Gregor von Helmersen or Grigory Petrovich Helmersen was a Baltic German geologist.
Gregor von Helmersen
Coat of arms of the Helmersen family of 1643, in the Baltic Coat of arms book by Carl Arvid von Klingspor in 1882.
Saint Petersburg Mining University
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 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.
The building of the Mining Academy (1811) is a Neoclassical work by Andrey Voronikhin.
Colonnade of the Mining Institute building
The Rape of Proserpina statue
Vladimir Putin, is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is serving as the current President of Russia.