History
160 YEARS OF VNIIM
Historical events
| 1842 (June, 16) |
Depository of Reference Weights and Measures, the first metrological establishment in Russia, was founded in St. Petersburg by decree (Ukaz) of the tsar Nicolas I. This decree, also known as Regulation on Weights and Measures, set forth a unified system of units obligatory for use in all parts of the Russian Empire from the 1st of January, 1845. This Regulation paved the way for the Russian National System of the Assurance of Uniformity of Measurements. From 1842 to 1880 the Depository was located within the walls of the Peter-and-Paul Fortress. |
| 1879 | Special building was constructed at the present address of VNIIM providing better conditions for maintenance of measurement standards and for investigations and scientific research. |
| 1892 (November, 19) |
D.I. Mendeleyev, famous Russian scientist, was appointed scientific custodian of the Depository of Weights and Measures. |
| 1893 (June, 20) |
The Depository was renamed in the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures - main metrological centre of the country. |
| 1900 | Establishment of world-class aggregate of national measurement standards (including mass, temperature, length, time and pressure standards). |
| 1922 | New Regulation on the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures was adopted dividing it into two Institutes (for Metrology and Verification) under the management of one President. |
| 1931 | Renamed in the All-Union Scientific and Research Institute for Metrology and Standardization (VIMS). |
| 1934 | Reorganized in the All-Union Institute for Metrology (VNIIM) |
| 1934-1941 | VNIIM undertakes important scientific work that exerted leavening influence on formation and development of new branches of the national industry (e.g. research into determination of the metre in terms of wavelengths, development of measurement standards for magnetic and light units, development of apparatus for verification of manometers). |
| 1935 | Opening of the experimental plant "Etalon". |
| 1941-1945 | During the Great Patriotic War a part of the staff were evacuated to the Urals (the city of Sverdlovsk, former and present Yekaterinburg). The remaining laboratories (electricity, manometry, radiology, chemistry) continued their work in the conditions of the siege to fulfill the orders of the defense industry. |
| 1945 (January, 10) |
VNIIM was named after D.I.Mendeleyev |
| 1956-1991 | Development of new system of measurement standards for electrical quantities on the basis of fundamental physical constants and stable physical effects. |
| 1971 | Creation, on the basis of VNIIM, of the Scientific Production Association NPO "D.I. Mendeleyev VNIIM" |
| 1994 | The State Unitary Enterprise "D.I. Mendeleyev VNIIM" was conferred the status of a National Research Centre. |
