Saint Petersburg Mining University (), 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 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 and governments. Its museum is home to one of the world's finest collections of gem and mineral samples and the university building is a Neoclassical masterpiece by Andrey Voronikhin. History The university was first known as the Mining School (Горное училище) until 1804, when it became the Mining Cadet Corps (Горный кадетский корпус); in 1833, it became the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers (Институт корпуса горных инженеров). Since 1866, it was known as the Mining Institute (Горный институт). It is still widely known in Russia as 'Gorny', or 'Mining', referring to its previous name. During the Soviet period, it was renamed after Georgi Plekhanov, who attended the institute in the 1870s, and became known as the G. V. Plekhanov Leningrad State Mining Institute and Technical University. In 1958–1960 a branch of the institute was opened in Vorkuta and night schools at Slantsy, Monchegorsk, and Kirovsk. Since 1869 the institute has also been the headquarters of the Russian Mineralogical Society. During the Siege of Leningrad, the building was used as a manufacturing base for producing explosives and grenades. The university also houses a church, St Macarius of Egypt, which first opened its doors in 1805. It was closed together with other churches by the Soviet government in 1918, and used as a cinema and then a gym, resulting in damage