Ukrainian Geological Administration

Ukrainian Geological Administration (Українське геологічне управління; Ukrainske heolohichne upravlinnia). The chief government agency in charge of geological research and prospecting in Ukraine from 1918 to 1957. Its history goes back to the Ukrainian Geological Committee, which was formed in Kyiv in 1918 on the initiative of Volodymyr Luchytsky. The administration introduced a program of systematic geological surveying and mapping and published the first geological maps of Soviet Ukraine. Its prospecting work led to the development of many mineral deposits, such as coal, iron, titanium, nickel, and potassium salts. As part of the economic reforms of 1957 the Chief Administration for Geology and the Protection of Underground Resources was established under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, and the Ukrainian Geological Administration was reorganized into the Kyiv Geological Administration, which was renamed the Kyiv Geological Prospecting Trust in the subsequent year.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]