Stepan Stepanovich Pimenov was an artist and sculptor of the Russian Empire. He was closely associated with Vasily Demut-Malinovsky, with whom he worked on the decoration of buildings designed by Carlo Rossi and Andrey Voronikhin. He was an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1807, and a full professor from 1814.

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.