Mining education in Russia in the 18th–early 20th centuries: From factory schools to universities

The article reviews the pace of mining education in the Russian imperial period. The concept of mining engineering in Russia historically formed as a version of traditional education intrinsic to continental Europe. In the 18th–the first half of the 19th centuries, cultivation of mining education was the responsibility of the imperial government. The first factory schools appeared in Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century at the governmentowned factories. The first principal of the Ural works V. N. Tatishchev developed a program combining general and vocational education. In 1773 in Saint-Petersburg, the Mining Training School opened its doors and gave rise to engineering education. In the first half of the 19th century, in the regions of government-owned mining practices, the formed system of mining education embraced primary and secondary schools of engineering. In the second half of the 19th–the early 20th centuries, the network of mining training establishments expanded thanks to concern of local self-administration, conventions of mining industrialists and charity community. In the early 20th century, mining engineers were trained at the specialized universities in Saint-Petersburg, Yekaterinoslav and Yekaterinburg, as well as at the mining and metallurgical departments of the Kharkov Technical Institute, Tomsk Technological Institute, and at the Don, Warsaw and Petersburg Polytechnics. The higher school of mining in Russia distinguished itself with its high quality of education integrating basic and applied sciences. Russian primary and secondary mining engineering establishments, although few in number, were equal to European schools in terms of the quality of education. By the number of primary and secondary specialized schools in engineering, Russia fell behind its European neighbors.