All-Union Geological Institute Vsegei

All-Union Geological Institute (Vsegei) 

a scientific research institute of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR that studies the geological structure of the territory of the USSR and the regularities of its distribution of mineral resources. Located in Leningrad.

Until 1939 the institute was known as the Central Scientific Research Institute of Geological Exploration (TsNIGRI), which was created in 1931 by combining a number of branch institutions that remained in Leningrad after the reorganization of the Geological Committee.

The All-Union Geological Institute directs departments that are working on regional and methodological problems and also has charge of a laboratory-computer complex. The institute works with a number of organizations from related sciences: the Interdepartmental Stratigraphic Committee, the All-Union Paleontological Society, the Scientific-Editorial Council for the Approval of Geological Maps, and the Section of Regional Petrography of the Interdepartmental Petrographic Committee. The following noted Soviet geologists have worked with this institute and its predecessor: Iu. A. Bilibin, V. I. Veber, A. P. Gerasimov, I. F. Grigor’ev, A. N. Zavaritskii, A. N. Krishtofovich, N. F. Pogrebov, P. I. Preobrazhenskii, S. S. Smirnov, la. S. Edel’shtein, N. N. Iakovlev, and S. A. Iakovlev. Among the most senior associates of the institute are V. G. Gryshevoi, B. K. Likharev, D. V. Nalivkin, V. P. Nekhoroshev, Iu. Ir. Polovinkina, N. V. Shabarov, and V. I. Iavorskii.

The institute’s research includes study of the geological structure of the USSR and its regions (including geological map-making) and of stratigraphy, geological formations, the regularities of the distribution of mineral resources, and methodological problems.

One of the functions of the institute is to coordinate the research plans of the institutions of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR.

The scientific results of the institute’s work are published in its Trudy (New Series, since 1950), Materialy (New Series, 1954-61), and thematic collections of essays. The institute has made fundamental generalizations in the field of the geology and mineral resources of the USSR, in The Geological Structure of the USSR (vols. 1-5, 1968-69) and in many volumes of monographs, including The Geology of the USSR, The Stratigraphy of the USSR, The Petrography of the USSR, The Tectonics of the USSR, and The Regularities of the Distribution of Mineral Resources. In 1971 the institute was awarded the Order of Lenin.

REFERENCES

Nekhoroshev, V. P. “K istorii geologicheskikh uchrezhdenii v SSSR.” In Ocherki po istorii geologicheskikh znanii, vol. 7. Moscow, 1958.
Kleopov, I. L. Geologicheskii komitet, 1882-1929 gg.: Istoriia geologii v Rossii. Moscow, 1964.
Shatalov, E. T., and A. P. Markovskii. “Geologicheskoe kartirovanie i regional’nye issledovaniia.” In Razvitie nauk o Zemle v SSSR. Moscow, 1967.
50 let sovetskoi geologii. Moscow, 1968.

A. P. MARKOVSKII and E. T. SHATALOV