The Mineralogical Society, founded in 1817 in St. Petersburg, united lovers of nature with a variety of interests, covering in addition to mineralogy itself also geology, petrography, paleontology, volcanology, etc. Already in the first decades the members of the Mineralogical society have contributed much to the knowledge of Russian geology. Beginning from the 60s of the 19th century and up to the organization of the Geological Committee, the Mineralogical Society led the study of the geological structure of Russia in order to compile a geological map of Russia. The results of these studies and the methodology developed by the Mineralogical Society formed the basis for the subsequent activities of the Geological Committee established in 1882.
