On 1 January 1834, Emperor Nicholas I confirmed an organizational statute for the Corps of Mining Engineers [Korpus Gornykh Inzhenerov], which had been created following the French example “to manage the administrative and technical facets of mining, minting, and salt operations” (§1). This was the second militarized corps under a civilian department, following the Corps of Engineers of Ways of Communications.(1)
The early history of a specially organized mining service is traditionally traced to the Petrine era, when on 4 August 1700 the Office for Mining Affairs [Prikaz rudokopnykh del], subsequently reorganized on 10 December 1719 and Mining College [Berg-kollegiya].(2) At the time it was considered that mining “has the closest of relationships to artillery, and mining works are mainly built with the purpose of using the appropriate metals to make guns, artillery rounds, etc.,” and therefore “the first mining administrators were assigned from the military, mainly artillerists.(3) They all enjoyed the privileges of the military service and wore military uniforms up to 1724, when this right was taken from them. On 31 October 1734, officials in the mines administration were again equated to officers, but their grades in the Table of Ranks were given special titles.
Nothing is known of the uniforms of mines officials before the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. Only on 10 April 1755 were special uniforms established for them.(4) In the relevant ukase it was stated:
1. Field-grade mines officers will have a uniform: a coat [kaftan] of good red cloth, slit white cloth cuffs, called Swedish; white cloth collar and vest [kamzol], similar red cloth breeches [stany]; white lining and on the edges of the coat and vest is gold crenellated galloon 1½ vershoks [1 vershok=¾ inch] wide at its broadest part, the crenellation [goroda] being just on one side, and on the flaps on the vests is decorative tracery [pod klaponom vykladka s figurkoi]; gilt tombak buttons; hats with the same galloon as on the coat. 2. Company-grade officers are to have a coat of the same color, and are to have on the coat and vest galloon crenellated on one side, one vershok wide, and with no tracery on the flaps of the vest; hats with the same galloon…
The Senate prescribed that “in all colleges, chancelleries, offices, and bureaux, …no one is to lack such uniforms.” This is explained by the mines administration’s equivalency to the military. It is known, for example, that in 1761 mines officials of the Kolyvan-Voskresenskii works were “granted ranks, allowances, and actual honors, on account of the similarity of their mathematical expertise with that of artillery and engineer officers.”
It is not known exactly how long the 1755 uniform lasted. However, it is known that in 1775-77 the Yekaterinburg Mines Companies had red coats with distinctions, while the artillery detachment’s were black crepe [krep].(5) Apparently, the trimming of the coat with galloon had been discontinued since the middle of the 1760s, but the white facings were kept right up to the abolishment of the Mines College in 1784. Subsequent to that even, some of the mines officials, serving in the provinces, most probably changed over to the provincial uniforms, while others began to wear a uniform analogous to that of officers of the army’s mines battalions—a red coat with green collar, cuffs, and lapels; silver metal appointments, and vests and breeches that were also green. In any case, in the 1794 album Depiction of Provincial, Local, Collegial, and All Authorized Uniforms, the uniform for officials of the Mines School is shown just that way, with green facings. That a similar uniform was spread to all other places is evidenced by documentation from 1796. When Paul I re-instituted the operations of the Mines Colleges on 14 December 1796, it was ordered that members of the college and its subordinate officials have a uniform coat “as now in use”: red “with lapels, vest, and netherwear of green.” Upon the query of the Mines Office, the College declared that mines officials would “have coats of red cloth; cuffs, lapels, collars, vest, and breeches of green; buttons white and convex; green stamin lining; hats trimmed with narrow white gauze [gas] for field and company-grade officers, silver swordknots and tassels; boots and shoes are to be worn.(6) The existence of general-officers’ uniforms was not foreseen by these documents.
In the beginning of Alexander’s reign the mines uniform was changed along with various other uniforms for civilian agencies. Like the others, it acquired a new style: the coat received a standing collar, and in front its skirts were cut out below the waist. In accordance with an ukase of 24 March 1804, “for officials of the mines and mint and the Mines Cadet Corps” (all having become part of the Finance Ministry in 1802), there was prescribed:
A single-breasted coat of dark blue with a standing collar and slit cuffs of black velvet; lining on the skirts and turnbacks of cloth of the same black color; the edges of the facings, collars, cuffs, and of the flaps on the sleeves are trimmed with red cloth; flat yellow buttons; lining of black stamin; pants and vest of white cloth. General and field-grade officers are in addition to have gold embroidery [nashivka] on the coat’s collar and cuffs.(7)
Company-grade officers had no embroidery at all.
The mention in the 1804 ukase of general and field-grade officer ranks, and of “lining on the skirts and turnbacks” and “flaps” on the cuffs all indicate the semi-military character of the uniforms that were being introduced.
Accompanying drawings of the uniforms have not been preserved, and from the ukase’s text it is not possible to know what the pattern of the “gold embroidery” was. This phrase usually indicates embroidery of gold galloon, but sometimes it is used for embroidery in the form of buttonholes. Fortunately, several early depictions of the 1804 uniforms have survived, which show that in this case what was meant was gold embroidery in the form of oak and laurel branches making a decorative buttonhole. There were two such buttonholes on each side of the collar and three small ones on each cuff flap. It was in this form that in 1805 mining uniforms were depicted in the album Collection of Coats of Arms For All Provinces of the Russian Empire, Provincial Uniforms, and Uniforms of Other Offices Now Existing. We see such buttonholes in the portraits of A.F. Bestuzhev (by V.L. Borovikovskii, 1806) and of the chief of the Olonets mining works Charles Gascoigne (by D. Sekon, no later than 1807 to judge by the fact that according to the reference books, by that year Gascoigne was no longer in the mines administration). It would be important to establish the date that embroidery of this design appeared since it continued in use on the coats of civilian mines officials until 1854, reappeared on mines uniforms in June of 1867, and in October of that year was introduced on coats for transportation and communications engineers (in silver), and later became universal for all engineers.
In 1806 the State Mines College was abolished, and in its place on 13 June 1806 was established a Mines Department [Gornyi Departament] within the Ministry of Finance, renamed in 1811 the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs [Departament gornykh i solyanykh del].
Instituted by the ukase of 24 March 1804, the uniform for officials of the Department of the Mint [Monetnyi Departament] differed from that of the Mines department in the color of embroidery and buttons—silver instead of gold. This uniform continued in use until 1811, when the Department of the Mint was absorbed into the Mines Department.
On 14 February 1819, uniforms were established for officials of the Ministry of Finance as a whole. With this, personnel in the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs “kept their previous uniforms,” but those who held Class IV rank, in addition to the embroidery of the 1804 pattern, also received the “bort” (border embroidery) common throughout all ministries—at the top and front of the collar, around the cuffs, and on the cuff flaps.(8)
In the beginning of 1833 it was decided to reorganize the mines administration. The Mines Cadet Corps was reformed as the Institute of Mining Engineers. Along with this, on 10 March Nicholas I confirmed an “administrative regulation for uniforms of the mines department.(9) The following were the changes to the 1804 and 1819 regulations:
At the very beginning of 1834, the mines administration (as part of the Ministry of Finance) was divided into two parts: the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs and a militarized Corps of Mining Engineers [Korpus gornykh inzhenerov].
In accordance with the Corps’ administrative regulation of 1 January 1834, the authorized number of officers was 320.(10) The special mining ranks were replaced by military titles. Already in September of 1833 Nicholas I had ordered that “there be prepared… a listing of all grades in the mines administration with their titles, with an indication of to what rank they belong.” (i.e., to what military rank they corresponded).
Mining engineers now formally received military rank, which had an important significance for their social standing. Since a Class V military rank did not exist, junior Ober-Berg- Hauptmänner were retitled “senior colonels.”
Uniforms for mining engineers were established as follows:
Dark-green single-breasted coat [kaftan] and pants; black-velvet collar and slit cuffs; blue [svetlo-sinyaya] piping on the collar, coat cuffs, and pants; two pieces of silver lace [nashivka] on the collar, and silver epaulettes according to rank; buttons also silver, with the design especially prescribed for them. Dark-green lining. A frock coat [syurtuk] of the same colors without lace; black velvet collar; round dark-green cuffs; the same piping.
We note that generals and officers of the Corps did not have tracery embroidery on the collar or cuffs, but only straight silver lace-bars [petlitsy].
“Ranked and classed officials” who were part of the Corps kept their single-breasted dark- blue civilian uniform coats with red piping “as currently confirmed for the mines service” (§15).
Soon after the confirmation of the administrative regulation for the Corps of Mining Engineers, the minister of finance, Ye. F. Kankrin, reported to Nicholas I on the need to supplement the description of the uniform with the following:
Officers of the Mines Institute were prescribed the same uniforms as for the Corps engineers but with the velvet collar replaced by cloth, the embroidery of the military educational institutions on the collar and cuffs, and crests on the buttons. Students in the officer classes wore the coat of officers of the Corps of Military Engineers while junior classes—“conductors and cadets”—received a uniform modeled after that of cadets in the Institute of Ways of Communications, but with blue [svetlo-sinii] piping.
Soon, on 27 February 1834,(12) there was confirmed, and on 19 March published, a “Regulation for Civilian Uniforms” in which the coat of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs was included under those having a “military cut”—“of the pattern for classed officials of the military administration” (§99). In §115 it was stated: “The coat for the mines administration is of dark-blue cloth, collar and slit cuffs of black velvet, lining on the skirts of black cloth, likewise black stamin lining, and red piping on the collar, cuffs, cuff flaps, and edging; gold embroidery, smooth gilt buttons; dark-blue pants without piping, over boots.” In Appendix B it was explained (§26-29) that the coat embroidery was of four groupings [razryady]: for generals – “full [with the border (?bort’) of the Ministry of Finance] on the collar, cuffs, and pocket flaps; for chiefs of sub-departments [strukturnye chasti] – the same embroidery but without the border and with an embroidered edging on the pocket flaps”; for field-grade officers – embroidery on the collar and cuffs but none on the pocket flaps; and for company-grade officers – embroidery only on the collar.
The frock coat was prescribed to be “of the army pattern” and worn with a forage cap with a black lacquered visor and cloth band the same color as the collar.
A special civilian uniform for officials of the mines administration, as in use previously, was not foreseen. However, the described military-style coat kept the gold 1804-pattern embroidery in the form of two buttonholes of oak and laurel leaves, with a division into razryad groups that repeated the 1833 system. Unlike the coat style for civilian officials, the mining administration coats could have embroidery only on the collars, cuffs, and pocket flaps, and not along the coat’s edges or skirts.
On 31 December 1848 a new Regulation for the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers was confirmed (and published on 14 February 1849). In regard to the uniform clothing of the teaching staff and administrative personnel, it was explained:
§17. Generals and field and company-grade officers assigned to the Institute from the Corps of Mining Engineers are to have a uniform of the pattern prescribed for that Corps.
§18. All other field and company-grade officers… have the same uniform, but with cloth collar and cuffs, and instead of silver buttonholes on the collar and flaps, there are prescribed silver embroidery of the pattern confirmed by Highest Authority for military educational institutions and buttons with the state crest…
§19. Civilian and medical officials of the Institute and its instructors, who are on active duty, are prescribed the uniform established for classed mining officials.(13)
* * *
For fifteen years “the uniform of mining engineers remained unchanged.” Only on 13 January 1850,(14) at the urging of the viceroy in the Caucasus was it ordered that officers of the Corps of Mining Engineers who were serving in the Caucasus and Transcaucasus territory “wear the uniform prescribed for troops of the Separate Caucasus Corps,” but “in the color for mining engineers.” This meant that the round Caucasian hat was to have a top of dark-green cloth with silver galloon with blue [svetlo-sinii] lines through it. The previous dress tailcoat, cut away in front, was replaced by a single-breasted “half-tunic” [polukaftan] of dark-green cloth with velvet (black) collar and cuffs. Blue cloth piping was prescribed for around the collar, cuffs, front opening, and skirts. Three years later (2 January 1853)(15) the uniform was changed for classed officials of the mines administration in the Caucasus. It was to be “of the pattern for Caucasian troops”: a fur cap with a dark-blue cloth top and gold galloon without any colored lines through it; half-tunic of dark-blue cloth with black velvet collar and cuffs; red cloth piping around the collar, cuffs, front, and skirts. Embroidery on the collar and cuffs remained gold and was different according to classed rank.
On 29 February 1852,(16) for the whole Corps of Mining Engineers the triangular hat was replaced by a helmet with silver fittings and a black horsehair plume. For generals the plume was of the pattern for army general officers, and for other officers—as for army adjutants with the Cyrillic letters “G.K.” on the helmet plate’s shield.
On 4 June 1854 a new coat was introduced for classed and medical officials in the Corps of Mining Engineers.(17) It had “a military cut of the pattern for officers of this Corps,” and was single breasted, dark green, with a black velvet collar and cuffs, dark-blue cuff flaps, and blue piping around the collar, down the front, skirts, and cuffs. Embroidery on the collar was prescribed to be silver in the four razryad groups. In the first group it consisted of straight silver lace-bars and silver general-officers’ border trim and edging; in the other groups it was only the lace-bars with or without edging. The “blown” [“dutyi”] silver buttons of officials in central offices received the government crest; personnel serving in subordinate local offices had two crossed hammers, and officials at the Institute for Mining Engineers—a government crest “with a semicircular aureole” [“s polukruglym siyaniem”]. Judging from subsequent statutes, the coats and frocks of classed officials and doctors of the higher classes were prescribed shoulder knots of twisted cord.(18)
In the same year of 1854 the dark-blue coat for civilian mining officials was abolished. The coat for classed officials serving in the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs was replaced by “the common uniform coat of the Ministry of Finance.” As a result, the embroidered oak and laurel-branch tracery of 1804 and 1834 ceased to exist for a time.
The new 1854 uniforms, however, remained unchanged for only a short time. In February of the following year Emperor Nicholas I died, and when Alexander II ascended the throne he immediately initiated a complete reform of uniforms. A ukase of 25 March 1855 introduced new uniforms for the mining administration, the development of which we will discuss in following articles. In the future we also plan to relate the history of the mines troops, who had their own organization and uniform.
[INSET Page 14]
State Mines College [Gosudarstvennaya Berg-kollegiya] – established 10 December 1711 (until 1722 in the combined Mines and Manufacturing College). Abolished in 1731 (in its place a Special Office for the Control of Mining Affairs [Osobaya ekspeditsiya dlya upravleniya gornym delom] was in the Commerce College, renamed the General Mines Directorate [General-berg-direktorium] in 1736. Reestablished in 1741. In 1775 the control of mining affairs for each locality was turned over to the provincial administrations, and in 1784 the Mines College was again shut down (after transferring its functions). In 1796 it was opened on the previous basis; permanently abolished in 1807, with its functions transferred to the Mines Department (until 1825(!) there existed within the Ministry of Finance a Department of the Mines College for the liquidation of affairs).
Mines Office [Berg-kontora] – in operation in Moscow 1722-1728, 1760-1767, and 1796- 1807. During periods when the Mines College was located in Moscow, the Mines Office established itself in St. Petersburg.
Mines Department [Gornyi departament] – established 13 June 1806 under the Ministry of Finance. From 1807 it had a Mines Council and Mines Executive Office. In December 1811, with the joining of the salt office and the functions of the Department of the Mint, it was renamed the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs [Departament gornykh i solyanykh del]. In 1825 it formed an Expert Committee. In 1863 it was renamed the Department of Mining Affairs [Departament gornykh del]. From1874 it was under the Ministry of State Properties, and from 1905—in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Abolished 21 January 1918.
Department of the Mint [Monetnyi departament] – established 8 September 1802 in the Ministry of Finance. From 1807 it was part of the State Treasury. In 1811 it was abolished and its functions transferred to the Mines Department.
Corps of Mining Engineers [Korpus gornykh inzhenerov] – established 1 January 1834 (on a military basis). It included a Headquarters [Shtab] (1834-1863), Mines Legal Office [Gornyi Auditoriat] (1837-1863), and also an Institute and Technical Mining School. Disbanded 22 April 1867.
Mines School [Gornoe uchilishche] – established in St. Petersburg in 1773 (opened in 1774). In 1804 reformed as the Mines Cadet Corps [Gornyi kadetskii korpus] under the Ministry of Finance. From 1806 the Corps was administratively equal to the universities. In 1833 it was reorganized into the Institute of Mines [Gornyi institut] (from1834-1866 the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers). In 1896 the Institute was given the name of Empress Catherine II. It is now the G.V. Plekhanov Saint-Petersburg Institute of Mines.
[INSET Page 16]
While preparing this article on the uniforms for mining engineers we were able to attribute a portrait from the collection of the Museum of the Borodino Panorama. The portrait came to the museum in the summer of 1997 and was described as the likeness of an unknown officer. On the back of the watercolor one could make out the almost worn-away note “Director of the Technological Institute.” This suggested that the identity of the depicted person be looked for among the directors of that St.-Petersburg institute of practical technology. The officer’s uniform and his epaulettes without rank stars indicated a colonel in the Corps of Mining Engineers. His decorations were well painted: around the neck were crosses of the orders of St. Anne 2nd class with Imperial Crown and of St. Stanislaus 2nd class; on the chest—the order of St. Vladimir 4th class (without bow), the silver medal “For the capture of Paris 19 March 1814,” and a clasp for twenty years of irreproachable service in officer rank.
From the time it was founded in 1825 up to 1855, the institute had three directors. Until 1838 this position was occupied by Ivan Mikhailovich Evreinov and then, from 1838 to 1852, by Vasilii Ivanovich Blau (Wilhelm von Blau). From 1852 to 1858, the director was Konstantin Fedorovich Butenev. After 1858 the director’s position was mainly occupied by persons who were distinguished by their scientific achievements, and none of them were found to have served as field-grade officers in the Corps of Mining Engineers prior to 1855.
Of the three directors named above, two were field-grade officers of the Corps of Mining Engineers: Blau and Butenev. When serving as director both men held the rank of colonel and had orders identical to those shown in the portrait. But Butenev lacked the medal “For the capture of Paris 19 March 1814,” and besides, shortly before being named director of the institute he received the clasp for 25 years of irreproachable service in officer rank. Thus his medals group would be different from that shown in the portrait. While director, Colonel Blau did have the medal “For the taking of Paris 19 March 1814” and the clasp for 20 years of irreproachable service.
Thus, it can be stated with certainty that the portrait under investigation depicts Vasilii Ivanovich Blau (Wilhelm von Blau) (1790-1866). The time the painting was made could be determined by the colonel’s awards. On 31 July 1842 Blau received the Imperial Crown to his order of St. Anne 2nd class. On 1 January 1847 he was decorated with the next order of St. Vladimir 3rd class, which is missing in the portrait. It follows that the watercolor can be dated from1843 to 1846.
——————————
For Blau’s biografph see: A.V. Kubovskii, “Dva inzhenera. Atributsiya dvukh portretov iz novykh postuplenii muzeya-panoramy ?Borodinskaya bitva’” in Epokha napoleonskikh voin: lyudi, sobytiya, idei. Materialy nauchnoi konferentsii. Moscow, 1999. Pages 40-47.
[INSET] In the preceding issue of the magazine several errors were allowed into the article on uniforms of the administration of ways of communications. On page 19, in the captions to the buttons for the ways of communications, in 3, instead of the words “Officials of the Main Directorate in the second half of the 19th century,” one should read “Officials of the Main Directorate since the second half of the 1830s.” In number 9, instead of the words “Waterways company,” one should read “Waterways police.” We ask the reader’s forgiveness.
The editors.
[ILLUSTRATIONS.]
Page 10: (Left) Official of the Mines College, 1755. Reconstruction based on the text of the ukase of 10 April 1755. (Right) Official of the Mines School, 1794. Reconstruction based on the book Depiction of Provincial, Local, Collegial, and All Authorized Uniforms. Artist Igor Dzys’.
Page 11: (Top) Ober-Bergmeister V.Yu. Soimonov (1772-1825). Miniature by an unknown artist, c. 1794 (G-T-G). Upon finishing at the Mines School in 1790, he was graduated and went to the Nerchinsk Mines Battalion. Promoted in 1793 to Ober-Hüttenverwalter and named manager of the Barnaul works. In 1797, after the reestablishment of the Mines College, he was recalled to St. Petersburg, promoted to Ober-Bergmeister, and placed at the disposal of the chief director. Vice-president of the Mines College from 1800. Here he is depicted in the 1796 uniform for the Mines College. The dark-blue facing color is possibly a result of a transformation in the paint which is often encountered in just such miniatures from the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. In any case, Soimonov’s service record convinces us that in the second half of the 1790s he could only be wearing the mines uniform. Even more so, such a uniform with dark-blue trim has not been discovered for their period.
(Inset) Cadet (non-commissioned officer) of the Mines Cadet Corps: first pattern uniform, January-March 1804.
On 19 January 1804 there were confirmed a regulation and organizational table for the newly established Mines Cadet Corps (Polnyi Svod Zakonovi, No. 21,133). According to the table, the uniform for the 60 cadets was prescribed to be: parade coat of red cloth with dark- green lapels and lining, with silvered buttons; black neck cloth, white vest and pants; shoes with stockings, or boots; felt hat “with binding, black cord, and bow.” A short sword [tesak] with brass fittings and a worsted swordknot was worn in a frog on a belt around the waist. Ten non-commissioned officers had silver galloon on the collars and cuffs, suede gloves with cuffs, and a cane. Everyday dress consisted of a grey coat [syurtuk] with covered buttons, over a vest and breeches.
Officials of the corps were to have “the special uniform according to the assigned pattern.” It may be assumed that when confirming this pattern, the higher authorities took note that the red color of mines uniforms was no longer in accordance with either the actualities of the time or the system of uniforms that was developing in the empire. As a result there appeared an ukase of 24 March 1804 “On uniforms for officials of the Mines and Mints administrations and of the Mines Cadet Corps,” which introduced new dark-blue uniforms. This means that the cadet uniforms were soon being changed (it is possible that the red uniforms established by the January authorization table were thus not able to be made up.) Later they were also prescribed shakos, but no description of them, or the date they were introduced, is known.
Sergei Popov.
Page 12: (Left) A.F. Bestuzhev, official of the mines administration. Portrait by V.L. Borovikovskii, 1806. (Vyatka Art Museum of V.M. and A.M. Vasnetsov.) A.F. Bestuzhev (1761-1810), the father of the famous Decembrist brothers, for a certain time occupied the position of manager of the Yekaterinburg lapidary and bronze factories and had the right to wear the mines uniform. However, Bestuzhev was awarded the order of St. Vladimir 4th class, as shown in the portrait, on 26 October 1807, and it is possible that the order was painted on later.
(Center) Ober-Berg-Hauptman Class IV A.F. Deryabin (1773-1820), director of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs. Portrait by an unknown artist, c. 1813. (St. Petersburg Institute of Mines.)
(Right) Ober-Berg-Hauptman Class IV Ye.I. Mechnikov, director of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs. Portrait by an unknown artist, end of the 1820s. (St. Petersburg Institute of Mines.) Depicted in the 1819-pattern uniform.
(Bottom)
Ranks for Mining Officials (1734-1834)
With Class and Corresponding Army rank.
IV Ober-Berg-Hauptman class IV Major General
VOber-Berg-Hauptman class V Brigadier
VI Berg-Hauptman Colonel
VII Ober-Bergmeister Lieutenant Colonel
VIII Ober-Hüttenverwalter Major
IX Markscheider Captain
XHüttenverwalter Staff-Captain
XII Bergmeister ——
XIII Ober-Berg-Probierer; Schichtmeister class XIIISublieutenant
XIV Berg-Probierer; Schichtmeister class XIVEnsign
Page 13:
Artist Sergei Popov 2001.
Page 14: (Left) Company-grade officers of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs in the uniforms confirmed by Highest Authority on 27 February 1834. (Drawings for “Polozhenie o grazhdanskikh mundirakh.”)
(Right) Pattern drawing for full embroidery (Group 1) of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs, confirmed by Highest Authority on 27 February 1834. Judging from portraits, in practice the border embroidery was not smooth, but rather had shiny specks [s blestkami] following the style for the Ministry of Finance. [Writing on the pattern: “Confirmed by Highest Authority in St. Petersburg, 27 February 1834.” “Full embroidery on collars, cuffs, and pocket flaps for officials of the Mines administration holding general-officer rank.”]
Page 15: Frock coats [syurtuki] for officials (above) and for “unclassed” chancellery employees [kantselyarskie sluzhiteli, “klassov ne imeyushchikh”] (below), Department of Mining and Salt Affairs, confirmed by Highest Authority 27 February 1834. (Drawings for “Polozhenie o grazhdanskikh mundirakh.”)
Page 16: (Top left) Lieutenant General Ye.V. Korneev, commander of the Corps of Mining Engineers. Portrait by an unknown artist, 1834 (St.-Petersburg Institute of Mines). Depicted in the common general-officers’s parade uniform of the mines administration.
(Top right) Colonel V.I. Blau of the Corps of Mining Engineers, director of the St.- Petersburg Institute of Practical Technology. Portrait by an unknown artist, 1843-46 (Musuem of the Borodino Panorama).
(Bottom right) Coat button of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1834 pattern.
Page 17: (Top row) Civilian officials of the mines administration. 1. Official of the Mines College and Mines Departmen (class V and higher), 1804-15. 2. Official of the Mint Department (field-grade officer rank), 1804-11. 3. Class IV Official of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs, 1819-26. 4. Official of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs (company-grade officer rank), 1833-54. 5. Official of the mines administration (field-grade officer rank) in the Caucasus, 1853-54. 6. Student (pupil in the senior classes) of the Institute of Mines, 1833-34.
(Bottom row) Corps of Mining Engineers. 7. Captain of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1834-38. 8. Lieutenant colonel of the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1852-55. 9. Major of the Corps of Mining Engineers in the Caucasus, 1850-55. 10. Official of the Corps of Mining Engineers (in Group 2 coat), 1854-55. 11. Cadet (non-commissioned officer) of the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers, 1834-48. 12. Mines cadet (“conductor”) in service uniform, 1839-55.
(1)1. Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii (Sobranie II). No. 6685. (Henceforth PSZ.)
(2)1 In connection with the 200th anniversary of the mines administration, at the beginning of the 20th century an attempt was made to prepare an illustrated book on the history of the mines administration uniforms—the very first civil uniforms in Russia. The work was not completed, but the manuscript was preserved in the Russian State Historical Archive [RGIA] (86 pages). The illustrative material for it, however, is in the Technical Library of the Institute of Mines.
(3)”2. Materialy k istorii mundirov gornogo vedomstva. RGIA, F. 77. Op. 52. D. 2213. L. 21.
(4)3. Ibid., L. 21-22.
(5)4. V.N. Zemtsov and V.A. Lyapin. Yekaterinburg v mundire. Yekaterinburg, 1992. Page 50.
(6)”5. Materialy… L. 23.
(7)6. PSZ-I. No. 21,226.
(8)7. PSZ-I. No. 27,681.
(9)”8. PSZ-II. No. 6038.
(10)9. PSZ-II. No. 6685.
(11)10. RGIA. F. 40. Op. 2. D. 19. L. 16-17.
(12)11. PSZ-II. No. 6860. Drawings: RGIA. F. 1409. Op. 10. D. 24. L. 7, 8, 9.
(13)12. Ibid., No. 22,879
(14)13. Materialy… L. 26ob.-27.
(15)14. PSZ-II. No. 26,905.
(16)15. Corps order No. 5, 29 February 1852.
(17)16. PSZ-II. No. 28,318.
(18)17. Corps order No. 3, 2 February 1861.