ABSTRACT
The article considers the main moments of the life and work of the famous Spanish and Russian engineer, statesman Augustine Augustinovich Betancourt based on a parallel study of the published biographical and official service data. His work has been investigated as the Chief Director of the railways (in a current way - Minister of Railways), Inspector of the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers (founder and director of the Institute of Railway Engineers), Director of the “Committee for the Improvement of all Buildings and Hydraulic Works in St. Petersburg and the places connected with it”, “Committee for the Transfer of the Makaryevskaya Fair to Nizhny Novgorod after the fire”, member of the “Committee on the Construction and Maintenance of High Roads in the Russian Empire”, project developer and builder of factories in St. Petersburg, Tula, and other cities, the author of the reconstruction of the largest land and water routes in European Russia, the creator of unique engineering mechanisms, including mechanisms for lifting columns for St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Pillar of Alexandria, the world’s first steam dredger, etc.
