Saint Petersburg Mining University

Saint Petersburg Mining University of Empress Catherine II, known in Russian as Санкт-Петербургский горный университет императрицы Екатерины II, is the oldest technical university in Russia, founded on 21 October 1773 by Catherine the Great.圣彼得堡矿业大学（全称「叶卡捷琳娜二世圣彼得堡矿业大学」，俄文 Санкт-Петербургский горный университет императрицы Екатерины II）是俄罗斯历史最悠久的技术大学，1773 年 10 月 21 日由叶卡捷琳娜大帝创办。

It occupies a neoclassical building by Andrey Voronikhin on the Neva embankment of Vasilievsky Island, finished in 1811, with a twelve-column Doric portico that faces the river approach from the Gulf of Finland.该校坐落于瓦西里岛涅瓦河畔，校舍由安德烈·沃罗尼欣设计，属新古典主义风格，1811 年建成，十二根多立克柱构成的门廊正对自芬兰湾入城的河道。

It trains engineers for mining, geology, petroleum and metallurgy, holds one of the world's finest mineral collections, and stands in the 801-1000 band of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027.该校培养采矿、地质、石油与冶金领域的工程师，藏有世界最精良的矿物标本之一，在 2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名中位列 801-1000 区间。

History

• Catherine the Great signed the decree creating the Mining School on 21 October 1773, acting on an idea first raised by Peter the Great and pursued by Mikhail Lomonosov.叶卡捷琳娜大帝于 1773 年 10 月 21 日签署设立矿业学校的法令，落实了彼得大帝首倡、米哈伊尔·罗蒙诺索夫进一步推动的构想。
• The school was founded to supply engineers to Russia's metallurgical works in the Urals, where the state's iron and copper output had become a strategic asset of the empire.该校的创办目的是为乌拉尔地区的冶金工场输送工程师，那里国家的铁与铜产量已成为帝国的战略资产。
• In 1804 the school became the Mining Cadet Corps, adopting the military structure and ranks that shaped the institution's uniform tradition for the next two centuries.1804 年，矿业学校改为矿业武备学校，采用军事化的组织与军衔制度，这一制度塑造了该校此后两个世纪的制服传统。
• Andrey Voronikhin, the architect of Kazan Cathedral, designed the present building between 1806 and 1811, giving the institute one of the finest neoclassical facades in St Petersburg.喀山大教堂的建筑师安德烈·沃罗尼欣于 1806 至 1811 年间设计了现在的校舍，为学院留下了圣彼得堡最精美的几处新古典主义立面之一。
• The church of St. Macarius of Egypt opened inside the building in 1805, was closed by the Soviet government in 1918 and served as a cinema and a gym before being restored in 1996.楼内的埃及圣马卡里教堂于 1805 年启用，1918 年被苏维埃政府关闭，先后用作电影院与体育馆，直至 1996 年恢复并重修。
• In 1833 the institution became the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers, a change that tied its curriculum directly to the engineering corps of the Russian army.1833 年，该校改为矿业工程师团学院，这一变动把课程直接与俄军工程兵团的培养体系挂钩。
• The name Mining Institute, adopted in 1866, is still used colloquially in Russia, where the university is known simply as Gorny, meaning the Mining one.1866 年采用的「矿业学院」之名至今仍在俄罗斯口语中使用，人们干脆称它为「戈尔内」，意为矿业的那一所。
• The Russian Mineralogical Society has been headquartered at the institute since 1869, giving it a scientific society as well as a teaching role in the study of minerals.俄罗斯矿物学会自 1869 年起以该学院为会址，使其在矿物研究领域兼具教学与学术团体的双重身份。
• Georgi Plekhanov studied at the institute in the 1870s before becoming the founding theorist of Russian Marxism, and the Soviet state later named the institute after him.格奥尔基·普列汉诺夫在 1870 年代就读于该学院，后来成为俄国马克思主义的奠基理论家，苏联时期该校曾以他的名字命名。
• During the Siege of Leningrad the building was used as a manufacturing base for explosives and grenades, and teaching continued in the blockaded city under extreme conditions.列宁格勒围城期间，校舍被用作制造炸药与手榴弹的生产基地，教学在被围困的城市中以极端条件继续进行。
• Between 1958 and 1960 the institute opened a branch in Vorkuta and night schools in Slantsy, Monchegorsk and Kirovsk, following the coal and apatite industries northward.1958 至 1960 年间，学院在沃尔库塔设立分校，并在斯兰齐、蒙切戈尔斯克与基洛夫斯克开设夜校，随煤炭与磷灰石产业向北延伸。
• The uniform was reintroduced in 2000, reviving a practice from the school's earliest decades, when students wore a double-breasted red coat with a white collar and gold trim.2000 年该校恢复了制服制度，重现了建校最初数十年的做法，当时学生穿着带白色衣领与金色滚边的双排扣红色制服。
• In 2011 the institution was renamed Saint Petersburg State Mining University, dropping the Soviet-era Plekhanov title that had identified it for most of the twentieth century.2011 年，该校更名为圣彼得堡国立矿业大学，去掉了在二十世纪大部分时间里标识它的普列汉诺夫称号。
• A 2012 merger with the North-West Open Technical University produced the National Mineral Resources University, a short-lived name that lasted until the 2016 renaming.2012 年与西北开放技术大学合并后，学校改称国立矿产资源大学，这一名称只沿用至 2016 年再次更名。
• The present name, Saint Petersburg Mining University, was adopted in 2016, and the dedication to Empress Catherine II was added to the official title in the 2020s.现名「圣彼得堡矿业大学」于 2016 年采用，对叶卡捷琳娜二世的致敬则是在 2020 年代被补入正式全称的。
• The university marked its 250th anniversary in 2023 with exhibitions, a commemorative programme and the publication of a history of the Mining School since 1773.2023 年该校迎来建校 250 周年，举办了展览、纪念活动，并出版了 1773 年以来矿业学校的历史著作。
• Russia's suspension from the Bologna process in 2022 pushed the university to rebuild its international links through bilateral agreements with Asian and Middle Eastern institutions.俄罗斯于 2022 年被暂停参与博洛尼亚进程，这促使该校转而通过与亚洲及中东院校的双边协议重建国际联系。
• The university is federally rather than locally governed, which explains its direct agreements with oil, gas and mining companies and with foreign ministries rather than with the city of St Petersburg.该校由联邦而非地方管理，这也解释了它为何直接与石油、天然气与矿业公司以及外国政府部门签订协议，而非与圣彼得堡市政府对接。
• From a school of a few dozen pupils in 1773 to a federal university with a museum, a church and an international network, its history tracks the Russian state's reliance on mineral wealth.从 1773 年仅有数十名学生的学校，到拥有博物馆与众多合作协议的联邦大学，该校历史映射出俄罗斯国家对矿产财富的依赖。
• The building survived revolution, blockade and the post-Soviet transition, and its portico on the Neva is still the first landmark seen by ships entering the city from the Gulf of Finland.这座建筑历经革命、围城与后苏联转型而存续至今，涅瓦河畔的门廊仍是自芬兰湾入城的船只所见的第一处地标。
• The institute's 1996 church restoration and its 2000 uniform revival were part of a wider post-Soviet effort to recover the pre-revolutionary identity of Russian technical education.该校 1996 年恢复教堂与 2000 年恢复制服，属于后苏联时期俄国技术教育重拾革命前身份的更大努力的一部分。

Academics

• The university teaches mining, geological exploration, petroleum and natural gas, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, energy, civil engineering, economics and information technology through specialised faculties.该校通过若干专门学院教授采矿、地质勘探、石油与天然气、冶金、机械工程、能源、土木工程、经济与信息技术。
• Its petroleum faculty trains reservoir engineers and drilling specialists for Russian oil companies, and the curriculum retains the field-practice requirements of the Soviet mining school.石油学院为俄罗斯石油公司培养油藏工程师与钻井专家，课程保留了苏联矿业学校重视野外实习的要求。
• The geology and exploration faculties maintain field stations in the Urals, Karelia and the Caucasus, where students complete the mapping exercises required for their degrees.地质与勘探类学院在乌拉尔、卡累利阿与高加索设有野外基地，学生在那里完成学位所需的填图实习。
• The university's drilling department, led by Professor Nikolai Vasiliev, developed the techniques used to bore through several miles of Antarctic ice to reach sub-glacial Lake Vostok.该校钻探教研室在尼古拉·瓦西里耶夫教授领导下，研发出钻穿数英里南极冰层以抵达冰下沃斯托克湖的技术。
• Research on the ice cores and on possible microbial life in Lake Vostok is carried out with the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute.关于冰芯以及沃斯托克湖可能存在微生物的研究，与北极与南极研究所及彼得堡核物理研究所合作开展。
• The Mining Museum, founded with the school in 1773, holds one of the world's finest collections of gems, ores and mineral samples and serves as a teaching collection for geologists.与学校同在 1773 年创立的矿业博物馆藏有世界最精良的宝石、矿石与矿物标本之一，并作为地质专业的教学藏品使用。
• The Faculty of Economics trains mining economists and managers, and its graduates staff the planning departments of Russian resource companies and the federal ministry.经济学院培养矿业经济与管理人才，其毕业生任职于俄罗斯资源企业的计划部门与联邦部委。
• The university library, among the oldest technical collections in Russia, holds eighteenth-century mining treatises and the complete runs of Russian geological journals.该校图书馆是俄罗斯历史最久的技术类藏书之一，藏有十八世纪的采矿论著以及俄罗斯地质期刊的完整卷期。
• Teaching is in Russian at all levels, and the university runs preparatory language programmes for students arriving from Central Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia.各层次教学均以俄语进行，学校为来自中亚、非洲与东南亚的学生开设语言预科课程。
• Admission is by the Unified State Examination and by internal entrance tests in mathematics, physics and chemistry for applicants from abroad.招生依据国家统一考试，对境外申请者则加试数学、物理与化学的校内入学考试。
• The university awards specialist, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, with the five-year specialist diploma still dominant in mining and geological engineering.该校授予专家、学士、硕士与博士学位，在采矿与地质工程领域仍以五年制专家文凭为主。
• Its research income comes largely from contracts with Gazprom, Rosneft, Norilsk Nickel and other resource companies rather than from competitive state grants alone.该校科研经费主要来自与俄罗斯天然气工业公司、俄罗斯石油公司、诺里尔斯克镍业等资源企业的合同，而非仅靠竞争性国家拨款。
• The university is a federal institution with the right to set its own admission quotas for regions, a status that lets it recruit directly from mining towns in Siberia and the Far North.该校是联邦直属院校，有权自行设定面向各地区的招生配额，这一地位使其能直接在西伯利亚与极北地区的矿业城镇招生。
• The Russian Mineralogical Society, headquartered at the university since 1869, publishes mineralogical research and maintains the society's library on the premises.自 1869 年起以该校为会址的俄罗斯矿物学会在此出版矿物学研究，并在校内保存学会图书馆。
• OpenAlex records 8,649 works and 84,253 citations for the university, a modest output for its age that reflects the Russian-language base of much of its publishing.OpenAlex 记录该校 8649 项成果与 84253 次引用，对于这样一所历史悠久的学校而言数量有限，这与它大量以俄语发表有关。
• The Faculty of Civil Engineering trains builders for mine shafts, tunnels and industrial plants, a programme tied to mining rather than to general construction.土木工程学院培养矿井井筒、隧道与工业厂房的建造人才，其课程面向矿业而非一般民用建筑。
• Doctoral training follows the Russian aspirantura system, with dissertations in mining, geology and metallurgy defended before the university's own dissertation councils.博士培养沿用俄罗斯研究生制度，采矿、地质与冶金方向的学位论文在该校自己的论文答辩委员会进行答辩。
• The university's engineering degrees are recognised by Russian industry through the mining and geological professional associations, and its graduates are exempt from some professional examinations.该校工程学位通过矿业与地质行业协会获得俄罗斯产业界承认，其毕业生可免于部分职业资格考试。
• Faculties also run continuing-education courses for practising engineers, a legacy of the Soviet system of industrial retraining that still supplies a share of the university's income.各学院还为在职工程师开设继续教育课程，这是苏联工业再培训体系的遗产，至今仍构成学校收入的一部分。

Campus

• The university stands at the 21st line of Vasilievsky Island on the south bank of the Neva, a site it has occupied since Voronikhin's building opened in 1811.该校位于瓦西里岛第 21 线、涅瓦河南岸，自 1811 年沃罗尼欣设计的校舍落成以来一直使用这一校址。
• The twelve-column Doric portico is approached by a wide staircase flanked by two sculptures that carry the building's symbolic programme about the underworld and the earth.十二柱多立克门廊前是一道宽阔台阶，两侧各有一尊雕塑，共同承载着这座建筑关于冥界与大地的象征体系。
• On the left stands Vasily Demut-Malinovsky's Abduction of Proserpina, after Bernini's 1621-22 group, showing Pluto carrying the goddess into the underworld.左侧是瓦西里·杰穆特-马利诺夫斯基的《劫掠普洛塞庇娜》，取材于贝尔尼尼 1621 至 1622 年的群像，描绘普路托把女神掳入冥界。
• On the right is Stepan Pimenov's Hercules and Antaeus, in which Hercules defeats the giant whose strength came from contact with the earth.右侧是斯捷潘·皮梅诺夫的《赫拉克勒斯与安泰俄斯》，描绘赫拉克勒斯击败那位因接触大地而获得力量的巨人。
• The two sculptures were read as emblems of mining itself, since Antaeus draws strength from the earth and Proserpina's abduction figures entry into the underground world.两尊雕塑被解读为矿业本身的象征：安泰俄斯从大地汲取力量，普洛塞庇娜被掳则寓意进入地下世界。
• The building's church, dedicated to St. Macarius of Egypt, reopened in 1996 after decades as a cinema and gym, and it now serves the university community again.楼内奉献给埃及圣马卡里的教堂在作为电影院与体育馆数十年后，于 1996 年重新开放，如今再次服务校内社群。
• The Mining Museum occupies halls within the main building, and its display cases of malachite, jasper and Ural gemstones are used in the training of geologists and curators.矿业博物馆设在主楼各厅之内，其孔雀石、碧玉与乌拉尔宝石展柜被用于地质与博物馆策展方向的教学。
• The university's graduates also staff the state mining inspectorate and the geological survey, which gives the institution an influence beyond its own teaching and research.该校毕业生还任职于国家矿山监察机构与地质调查部门，这使该校的影响力超出自身的教学与科研范围。
• The campus sits a short tram ride from the city's historic centre, and the Neva embankment in front of the portico is one of the points from which St Petersburg's bridges are viewed.校区距城市历史中心只有几站电车路程，门廊前的涅瓦河堤岸是观赏圣彼得堡各座桥梁的地点之一。
• The Mining Museum is open to visitors outside term time, and its guided tours are one of the few public routes into the university's imperial interiors.矿业博物馆在学期之外向访客开放，其导览是进入该校帝国时期内部空间的少数公开途径之一。

Reputation

• Saint Petersburg Mining University holds the 801-1000 band of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027, a stronger showing than its QS band would suggest.圣彼得堡矿业大学在 2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名中位列 801-1000 区间，是该版中俄罗斯技术类院校表现最好的一档。
• In the QS World University Rankings 2027 it is placed in the 1201-1400 band, a weaker position than its Times Higher Education result suggests.在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中，该校位列 1201-1400 区间，这一位置弱于其泰晤士高等教育的结果。
• The university is not in the 2026-2027 U.S. News Best Global Universities table and does not appear in the 2026 ShanghaiRanking main list.该校未进入 2026-2027 年度《美国新闻与世界报道》全球大学榜单，也未出现在 2026 年软科世界大学学术排名主榜中。
• OpenAlex credits it with 8,649 works and 84,253 citations, figures that understate its standing because much of its output appears in Russian-language journals.OpenAlex 记录该校 8649 项成果与 84253 次引用，这些数字低估了其学术地位，因为其大量成果发表于俄语期刊。
• Its reputation rests on the mining and petroleum engineering professions rather than on broad research rankings, and Russian resource companies treat its diploma as a professional credential.该校的声誉建立在采矿与石油工程职业领域而非综合性科研排名之上，俄罗斯资源企业把它的文凭视为专业资质。
• The university describes itself as Russia's oldest technical university, a claim grounded in the 1773 decree and accepted in Russian academic historiography.该校自称俄罗斯历史最悠久的技术大学，这一说法以 1773 年的法令为依据，并为俄罗斯学术史研究所接受。
• Its museum and its building give it a cultural standing unusual for an engineering school, and the Neva facade is treated as a monument of St Petersburg's imperial architecture.该校的博物馆与校舍赋予它工程院校中少见的文教地位，涅瓦河畔的立面被视为圣彼得堡帝国时期建筑的纪念物。
• International sanctions after 2022 reduced its European partnerships, and the university has shifted cooperation toward China, India, Iran and Central Asian states.2022 年之后的国际制裁削弱了该校与欧洲的伙伴关系，学校把合作重心转向中国、印度、伊朗与中亚国家。
• The rector, Vladimir Litvinenko, has led the university since 1994, and Vladimir Putin defended a doctoral thesis at the institute in 1996 under his supervision.校长弗拉基米尔·利特维年科自 1994 年起领导该校，弗拉基米尔·普京于 1996 年在他的指导下于该学院完成副博士论文答辩。

Student life

• The university has no Latin motto, and its identity is carried instead by the imperial foundation date, the uniform and the church of St. Macarius inside the building.该校没有拉丁文校训，其身份认同改由帝国创办日期、制服以及楼内的圣马卡里教堂来承载。
• Students and staff wear a uniform reintroduced in 2000, an unusual practice for a civilian university that recalls the institution's origins as a cadet corps.师生穿着 2000 年恢复的制服，这一在民用大学中罕见的做法追忆着该校作为武备学校的出身。
• The annual celebration of the founding on 21 October includes a ceremony in the assembly hall and the laying of flowers at the Catherine II monument.每年 10 月 21 日的建校庆典包括在礼堂举行的仪式以及在叶卡捷琳娜二世塑像前献花。
• Student geological expeditions spend the summer in the Urals, the Kola Peninsula and the Caucasus, and the field season is the social high point of the geological faculties.学生地质考察队夏季前往乌拉尔、科拉半岛与高加索，野外季是地质类院系社交生活的高潮。
• The university choir and the student theatre perform in the assembly hall, and the Mining Museum's halls are used for receptions and graduation ceremonies.大学合唱团与学生剧团在礼堂演出，矿业博物馆的展厅则用于招待会与毕业典礼。
• Sporting life centres on the university's gymnasium and on rowing on the Neva, a tradition shared with the other Vasilievsky Island institutions.体育活动以校内体育馆与涅瓦河上的划船为主，这一传统与瓦西里岛的其他院校共享。
• Because most students commute from across St Petersburg, the dormitories near the campus house mainly those from other regions and from abroad.由于多数学生住在圣彼得堡各处走读，校园附近的宿舍主要容纳外地与外国学生。
• The uniform rule and the church give campus life a formal, ceremonial tone that distinguishes the university from Russia's larger and more liberal campuses.制服规定与教堂赋予校园生活一种正式而仪式化的基调，使该校有别于俄罗斯规模更大、风气更自由的校园。

Notable people

• Catherine the Great founded the school by decree in 1773, and her name returned to the university's official title in the 2020s as a statement of imperial lineage.叶卡捷琳娜大帝于 1773 年以法令创办该校，她的名字在 2020 年代重回大学正式全称，作为帝国渊源的表态。
• Mikhail Lomonosov, Russia's first great natural scientist, argued for a mining school decades before the decree, and his proposal shaped the curriculum Catherine approved.俄罗斯第一位伟大的自然科学家米哈伊尔·罗蒙诺索夫在法令颁布前数十年便主张设立矿业学校，他的方案影响了叶卡捷琳娜批准的课程。
• Andrey Voronikhin designed the building and Kazan Cathedral, and his neoclassical portico on the Neva remains the university's defining architectural work.安德烈·沃罗尼欣设计了该校校舍与喀山大教堂，他在涅瓦河畔的新古典主义门廊至今仍是这所大学最具标志性的建筑作品。
• Alexander Karpinsky, a graduate and later president of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1917 to 1936, mapped the geology of the Urals and the European part of Russia.亚历山大·卡尔宾斯基毕业于该校，后于 1917 至 1936 年任俄罗斯科学院院长，绘制了乌拉尔与俄罗斯欧洲部分的地质图。
• Vladimir Obruchev, another graduate, explored Siberia and Central Asia and wrote the geological fantasy novel Plutonia, which popularised his science.另一位毕业生弗拉基米尔·奥布鲁切夫考察了西伯利亚与中亚，并撰写地质幻想小说《普卢托尼亚》，使他的科学广为流传。
• Ivan Gubkin, a graduate of the institute, founded Soviet petroleum geology and gave his name to Russia's oil and gas university in Moscow.伊万·古布金毕业于该学院，奠定了苏联石油地质学，莫斯科的俄罗斯石油天然气大学即以他的名字命名。
• Georgi Plekhanov studied at the institute in the 1870s and became the father of Russian Marxism, and the Soviet institute carried his name for decades.格奥尔基·普列汉诺夫在 1870 年代就读于该学院，后来成为俄国马克思主义之父，苏联时期的学院曾长期冠以他的名字。
• Nikolai Vasiliev, head of the drilling department, led the team that reached sub-glacial Lake Vostok, one of the most closely watched scientific projects of the post-Soviet period.钻探教研室主任尼古拉·瓦西里耶夫率队抵达冰下沃斯托克湖，这是后苏联时期最受关注的科学项目之一。
• Vladimir Litvinenko has been rector since 1994 and oversaw Vladimir Putin's doctoral dissertation at the institute in 1996, a connection widely discussed in Russian and foreign media.弗拉基米尔·利特维年科自 1994 年起任校长，并于 1996 年指导弗拉基米尔·普京在该学院完成副博士论文，这一关系在俄罗斯与外国媒体中被广泛讨论。
• Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, defended a doctoral thesis in mining economics at the institute in 1996, an affiliation that has drawn scrutiny over the thesis's originality.俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京于 1996 年在该学院完成采矿经济方向的副博士论文答辩，这一关系使论文的原创性受到审视。
• Stepan Pimenov and Vasily Demut-Malinovsky, the sculptors of the portico groups, also decorated Kazan Cathedral, the Admiralty and the Narva Triumphal Arch.门廊群像的雕塑者斯捷潘·皮梅诺夫与瓦西里·杰穆特-马利诺夫斯基还曾为喀山大教堂、海军部大厦与纳尔瓦凯旋门制作装饰。