Visit to Russia - Part 2 - St Petersburg

After my visit to Moscow - read here - we took the fast train to St Petersburg to visit some more important mineral collections and shows. And of course, to do some tourism.

The first visit was to see the collections at the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute. This is another private educational collection. The building of the institute is impressive (as is most of St. Petersburg, a truly beautiful city)



But I wasn't prepared for this! Could this be the prettiest mineral museum in the world?



This was one of several collection rooms, housing the main systematic display. Note the beautiful display cabinets.



This room is used as a meeting room, and houses some of the aesthetic items from the display, along with some of the more valuable pieces



Such as this incredible Kongsberg silver nestled incongruously between a stone rabbit and a hippo! But still, a tremendous specimen - the second great Kongsberg we've seen this trip.



Also in this room, this lovely old stone mining scene, made by miners from the Urals (but similar things have been made by miners the world over - in the UK they are known as 'spar boxes'). Filled with amethyst, emerald, malachite and countless other minerals.



A large English fluorite, labelled (as most were at that time) as "Alston"



A huge lump of native copper



And almost certainly the best specimen of Ural malachite still in existence! It weighs 1.5 tonnes (1504kg), from the Gumeshevskoye deposit in the Urals. It was a gift to the institute from Empress Catherine II in 1789.



Other cabinets were filled with detailed crystallographic models and models of crystal structures.



And a whole row of cabinets with single mounted crystals.





A certificate from The International Exhibition of 1876 - certificate of award for the collections of the mining school.



This section of mine ladder was coated in calcite/aragonite by mine water. Apparently this grew in just three months!



The next part of the museum housed old mining models. Exquisitely constructed educational displays (some of them automated), absolutely wonderful!



The museum publish their own book, but they don't sell it - it's only available as a gift to visitors who give something to the museum.






Our next stop was the A.P. Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute (VSEGEI)
which is in yet another fantastic old St Petersburg building. Look at these staircases leading up to the museum.



Pride of place goes to this map of the former soviet union made out of semiprecious stones. The land is various types of jasper, along with rhodonite and other decorative stones, and the ocean is lazurite! Cities are marked out with cut stones such as rubies and labelled in gold. The map was displayed as part of the USSR exhibition at the 1939 New York World Fair. In post-war soviet times it was on dispaly at the Hermitage, but after 1991 it was moved here to the museum at the Geological Research Institute.





Here I am with the curator, Alexei Sokolov standing in front of the map.



There are displays arranged based on significant naural mineral resources, and displays based on the different regions of the former Soviet Union.



Here are some of the cabinets, this part of the display covers minerals from sulphur deposits.



The curator's personal project is building an exhibition of rocks and minerals paired with photographs showing similar patterns and textures in the real (or human) world. Some of these pairing were absolutely outstanding! There's no scientific correlation between the photos and the images other than to think about how the human brain sees similarities in things, and of course the huge variety of patterns and textures in the natural world.











As you may know, the name 'muscovite' comes from the city of Moscow, where sheets of mica were used previously to glaze windows - here is an example of an old window made from muscovite mica.



The third major collection we visited was at the St Petersburg State University, regarded in Russia as second only to the Moscow State University (which we saw in my last report). Here is the entrance to the Twelve Collegia building, which houses (amongst other things) the geological museums.



The building boasts one of the longest academic corridors in the world.



Here I am in the main systematic collection of the Museum. Standing next to me is Galina the museum curator.





Some of the specimens on display:







One of the many famous alumni of this university was Dmitri Mendeleev, the creator of the periodic table of elements. One thing I didn't know before was that Mendeleev was a mineral collector - and he donated his collection to the university here.

And, even better, the university has kept the collection together, with a cabinet dedicated to specimens from his collection.



This museum also publishes their own book, but this one is available for sale (but in very limited numbers) - it's available from Mineralogical Almanac magazine in Moscow.



Next, the main purpose for my visit to St Petersburg, to visit the "World of Stones" show, held from 14th to 17th April.



The show was held on two levels, and consisted of the normal mixture of mineral and gem related vendors.



The show had several mineral, gem and fossil themed exhibitions in very well presented display cases. Here I am standing near some of the displays.



This was a very interesting displays of samples recovered from 'black smokers' under the ocean.



Including micro-crystalline atacamite



A display of corundum and other minerals from Karelia





And some specimens of shungite showing unexplained and unusual circular marks.



Another fun display had minerals for every letter of the cyrillic alphabet.



The A.P. Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute were also putting on a large display of many cabinets to
show the economic mineral wealth of the Russian Federation.



And there was a nice display showing the recent Mineralogical Almanac magazine issue on Rubtsovskoe along with the cuprite sample
featured on the cover.





As in Moscow, I gave two presentations, one about mindat and one about the minerals of the UK.



The show was also a place for artisans such as Felix Ibragimov to show off their creations. Russia has been famous for centuries for stone carving and the use of semiprecious stone in decorative artworks, and Felix is carrying on this tradition.





All sorts of interesting things were available for sale. Including synthetic ruby chunks



Here, Russian collector/dealer Sergey Klevtsov shows some of his finds, including a box of very nice Kazakstan Rhodochrosite.



Other dealers offered great Dalnegorsk specimens



Russian Minerals, from Moscow, had brought a great selection of minerals, including some very reasonably priced minatures of the cuprite from Rubtsovskoe.



And finally, Anatoliy Potakov had this really nice zoned Russian Topaz for sale.



Now, I also got some time to do some tourism as well. And this is a beautiful city!

First, St Isaac's Church.



And inside it has malachite columns!





Of course, it's not carved from a single lump of malachite, it's an intricate mosaic of matched malachite pieces.

Next, the famous Church of the Saviour on Blood, built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. Built between 1883 and 1907, it's one of the most famous sights of St. Petersburg.



Russian decorative stone is used extensively inside, as for example here:



Finally, The Hermitage, one of the oldest museums in the world founded by Catherine the Great in 1764. The main entrance is now in what was the Winter Palace, former residence of the Russian emperors and starting point for the 1917 revolution.



Inside, the famous Malachite Room, with tables, pillars, even the fireplaces, carved from mosaics of Malachite.



And semiprecious stone is found everywhere you look...

















That's it from my Russian trip. I hope you enjoyed reading!

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