Saint Petersburg Mining University
Saint Petersburg Mining University of Empress Catherine II is the oldest technical university of Russia and one of the oldest technical universities in Europe.
The university was founded on October 21, 1773, by Empress Catherine the Great, who realised an idea proposed by Peter the Great and Mikhail Lomonosov for training engineers for mining and metal industries. Having a strong engineering profession was seen by many Russian rulers as a vital means of maintaining Russia's status as a great power. As historian Alfred J. Rieber wrote, "The marriage of technology and central state power had a natural attraction for Peter the Great and his successors, particularly Paul I, Alexander I, and Nicholas I". All three had had a military education and had seen the achievements of the engineers of revolutionary and imperial France, who had reconstructed the great highways, unified the waterways and erected buildings throughout Europe in a more lasting tribute to the French than all of Napoleon's victories.
Though located in St. Petersburg, the university is on a federal rather than local level and has partnerships with global oil, gas, and mining companies, as well as governments. Its museum is home to one of the world's finest collections of gems and mineral samples, and the university building is a Neoclassical masterpiece designed by Andrey Voronikhin.
History
The university was first known as the Mining School until 1804, when it became the Mining Cadet Corps ; in 1833, it became the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers. Since 1866, it has been known as the Mining Institute. It is still widely known in Russia as Gorny, or 'Mining', referring to its previous name. During the Soviet period, it was renamed after Georgi Plekhanov, who attended the institute in the 1870s, becoming known as the G. V. Plekhanov Leningrad State Mining Institute and Technical University. Between 1958 and 1960, a branch of the institute was opened in Vorkuta, along with night schools in Slantsy, Monchegorsk, and Kirovsk. Since 1869 the institute has also been the headquarters of the Russian Mineralogical Society.During the Siege of Leningrad, the building was used as a manufacturing base for producing explosives and grenades.
The university also houses a church, dedicated to St. Macarius of Egypt, which first opened its doors in 1805. It was closed, along with other churches, by the Soviet government in 1918, and was used first as a cinema and then as a gym, which resulted in damage to the interior. However, in 1996 it was recognized once more as a church and restored fully and is now functional.
The university was renamed Saint Petersburg State Mining University in 2011, and, after merging with the North-West Open Technical University in 2012, it was known as the National Mineral Resources University. The university was renamed Saint Petersburg Mining University in 2016.
Building
The university is housed in a grand neoclassicist building with a 12-column portico on the banks of the Neva River on the south shore of Vasilievsky Island. It is the first building that can be seen from ships travelling into the city from the Gulf of Finland, and is a prime example of the monumental neoclassicist style favoured in Imperial Russia in the early 1800s. Russian scholars call this architecture classicist, while in the west it is known as neoclassicist, because trends in architecture came to Russia later than in the West.Architect Andrey Voronikhin completed the building in 1806–11. He also designed the Kazan Cathedral – inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome – at Nevsky Prospect, as well as buildings at Paul I's estate at Pavlovsk Palace south of the city. He also remodelled the interiors of the baroque Stroganov Palace in neoclassical style. The design of the university building reflects the idea that mining is a harsh and difficult pursuit – as well as symbolising the entry into the underground world of Pluto through the portico, decorated with 12 columns of the Doric order.
On the left-hand side of the steps at the entrance to the university is a sculpture by Vasily Demut-Malinovsky, who designed decorations and sculptures for many of the city’s churches, palaces, and monuments. The Abduction of Proserpina depicts how the Roman goddess Proserpina is seized and taken to the underworld by Pluto and is after the original The Rape of Proserpina by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which provided the inspiration for many artists. Its powerful forms and heavy proportions
are determined by their position and function as a decoration of the huge portico, and the sculpture together with the portico are typical of Russian town planning in the beginning of the 19th century.
On the right-hand-side of the entrance to the university is the Hercules and Antaeus sculpture by Stepan Pimenov, one of the leading Russian sculptors of the early 19th century, who also created sculptural decorations for the Kazan Cathedral, the Admiralty, and many other palaces and monuments in St Petersburg, and who had worked closely with Demut-Malinovsky since 1802. The statue shows Hercules winning in a struggle with Antaeus, who had defeated most of his previous opponents up to that point.
In 1830 Pimenov fell out of favour with Tsar Nicholas I, seemingly over his sculptures to decorate the Narva Triumphal Arch, built in 1814 to mark the Russian victory over Napoleon, but most probably because of his portraits of the Tsar, which Nicholas did not take a liking to.
Pimenov was dismissed by the Tsar and died three years later, at the age of 49.
The two sculptures symbolise the earth, its power and wealth – Antaeus’ strength lay in his contact with Mother Earth, and Demut-Malinovsky’s Rape of Proserpina also shows a struggle – and the dynamism of each sculpture contrasts with the solidity of the large portico.