Petersburg Mining Institute

Saint Petersburg Mining University

Санкт-Петербургский горный университет
Former names	Leningrad Mining Institute National Mineral Resources University
Motto	Усердие к услуге Отечества и к пользе оного любовь
Motto in English	Diligence in conducting the affairs of the Fatherland and love for the good thereof
Type	Public
Established	1773 (1773)
Rector	Vladimir Litvinenko
Academic staff	5,000
Students	16 500
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Website	spmi.ru
Building details
The building of the Mining Academy (1811) is a Neoclassical masterpiece by Andrey Voronikhin.
General information
Estimated completion	1811

The Saint Petersburg Mining University (Russian: Санкт-Петербургский горный университет), is Russia's oldest technical university, and one of the oldest technical colleges in Europe. It 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 the mining and metals 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 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 and governments. Its museum is home to one of the world's finest collections of gem and mineral samples and the university building is a Neoclassical masterpiece by Andrey Voronikhin.

The University was first known as the Mining School (Горное училище) until 1804, when it became the Mining Cadet Corps (Горный кадетский корпус); in 1833, it became the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers (Институт корпуса горных инженеров). Since 1866, it was known as the Mining Institute (Горный институт). 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, 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. Since 1869 the institute has also been the headquarters of the Russian Mineralogical Society.