Italy, 1911. The International Industrial Exhibition in Turin attracted 7.5 million visitors eager to explore the scientific and technological achievements of leading nations. Each delegation aimed to leave a lasting impression on the jury and spectators by constructing national pavilions in Valentino Park on the banks of the Po River, designed by renowned architects and designers.
The Hungarian pavilion was created in the Art Nouveau style, the Siamese pavilion featured a multicolored roof with a golden dome, and the Russian pavilion referenced the neoclassical architecture of the late 18th to early 19th centuries. Its highlights included a rotunda, Doric columns, richly ornamented friezes, and replicas of the sculptures from the portico of the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg.
But the main highlight of this grand celebration of progress and civilization was, of course, the winners selected by the expert jury and the fruits of their work. Geologist Leonid Lutugin took home the Grand Gold Medal, earning this prestigious award for his hand-drawn three-verst composite geological map of the Donetsk Basin, featuring a detailed geological relief. It became a true "Russian marvel" in Italy.
Lutugin was born in St. Petersburg in 1864 into a large merchant family; his father owned a jewelry store. The boy studied at the St. Petersburg Reformed School and later at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. After graduating, the talented alumnus was invited to join the Geological Committee.
In 1890-1891, Leonid Ivanovich participated in a scientific expedition studying the Timan Ridge. The paleontological materials he collected from the Paleozoic deposits in the upper reaches of the Pechora and Vychegda Rivers held great scientific value, earning him a silver medal from the Russian Geographical Society.
In 1892, the young specialist received a pivotal offer to study the Donetsk Coal Basin.
This was truly a heroic era in the history of Russian geology. The Geological Committee faced an incredibly challenging and fascinating task — creating a detailed geological map of all European Russia, including the Urals and the Caucasus. Participating in this project was, without exaggeration, the dream of every geologist. However, the committee’s staff was very limited, so only the most indispensable specialists were selected.
The importance of such survey maps for the development of the mining industry is hard to overestimate. At that time, detailed mapping did not include the Donbass region. Therefore, southern Russian mining industrialists, who urgently needed precise information about coal reserves, turned to the Geological Committee with a special request to describe the entire Donetsk Basin.
The organization of this complex and crucial work was entrusted to the prominent scientist, future director of the Geological Committee and the Mining Institute, Feodosy Chernyshov, and the young Leonid Lutugin. Together, they developed a work plan, divided responsibilities, and began joint research on creating a geological profile. Two years later, Chernyshov was reassigned to other regions, leaving Leonid Ivanovich in charge of the entire stratigraphic mapping of the Donetsk Ridge.
Only a geologist can truly grasp the immense scope of research that lay ahead for the young scientist — to create a geological map of any region, one must thoroughly study the deposits, determine their geological age, and mark their distribution on a diagram.
Armed with a hammer, compass, and a topographic map, Lutugin traversed about 20,000 square kilometers, transferring a 1:24,000 scale "model" of Donbass onto his drawing board. He worked in the field for six months each year, from April 1 to October 1. During his research, he traveled exclusively on foot.
«To survey the area of one map sheet (about 370 square versts),” recalled Leonid Ivanovich's colleague, Soviet academician Pavel Stepanov, “it was necessary to cover 1,500 to 2,000 versts on foot across rocky ridges. In tectonically challenging areas, often spanning just a few square versts, every step had to be taken manually. More than 70 such map sheets were developed».
For 22 years, the mining engineer studied Donbass coal deposits, determined the thickness of the seams, and proved their industrial value. Completing this task allowed Lutugin to become the founder of the Donetsk school of coal geologists.
In July 1896, he was offered the position of adjunct professor at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. Leonid Ivanovich accepted on the condition that he be allowed to continue his work in the south of the country. By 1897, he was already lecturing as a professor.
Several times, Lutugin had to pause his practical and teaching activities due to his involvement in social and political activities and subsequent persecution. In his youth, he was a member of various student organizations, representing students during negotiations with the institute's administration during conflicts. A skilled orator and true tribune, whose speeches inspired his listeners, he actively spoke at rallies against Tsarism and defended civil rights for his colleagues.
He was a member of the Union of Liberation, participated in the congress where the Constitutional Democratic Party was formed, and was elected to its Central Committee. He played a significant role in creating trade unions, especially in organizing the Union of Engineers and Technicians.
After the December 1905 armed uprising in Moscow was crushed, Lutugin, hiding from police spies, had to flee from St. Petersburg to Finland. His caution proved wise — as later archival documents revealed, the Minister of Internal Affairs had issued an arrest order against him. The “amnesty” declared by the Tsarist government, fearing another revolutionary explosion, allowed the geologist to return. However, Pyotr Durnovo, and later his successor Pyotr Stolypin, repeatedly insisted on dismissing Leonid Ivanovich from state service.
He became the Deputy Chairman of the Imperial Russian Technical Society and the Vice-President of the Imperial Free Economic Society. However, in 1907, the “unreliable freethinker” was nevertheless forced to officially leave the Geological Committee and the Mining Institute. He managed to arrange partial funding and continued research and mapping of the Donbas.
These semi-legal works continued until 1910, when he was completely denied funding. During this time, he managed to study 200 coal seams and 20 interlayers. Based on the collected material, the scientist compiled geological map sheets. Drawing tables were set up directly in Lutugin’s apartment in the Donetsk town of Debaltsevo, where his employees gathered.
«With the persistence of barge haulers, we are completing an almost twenty-year feat. Not everything is finished yet, but I consider it obvious that the coal reserves in the Donetsk Basin are colossal», - summarized Lutugin.
Today, it is proven that the total coal reserves in the “Soviet coal furnace” amount to 140.8 billion tons.
Then came Turin. Then came triumph.
By the time Lutugin found himself “on his own,” his authority was already immense. Students, scientists, industrialists, and financial magnates interested in the fate of their investments in the mining industry came to him for consultations.
Leonid Ivanovich effortlessly located “suddenly disappeared” seams, discovered deposits, assisted in choosing sites for new mines, adits, drifts, and crosscuts, and advised where to build railroads or bridges to avoid coal seams and water-bearing limestones.
For example, the scientist determined the direction for laying the Schmidtovka-Rodakovo railway line. According to his project, a 750-meter railway tunnel was built, which still serves people today. The important Volgograd-Kharkov railway line passes through this tunnel.
According to the memoirs of Pavel Popov, Chief Geologist of the Voroshilovgrad Coal Combine, even “banks financed new coal enterprises only if they were supported by Lutugin's geological research. Major industrialists even began competing for him, each trying to lure him into their joint-stock company.
In the last years of his life, Leonid Ivanovich, invited by the Franco-Belgian joint-stock company "Copikuza," worked in the Kuzbass region, where he organized geological exploration of the Kuznetsk and Chelyabinsk coal basins. While studying the formation conditions of deposits, he explained the frequent alternation of rock layers by oscillatory movements of the Earth's crust and established a correlation between coal quality and the degree of metamorphism.
The headquarters of Lutugin's team was the Kemerovo Mine. The first results appeared very soon.
«The Kuznetsk Basin is a rich coal-bearing region; its seams of exceptional thickness reach up to 16 meters! The future belongs to this area», - shared Leonid Ivanovich in 1915.
Energetic and dedicated, Leonid Ivanovich worked tirelessly toward this future. He directed the efforts of the Free Economic Society toward organizing hospitals for wounded and sick soldiers, raising funds for war-torn regions, and establishing shelters for refugees. He personally equipped and sent a medical train to the front. He even contributed his own funds. The scientist did not even own an apartment.
One day, someone criticized him for neglecting his personal well-being, to which he replied:
«"I live as if on a platter. I don’t have much time left to grab a lot, but I could ruin my obituary».
And he didn’t ruin it. On August 16, 1915, Leonid Ivanovich passed away from internal gastric bleeding in Kolchugino (now Leninsk-Kuznetsky in the Kemerovo region) while working as a field geologist. His friends transported his body to Petrograd. A special committee to commemorate Lutugin's memory was formed, including prominent scientists, politicians, and writers, such as Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Korolenko.
On the day of the funeral, more than 10,000 people followed the coffin, coming to bid farewell to the brilliant researcher.
The scientist's name is commemorated in the city of Lutugino in the Luhansk region, a major mine in Torez, a coal seam in the Kuznetsk Basin, and a street in Novokuznetsk.
