Golden Names of Russia

In the midst of the Civil War, a young scientist from the Mining University, Ivan Bakhurin, along with his mentor Vladimir Bauman, found themselves on the banks of the Ural River at Mount Magnitnaya. They had come to use the magnetometric method of exploration to precisely determine the reserves of local ores, whose wealth had been the stuff of legends for more than a century.

The story of Rem Karpov dates back to a time when Soviet-Cuban friendship was just beginning, and the first Soviet specialists were sent to the revolutionary country to help develop its mineral resources. It was in the early hours of May 2, 1961, at 3 a.m., when a group of Soviet mining experts was greeted at Havana Airport by none other than Ernesto Che Guevara himself.

In February 1938, Dmitry Ivanovich Mushketov was sentenced under Article No. 58 to the highest punishment and executed on the same day. He had been arrested on charges of allegedly “creating a counter-revolutionary terrorist group in 1930 and committing acts of sabotage.” After eight months of imprisonment, a bullet from an NKVD officer ended the life of the distinguished geologist, Doctor of Sciences, and former rector of the Mining Institute (1917-1928).

In the summer of 1989, the deep-sea submersible ”Mir” descended to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, with renowned geologist Nikolai Dobrecov on board. Dobrecov was intrigued by the exposure of oceanic crust about 50 million years old. After examining magma frozen in cracks of the rocky crust and taking a few photographs, he was ready to ascend when the submersible commander nervously informed him of a hydraulic control system failure.

Exactly two hundred years ago, in 1824, Yegor Karneev was appointed as the director of the Mining Cadet Corps and the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs, which was the main government department responsible for managing the mining industry and state-owned mines and smelting plants. Interestingly, although he was not an expert in metallurgy, geology, or mining, the years under his leadership are considered to be among the most successful for the Mining Institut

No technical university in the Russian Empire or the USSR produced as many writers, prose authors and poets as St. Petersburg Mining University did.

”The tale of Tula’s oblique Lefty and the steel flea” ends with:

In the distant 1685, Louis XIV signed an edict in Fontainebleau revoking the Edict of Nantes. Freedom of religion, given to the Huguenots by the light hand of Henry of Navarre, was eliminated. Protestant nobles flocked to Russia. One of them was Georges, then Egor, de Marny. Here he commanded the Vyborg regiment, was the commandant of the Vyborg fortress, but most importantly, he became the father of another Egor. Egor-Barbot (this is the second name) de Marny, who became the founder of a fantastic dynasty.

On the night of October 24-25, 1917, the Provisional Government was arrested at the Winter Palace. These events are known to everyone, thanks to Vladimir Mayakovsky’s poetry about them. «Which ones are temporary here? Get off! Your time is over».

Despite the fact that chemistry begins to be studied in the eighth grade and is indispensable in dozens of industries that are crucial for the economy, if an ordinary Russian is asked to name the names of great Russian chemists, the vast majority will limit themselves to Lomonosov and Mendeleev. Only a small part would add a third name - Academician Nikolai Kurnakov.