Crystallography and mineralogy at the leningrad mining institute

Abstract

St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) Mining Institute even before the Great October Socialist Revolution was one of the centers of crystallography and mineralogy, widely known not only in our country, but also throughout the world. In the last century, the works of two founders of the descriptive crystallographic-mineralogical school in Russia - famous professors of the Institute - Academician N. I. Koksharov (1818-1892) and Academician P. V. Eremeev (1826-1899) were universally recognized. Since 1905, the chairs of crystallography and petrography were headed by E. S. Fedorov (1853-- 1919), an outstanding pupil of the Institute; mineralogy was taught by his pupil and assistant V. V. Nikitin (1867-1942), the author of the famous monograph “Fedorov's Universal Method”. New crystallographic, mineralogical and petrographic methods developed at the Institute, based on the remarkable Fedorov discoveries and achievements, attracted numerous students not only from all parts of our homeland, but also from abroad. T. Barker from Oxford, L. Duparc from Geneva, Jimbo from Japan and a number of other major foreign specialists spent several years in Russia learning crystallochemical analysis and universal method from their creator, E. S. Fedorov.