Mineralogy in all the space of this word – this motto of the Russian Mineralogical Society (RMS) perfectly reflects its general purpose of uniting under its umbrella not only professional mineralogists but also those who are interested in minerals from the standpoint of their beauty, their relevance to other sciences (biochemistry, archeology, materials research, etc.), or their practical use.

The RMS was founded in 1817 as the Mineralogical Society of Saint Petersburg and is the oldest of the existing national mineralogical societies. Since 19th century the RMS undertook the geological mapping of the Russian Empire, and published the voluminous Materials on the Geology of Russia. In the 1860s, the society became Imperial and moved its headquarters to Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, Russia’s first geological and mining school. In the 1950s, the society, then known as the All-Soviet Mineralogical Society (Vsesoyuznoe Mineralogicheckoe Obshchestvo, VMO) was involved with the International Mineralogical Association and opened its first Republic branches in Ukraine, Uzbekistan and elsewhere. Some of these daughter organizations now continue to function as national societies.

Some of the members of the RMS who achieved international fame include Nikolai I. Koksharov, Evgraf S. Fedorov, Vasili V. Dokuchaev, Dimitri I. Mendeleev, Alexander P. Karpinsky, Vladimir I. Vernadsky, Alexandr E. Fersman, Alexander N. Zavaritsky, Anatoly G. Betekhtin, Nikolay V. Belov, Dmitri S. Korzhinsky, Dmitri P. Grigoriev, Vladimir S. Sobolev, I. I. Shafranovsky, Vladimir I. Smirnov, G. B. Bokiy, and Viktor A. Frank-Kamenetsky. Today, the society is 900 members strong and has 25 regional branches spanning nine time zones! The current president is Yury B. Marin, who is assisted by three vice-presidents: Nikolay V. Sobolev, Yury L. Woytekhovsky and Sergey V. Krivovichev (IMA President during 2014–2015). The RMS activities are coordinated by 17 special commissions focusing on a wide range of topics (mineral processing, mineral museums, organic mineralogy, to name but a few). The society’s library is a unique collection of literature on mineralogy and related disciplines, including rare editions of classic works published between the 16th century and the 19th century.

The RMS organizes 10 – 15 conferences on mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, and crystallography annually. Its general meetings are held every five years and include elections of honorary fellows, award presentations, and council elections.

A prominent scientist anywhere in the world can be nominated for an Honorary Fellowship. Since 1817, more than 140 foreign scientists have been elected as honorary fellows, including Charles Lyell, Alexander von Humboldt, Jöns J. Berzelius, René-Just Haüy, Roderick I. Murchison, Victor M. Goldschmidt, William H. Bragg, Max T. F. von Laue, Norman L. Bowen, James D. Dana, Reginald A. Daly, Paul A. Ramdohr, Alfred E. Ringwood, and seven past IMA presidents.

Since 1830, the RMS has published its own journal, which was initially entitled Transactions of the Mineralogical Society, then became the Proceedings of the Imperial Mineralogical Society of Saint Petersburg, changing again during the Soviet era to Zapiski VMO. The journal is presently published six times per year as the Proceedings of the RMS (Zapiski Rossiiskogo Mineralogicheskogo Obshchestva, or Zapiski RMO, ISSN 0869-6055).

The RMS website (minsoc.ru) offers o wide number of services for professionals in mineralogy, geology and adjacent areas: news and events alerting service, world listing of upcoming scientific conferences, e-prints database incl. abstracts of RMS conferences and Zapiski RMO contents (abstracts and full papers, access for registered RMS members only), online conference registration etc.

EXCURSIONS

A number of excursions are being planned during and after the Meeting days. We offer the following provisional list of excursions.

The excursion program will be finalized according to the number of registered participants.

Excursions during the Meeting (10th to 13th October):
1) the Mining Museum;
2) Stones of the State Hermitage;
3) Decorative stones of the historic part of Saint Petersburg (walk);
4) A view on decorative stones from rivers and channels of Saint Petersburg (boat trip).

Post-Meeting excursions (14th October):
1) Vyborg and granites of Karelia: a bus journey to Vyborg (granite quarry — Vyborg Castle — Mon Repos Park);
2) Tsarskoye Selo and the Amber Room: a bus journey to Tsarskoye Selo (Catherine Palace and the Amber Room – Natural stones in city parks).

Please use your online registration form to choose excursions, that you want to attend.