Kazan - is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. One of the leading economic, political, scientific, educational, and cultural and sports centers in Russia. In the harmony of cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, the city is home for 1.2 million people - more than 100 nationalities.
The Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site. In 2005, citizens celebrated the millennium of Kazan and in 2015, Kazan took fourth place in the ranking of the most popular tourist cities in Russia.
There are 44 institutes of higher education in Kazan, including 19 branches of universities from other cities. More than 140,000 students from 70 countries are educated in the city. Kazan Federal University (founded in 1804) is second oldest university in Russia after Moscow State University (1755). In 2009, KFU got Federal status. Now Kazan University has 19 institutes and faculties and 105 academic departments. It has over 47000 students, who follow 300 major degree programs.
The University is the center of science, science education, and culture and education. The first provincial newspaper and the book business in the region, theatrical life appeared in close connection with University.
The history of Kazan State University is associated with many world renowned figures, like the father of non-Euclidian geometry Nikolai Lobachevsky; the writer Leo Tolstoy; one of the discoverers of the Antarctic Ivan Simonov; the founder of organic chemistry Alexander Butlerov; a father of modern linguistics Jan Baudouin de Courtenay; the discoverer of electron spin resonance Evgeniy Zavoisky; and the Soviet leader Vladimir Ulianov-Lenin.
First geological research began at the University in the early 19th century. Adolph-Theodor Kupffer, Frederick F. Rosen, Peter I. Wagner and Georgy V. Wulf conducted the first research on mineralogy, petrography and crystallography.
The research of Carboniferous and Permian of Volga and Kama Region is tightly connected with the name of Roderick Murchison and his colleagues who undertook several expeditions in European Russia in 1840-1841.
The Kazan School of Geology was established in the 1860`s, headed by the first professor of geology Nikolai A. Golovkinsky, the founder of facies studies in Russia.
His follower Alexander A. Stukenberg, had been working in Kazan for 30 years and was rightfully considered as the founder of Kazan Geological School.
Alexander A. Stukenberg conducted the first geological survey of the Kazan province, vast areas of Urals, Volga, Pechora region and the basin of the Kama River. His disciples Peter I. Krotov, Michael E. Noinsky and Michael E. Yanishevsky continued to carry out geological, biostratigraphic and hydrogeologic study of the Volga-Kama basin and the western Urals.
University geologists made a huge contribution to the exploration and development of oil and gas fields of Russia and Tatarstan.
In 1949 established an independent faculty. In 2011, the Geological Faculty transformed into Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technology.
At the present time the institute has about a thousand students. Graduates of Institute are highly valued not only professional, but also human qualities. Spirit of Kazan Geological Faculty is strong, he is for all times.
The Stukenberg Museum of Geology and Mineralogy of Kazan State University is one of the oldest and richest natural science museums in Russia. Those ones were established at higher educational institutions in the end of the XVIII century and had both home and foreign collections unlike regional museums formed later on. The museum was founded in 1804 in accordance with the I Order of the Kazan Emperor University.
A two-century history of the museum development shows close interaction between scientists' creativity and results of their work as monographic collections have always been an integral part of scientific researches. For many generations of geologists the museum collections are that initial documents, which serves as a basis for researches and general conclusions as well as for definition of new scientific ideas. To save one's own "golden collection" and its history for future generations is a primary task of all natural science museums of Russia.
The contemporary store of the museum implies six main sections: ores, minerals and petrography; paleontology; dynamic geology and facies; monographic collections; geology of our region, mineral products of Tatarstan; scientific archive of museum history. There are more than 150000 samples from 60 countries in the museum, including collections of meteorites, rocks, minerals, ores, fossils of plants and animals.
Nowadays the KFU Museum of Geology and Mineralogy is one of the richest higher educational institution museums in the country. It is included in international and regional mineralogy reference books being a member of International Council of Museums (ICOM), the Commission by Mineralogy Museums of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Academic Council of the Tatarstan National Museum. It closely collaborates with regional and foreign natural science museums and geology institutions, providing collections' exchange and publications and realizing joint geological projects.
About Nikolai А. Golovkinsky.
Key dates of life:
1834, November 17: Nikolai А. Golovkinsky was born in the town of Yadrin, Kazan Governorate.
1846: Entered the Second Kazan Gymnasium with 6 grades of education.
1850: Passed external examinations for the entire gymnasium course.
1851-1854: Was a non-degree student of the Medical Faculty of the Kazan University.
1854: Volunteered for military service, took part in the Crimean War.
1857: Retired with the rank of lieutenant and continued learning in Kazan University as a non-degree student of the Department of Natural Sciences of the Physical and Mathematical Faculty.
1859: Published the papers “On the effect of some diatomic halides” (“Liebig und Wohler Annalen”) and the translation of the article from «Repertoire de Chemie» - “Effect of some diatomic halideson silver oxalate“(Chemical Journal edited by N. Sokolov and A. Engelhardt).
1861: Graduated from the university and became a curator of the Museum at the Mineralogical Cabinet.
1862-1864: Was on academic trip to Germany and Italy.
1865: Became a privat-docent of the Geological Department of the Kazan University; was appointed head of the Geological Cabinet.
1868: Defended his doctoral thesis “On the Permian Formation in the central part of the Kama-Volga Basin”.
1869: Was elected an ordinary professor of the Department of Geology and Paleontology by the Kazan University Council.
1870: Was elected a president of the Society of Naturalists at Kazan University.
1871: Was dismissed for his liberal views.
1871: Became a professor of the Department of Mineralogy in Novorossiysk University (Odessa).
1877-1881: Was a rector of Novorossiysk University.
1886: Retired from the service at university, settled in the Crimea and started his hydrogeological studies as a district hydrogeologist in the Taurida Governorate.
1897, June, 21: Died in the Crimea
Main scientific papers.
1. On the Permian Formation in the central part of the Volga-Kama Basin. Data on the Geology of Russia. 1868. Vol. 1 and 2. (in Russian)
2. Charles Lyell. A Manual of Elementary Geology or The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants. Translated to Russian by N.A. Golovkinsky. Vol. 1.1867, Vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 1878. (in Russian)
3. Report on the geological trip to the Kazan Governorate // Scientific Notes of the Kazan University, 1870. (in Russian)
4. Ancient human remains in the Kazan Governorate // The proceedings of the first Congress of Naturalists, 1869. (in Russian)
5. Geological observations in the layer of Carboniferous on the west slope of the Urals. 37 р., St. Petersburg, 1870. (in Russian)
6. A Guide Book to the Crimea. 6th edition. Simferopol, 1894. (in Russian)
The desire to understand a complex structure of the geological sections of the Volga and Kama Region allowed Golovkinsky to develop the model of shallow marine basin sedimentation.
As a result, there appeared a famous Golovkinsky's 'Lens' and a method for spatial tracking of the facies changes in sediment succession.
A century later Golovkinsky's theoretical developments underlay the sequence-stratigraphy method, worked out by American specialists of the American oil company, Shell.
Nikolai А. Golovkinsky was the first, after Roderick I. Murchison, to describe in detail the Permian deposits of the Kama-Volga Basin. He distinguished three suites in the local Permian succession, described fossils of the Permian limestones and compared them with the fauna of the Zechstein of Germany. Generally, Golovkinsky described 36 species including 7 new ones. His collection is included into A.V. Nechaev's collection № 13.