The Building of the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute named after S. Ordzhonikidze, Which Students and Employees Participated in the Great Patriotic War
Since the beginning of the war, a large number of students and teachers of Moscow Geological Exploration Institute named after S. Ordzhonikidze left to the front and to work in the rear, they became members of the people’s militia. The defence needed qualified engineering personnel. Some of the institute’s employees evacuated to the city of Semipalatinsk, where a branch of the institute was established. The remaining teachers and students in Moscow (Moscow branch) were transferred to the Geological Faculty of Moscow State University. In 1943, the Institute was returned from Semipalatinsk to Moscow, and classes resumed there in the 1943-1944 academic year. Even in wartime, MGRI employees continued to search for deposits of valuable minerals and did a lot for victory. During the Great Patriotic War, the people’s militia was formed from 28 teachers and staff and 57 students. They fought as part of the 8th Moscow Division of the Krasnopresnenskiy District People’s Militia. Many of them died in battles, their names are immortalized on a memorial plaque opposite the entrance to the university. The memorial days of those who died in the war are held annually. Also, the State Geological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after V.I. Vernadsky celebrates the date of sending the militia to the front by laying flowers on October 15, 1941.
Address: Moscow, Mokhovaya str., 11, p. 11
