Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russia¹ ; Federal Research Center for Coal and Coal Chemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kemerovo, Russia²:

A. Yu. Karpinets, Associate Professor¹, Researcher², Candidate of Historical Sciences, naukarpinets@mail.ru

Based on the publications of the Gornyi Zhurnal in 1842–1859, the process of exploration of Afonino coal deposit (Afonino is today Kiselevsk town in Kuzbass) in the second half of the period from the 1820s to the 1850s is considered. The first of the researchers to characterize the deposit on the pages of the Gornyi Zhurnal in 1842 was Mining Engineer Narkiz A. Sokolovsky. Then, the Afonino village was visited by world-famous geologist Pyotr A. Chikhachev in the framework of his large research expedition to Altai. Two years later, Afonino coal was studied by another great scientist Grigory E. Shchurovsky. In the middle of XIX century, another research party visited the Kiselevsk area, led by Mining Engineer Captain Bykov and his assistant, Mining Charter Officer Mikhailov. In 1855, the area of Afonino coal deposit was visited by an outstanding mining specialist, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander G. Boyarshinov. In 1856, Staff Captain Korzhenevsky, like his predecessors, examined coal outcrops in the area of the villages of Afonino and Cherkasovo. Finally, in 1859, P. Lavrov and F. Korovaev, recognizing that “due to the ever-developing industrial activity in Russia, the issue of combustible material is becoming more and more important’ presented the characterization of the country’s coal deposits in tabular form. The coal deposit “on the plateau near the village of Afonino” was worthily ranked in that rating. Thus, not a single of the relevant studies of Altai coal deposits passed off the “remarkable coal deposit of Afonino” as A. G. Boyarshinov said. The research findings were presented on the pages of the worldwide reputed and recognized Gornyi Zhurnal.
The study was carried out under the state contract, Project No. 0286-2021-0012.

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