Moscow Engineering Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Photographic

an institute whose history dates to the founding of the Geodetic School (subsequently the Surveying Institute) in Moscow in 1779. The world’s first specialized geodetic higher educational institution was founded in 1930 from the geodesy department of the Surveying Institute; it received its present name in 1936.

Among the well-known scientists who worked and studied at the institute were F. N. Krasovskii, A. A. Mikhailov, A. S. Chebotarev, M. S. Molodenskii, V. A. Magnitskii, Iu. D. Bulanzhe, A. Ia. Orlov, G. N. Cherdantsev, V. P. Shcheglov, A. N. Bik, I. A. Iveronov, M. D. Solov’ev, B. V. Feofilov, A. A. Borzov, N. N. Baranskii, K. A. Tsvetkov, M. K. Venttsel’, V. V. Danilov, A. V. Mazaev, K. A. Salishchev, and B. G. Shpital’nyi.

As of 1973, the institute had departments of geodesy, geodetic aerial photography, cartography, and opticomechanics; evening and correspondence departments; a preparatory division; a graduate program; 25 subdepartments; a computer center; geodetic training areas; a museum of geodetic instruments; and a library, with more than 300, 000 volumes.

In the 1972–73 academic year the institute had a student body of 5, 000 and a faculty of about 300, including 35 professors and doctors of sciences and 140 lecturers and candidates of sciences. The institute confers doctoral and candidate’s degrees. It publishes Trudy MIIGAiK (Transactions . . .; since 1940) and the journal Geodeziia I aerofotos”emka (Geodesy and Aerial Photography, in the series Izvestiia vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenii [Proceedings of Higher Educational Institutions; since 1957]). During the years of Soviet power the institute has trained more than 13, 000 specialists.

Some of the facilities of the institute are located in the former Demidov house, an architectural monument of the 18th century (1779–91; architect M. F. Kazakov).