Mine Surveying, Institute of

(full name, All-Union Research Institute of Mining Geomechanics and Mine Surveying Work; VNIMI), an institution that studies manifestations of rock pressure, mine shock, displacement of rock and the earth’s surface, and the stability of quarry walls. It also refines the techniques of mine surveying work and develops new instruments and tools for the entire Soviet mining industry (primarily for mine surveying). It was founded in 1945 in Leningrad from the Central Research Mine Surveying Bureau (TsNIMB, founded in 1932). The institute is subordinate to the Ministry of the Coal Industry of the USSR and is the chief specialized institute in the field. It has four branches (in Donetsk, Prokop’-evsk, Karaganda, and Sverdlovsk) and an experimental and testing plant in Leningrad. It has residential and correspondence graduate schools and has published Trudy (Transactions) since 1934.