V. Plekhanov Leningrad State Mining Institute and Technical University." In 1958-1960 a branch of the institute was opened in Vorkuta and night schools at Slantsy, Monchegorsk, and Kirovsk. The current (as of August 2005) Rector of the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute (SPMI)is Prof. of Mining Engineering Vladimir Stepanovich Litvinenko.
Since 1869 the institute is the headquarter of the Russian Mineralogical Society.
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The institute is housed in an Empire style building on the 21st line and the Neva River embankment on the south shore of Vasilievsky Island. It was built in 1806-1811 to a design by the serf-architect Andrey Voronikhin, who also designed the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt and buildings on Paul I's estate at Pavlovsk south of the city. The statues flanking the entrance were sculpted by Stepan Pimenov; the reliefs were done by Vasily Demuth-Malinovsky. The Column Hall and the Caryatid Hall were decorated by Michael Scotti.
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Coordinates: 59°55′45″N 30°16′10″E / 59.92923°N 30.26945°E
