Empress Catherine the Great Saint Petersburg Mining University

Empress Catherine the Great Saint Petersburg Mining University (Russian: Санкт-Петербургский горный университет императрицы Екатерины II), is Russia's oldest technical university and one of the oldest technical colleges in Europe. It was founded on October 21, 1773, by Empress Catherine the Great, who realised an idea proposed by Peter the Great and Mikhail Lomonosov for training engineers for the mining and metals industries. Having a strong engineering profession was seen by many Russian rulers as a vital means of maintaining Russia's status as a great power. As historian Alfred J. Rieber wrote, "The marriage of technology and central state power had a natural attraction for Peter the Great and his successors, particularly Paul I, Alexander I, and Nicholas I". All three had had a military education and had seen the achievements of the engineers of revolutionary and imperial France, who had reconstructed the great highways, unified the waterways and erected buildings throughout Europe in a more lasting tribute to the French than all of Napoleon's victories.

Though located in St. Petersburg, the university is on a federal rather than local level and has partnerships with global oil, gas, and mining companies, as well as governments. Its museum is home to one of the world's finest collections of gems and mineral samples, and the university building is a Neoclassical masterpiece designed by Andrey Voronikhin.