Saint Petersburg State University is a
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n federal state-owned
higher education institutionA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
based in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
and one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious universities in the country. It is made up of 19 specialized faculties, 13 research institutes, Canada College, Faculty of Military Studies, and a Chair of Physical Culture and Sports. As of 2004, the university had a teaching staff of 4,055. The university has two main
campusA campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
es: on
Vasilievsky IslandVasilievsky Island is an island in Saint Petersburg, bordered by the rivers Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva from South and Northeast, and by the Gulf of Finland from the West. Vasilievsky Island is separated from Dekabristov Island by the Smolenka River...
and in
PeterhofPeterhof is a municipal town within Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of Saint Petersburg on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland . It hosts one of two campuses of Saint Petersburg State University...
. During the Soviet period is was known as
Leningrad State University (Ленинградский государственный университет)
Reputation and international rankings
Saint Petersburg State University is considered the second best university in Russia after Moscow State University and is
rankedIn higher education, college and university rankings are listings of universities and liberal arts colleges in an order determined by any combination of factors. Rankings can be based on subjectively perceived "quality," on some combination of empirical statistics, or on surveys of educators,...
239th on the 2007
THES - QS World University RankingsTimes Higher Education-QS World University Rankings is an annual publication that ranks the "Top 200 World Universities", and is published by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds . The full listings feature on the Times Higher Education website and appear later on the QS website...
, 305th–402nd on the 2007
Academic Ranking of World UniversitiesThe Academic Ranking of World Universities is compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The ranking compared 1200 higher education institutions worldwide according to a formula that took into account alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals , staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals ,...
and 421st (score 22.79%) on the Global University Ranking by Wuhan University.
The university has a reputation for having educated a number of Russia's most prominent politicians; including presidents
Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin was the second President of Russia and is the current Prime Minister of Russia as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus...
and Dimitry Medvedev, both of whom studied Law at the university.
The university tends to place relatively high in the various world rankings (placed 2nd in Russia after
Moscow State UniversityM. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , for a time the Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be the oldest university in Russia and the tallest educational building in the world...
in the
THES - QS World University RankingsTimes Higher Education-QS World University Rankings is an annual publication that ranks the "Top 200 World Universities", and is published by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds . The full listings feature on the Times Higher Education website and appear later on the QS website...
) and has established itself as one of Russia's premier institutions of higher education.
The university is widely considered to be one of Russia's oldest universities. There is an ongoing debate as to whether it is infact Russia's oldest university as this title is also claimed by the Lomonosov State University of Moscow. The reason for this uncertainty can be put down to the two sperate occasions on which the university was founded and then refounded; the first occasion (1724) predates the foundation of the Moscow State University in 1755, however the second occasion in 1819 does not. Thus the case is open to interpretation and there is (as of yet) no deffinitive answer.
History
It is disputed by the university administration whether Saint Petersburg State University or
Moscow State UniversityM. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , for a time the Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be the oldest university in Russia and the tallest educational building in the world...
is the
oldest higher education institution in Russia. While the latter was established in 1755, the former, which has been in continuous operation since 1819, itself claims to be the successor of the university established on January 24,1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, together with the Academic Gymnasium and Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Immanuel Kant State University of Russia in
KaliningradKaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
also claims to be the successor of the
AlbertinaThe University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg, East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 by Albert, Duke of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....
founded in East Prussia in 1544, though there is hardly any degree of continuity at all.
In the period between 1803 and 1819, Saint Petersburg University officially did not exist; the institution founded by Peter the Great—Saint Petersburg Academy—had already been disbanded, because the new 1803 charter of the Academy of Sciences stipulated that there should be no educational institutions affiliated with it. The Petersburg Pedagogical Institute, renamed Main Pedagogical Institute in 1814, was established in 1804 and occupied a part of the
Twelve CollegiaThe Twelve Collegia, or Twelve Colleges is the largest edifice from the Petrine era still extant in Saint Petersburg. It was designed by Domenico Trezzini and Theodor Schwertfeger and built from 1722 to 1744.- Description :...
building.
On February 8, 1819 (O.S.),
Alexander I of RussiaAlexander I of Russia , also known as Alexander the Blessed served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and Ruler of Poland from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania.He was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later...
reorganized the Main Pedagogical Institute into Saint Petersburg University, which at that time consisted of three faculties: Faculty of Philosophy and Law, Faculty of History and Philology and Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, and enrolled several dozens students. Since there is some degree of continuity between the Academy, the Pedagogical Institute, and the University, Saint Petersburg State University may be considered the oldest university in Russia. In 1821 the university was renamed Saint Petersburg Imperial University. In 1823 most of the university moved from the Twelve Collegia to the southern part of the city beyond the
FontankaFontanka is a left branch of the river Neva, which flows through the whole of Central Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its length is 6,700 meters, its width is up to 70 meters, and its depth is up to 3,5 meters. The Fontanka Embankment is lined with the former private residences of Russian nobility.This...
. In 1824 the amended charter of the Moscow University became the first charter of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University. In 1829 there were 19 full professors and 169 regular and irregular students in the university. In 1830
Nicholas I of RussiaNicholas I , , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometres.Nicholas I was born in Gatchina to Emperor Paul I and...
passed the entire building of the Twelve Collegia to the university, and the courses returned there back from the south of the city. In 1835 a new charter of imperial universities of Russia was approved. According to it during the following years the Faculty of Law was established and the Faculty of History and Philology and Faculty of Physics and Mathematics were merged into the Faculty of Philosophy as the 1st and 2nd Departments, respectively.
In 1849 after the Spring of Nations the Senate of the Russian Empire decreed that the Rector should be appointed by the Minister of National Enlightenment rather than elected by the Assembly of the university. However,
Pyotr PletnyovPyotr Alexandrovich Pletnyov was a minor Russian poet and literary critic, who rose to become the dean of the Saint Petersburg University and academician of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences ....
was reappointed Rector and ultimately became the longest-serving rector of Saint Petersburg University in history (1840–1861).
In 1850 the 1st and 2nd Departments of the Faculty of Philosophy were turned back into the Faculty of History and Philosophy and Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, respectively, the latter specialized not only in mathematics and physics, but also in other natural sciences, such as biology and chemistry. The
Oriental studiesOriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the term Asian studies has mostly replaced the older term. European study of the region had primarily religious origins,...
were separated from the Faculty of History and Philology, and in 1855 the fourth faculty, Faculty of Oriental Languages, was opened.
In 1859–1861 female irregular students could attend lectures in the university. In 1861 there were 1270 regular and 167 irregular students in the university, of them 498 were at the Faculty of Law, the largest subdivision. During 1861–1862 a major student unrest took place in the university, and it was temporarily closed twice during the year. The students were denied freedom of assembly and placed under police surveillance, public lectures were forbidden. Many students were expelled. After the unrest, in 1865, there were 524 students only.
The new Charter of the Imperial Russian Universities adopted in 1863 restored the right of the university assembly to elect the rector. In March 1869, a smaller student unrest shook the university. By 1869, 2588 students had graduated from the university.
In 1880 the Ministry of National Enlightenment forbade the students to marry and the married students to be admitted to the university. In 1882 another student unrest took place in the university. In 1884 a new Charter of the Imperial Russian Universities was adopted, which granted the right to appoint the rector to the Minister of National Enlightenment again. On March 1, 1887 (O.S.)
a group of the university studentsPervomartovtsi , Russian revolutionaries, members of Narodnaya Volya, planners and executors of the assassination of Alexander II of Russia and attempted murder of Alexander III of Russia...
was arrested while planning an attempt on the life of
Alexander III of RussiaAlexander III Alexandrovich reigned as Emperor of Russia from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894.-Early life:...
. As a result, new admission rules to gymnasiums and universities were approved by the Minister of National Enlightenment
Ivan DelyanovCount Ivan Davidovich Delyanov was a Russian statesman of Armenian descent.Delyanov graduated from Moscow State University's Law School in 1838. In 1857 – 1897, he held a number of important governmental positions. Delyanov became a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia in 1874...
in 1887, which barred persons of ignoble origin from admission to the university, unless they were extraordinarily talented.
By 1894, 9212 students had graduated from the university. Among the renowned scholars of the second half of the 19th century affiliated with the university were mathematician
Pafnuty ChebyshevPafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev was a Russian mathematician. His name can be alternatively transliterated as Chebychev, Chebyshov, Tchebycheff or Tschebyscheff .-Early years:...
, physicist
Heinrich LenzHeinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz was a Russian-German-Estonian physicist most noted for formulating Lenz's law in electrodynamics in 1833....
, chemists
Dmitri MendeleevDmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev , was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements...
and
Aleksandr ButlerovAleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov was a Russian chemist, one of the creators of the theory of chemical structure , the first to incorporate double bonds into structural formulas, the discoverer of formaldehyde, and the discoveror of the formose reaction.The crater Butlerov on the Moon is...
, embryologist
Alexander KovalevskyAlexander Onufrievich Kovalevsky was a Russian embryologist who studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg and became professor at St Petersburg. He showed that all animals go through a period of gastrulation....
, physiologist
Ivan SechenovIvan Mikhaylovich Sechenov , was a Russian physiologist, named by Ivan Pavlov as "The Father of Russian physiology"...
, pedologist Vasily Dokuchaev. On March 24, 1896 (O.S.), on the campus of the university
Alexander PopovAlexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist who first demonstrated the practical application of electromagnetic waves, although he did not apply for a patent for his invention....
publicly demonstrated transmission of
radio wavesRadio waves are that part of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths longer than infrared light. Naturally-occuring radio waves are produced by lightning, or by astronomical objects. Artificially-generated radio waves are used for broadcasting, mobile and fixed communications, navigation,...
for the first time in history.
As of January 1, 1900 (O.S.), there were 2099 students enrolled in the Faculty of Law, 1149 students in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, 212 students in the Faculty of Oriental Languages and 171 students in the Faculty of History and Philology. In 1902 the first student dining hall in Russia was opened in the university.
Since about 1897 regular strikes and unrests of students had shaken the university and spread to other higher education institutions across Russia. In 1905 during the Revolution the charter of the Russian universities was amended, the autonomy of the universities was partially restored and the right to elect the rector was returned to the academic board for the first time since 1884. In 1905–1906 the university was temporarily closed due to the student unrest. The autonomy was revoked again in 1911. In the same year the university was temporarily closed again.
In 1914 with the start of the First World War, the university was renamed Petrograd Imperial University after its namesake city. In 1915 a branch of the university was opened in
PermPerm is a city and administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia. It is situated on the banks of the Kama River, in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains....
, which later became
Perm State UniversityPerm State University is one of the main universities in Russia. Founded in 1916, it claims to be the oldest university in the Ural and eastern territories of Russia...
. The Assembly of Petrograd Imperial University openly welcomed the
February RevolutionThe February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It occurred March 8–12 and its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The non-Communist Russian Provisional Government under...
of 1917, which put an end to the Russian monarchy, and the university came to be known as just Petrograd University. However, after the
October RevolutionTheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
of 1917, the staff and administration of the university were initially vocally opposed to the
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
takeover of power and reluctant to cooperate with the
NarkomprosPeople's Commissariat for Education or Narkompros was the Soviet agency charged with the administration of public education and most of other issues related to culture. In 1946, it was renamed the Ministry of Education. Its first head was Anatoly Lunacharsky. However he described Krupskaya as the...
. Later in 1917–1922 during the
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
some of the staff suspected of counter-revolutionary sympathies suffered imprisonment (e.g.
Lev ShcherbaLev Shcherba was a Russian linguist and lexicographer specializing in phonetics and phonology....
in 1919), execution, or exile abroad on the so-called
Philosophers' shipsPhilosophers' ships is the collective name of several boats which carried Soviet expellees abroad.The main load was handled by two German boats, OberBürgermeister Haken and Preussen, which transported more than 160 expelled Russian intellectuals in September and November 1922 from Petrograd to...
in 1922 (e.g.
Nikolai LosskyNikolai Onufriyevich Lossky was a Russian philosopher, representative of Russian idealism, intuitionism, personalism, libertarianism, ethics, Axiology , and his philosophy he called intuitive-personalism...
). Furthermore, the entire staff suffered from hunger and extreme poverty during those years.
In 1918 the university was renamed 1st Petrograd State University, and in 1919 the Narkompros merged it with the 2nd PSU (former Psychoneurological Institute) and 3rd PSU (former Bestuzhev Higher Courses for Women) into Petrograd State University. In 1919 the Faculty of the Social Science was established by the Narkompros instead of the Faculty of History and Philology, Faculty of Oriental Languages and Faculty of Law. Nicholas Marr became the first Dean of the new faculty. Chemist
Alexey FavorskyAlexey Yevgrafovich Favorsky, also spelled Favorskii, was a Soviet/Russian chemist.-Life:...
became the Dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.
RabfakRabfak was the Workers' Faculty in the Soviet Union. It prepared Soviet workers to enter institutions of higher education....
s and free university courses were opened on the basis of the university to provide mass education. During the 1920s the university, like other higher education institutions in the Soviet Union, became subject to educational experimentation. The structure and status of the faculties and departments of the university underwent major changes. Many of them were merged, split or renamed, new subdivisions were established, independent institutes were merged into the university as faculties, sometimes only to be excluded back in a few years.
In 1924 the university was renamed Leningrad State University after its namesake city. In 1925 the Faculty of Geography was opened. In order to suppress intellectual opposition to the Soviet power, a number of historians working in the university, including
Sergey PlatonovSergey Fyodorovich Platonov was a Russian historian who led the official St Petersburg school of imperial historiography before and after the Russian Revolution.Platonov was born in Chernigov and attended a private gymnasium in St...
,
Yevgeny TarleYevgeny Viktorovich Tarle was a Soviet historian and academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.He is known for his books about Napoleon's invasion of Russia and on the Crimean War, and many other works....
and
Boris GrekovBoris Dmitrievich Grekov was a Soviet historian noted for his comprehensive studies of Kievan Rus and the Golden Horde...
, were imprisoned in the so-called Academic Affair of 1929–1930 on fabricated charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy aimed to overthrow the government. Some other members of the staff were repressed in 1937–1938 during the
Great PurgeGreat Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1937–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of...
.
In the 1930 a number of new faculties were established. The Faculty of Biology opened in 1930, the Faculty of Geology in 1931, The Faculty of Chemistry in 1932, the Faculty of Physics and Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics in 1933, the Faculty of History in 1934, the Faculty of Philology in 1937. The Faculty of Philosophy and Faculty of Economics split from the Faculty of History in 1940.
During the 1941–1944
Siege of LeningradThe Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade was an unsuccessful military operation by the Axis powers to capture Leningrad during World War II. The siege started at 8 September 1941, when the last land connection to the city was severed...
in World War II, many of the students and staff died from starvation, in battles or from repressions. However, the university operated continuously, evacuated to
SaratovSaratov is a major city in southern Russia. It is the administrative center of Saratov Oblast and a major port on the Volga River. Population: In addition to ethnic Russians, the city also has many Tatar, Ukrainian, Jewish and German residents.-History:...
in 1942–1944. A branch of the university was hosted in
YelabugaYelabuga Yelabuga Yelabuga ' onMouseout='HidePop("54262")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Order_of_Lenin">Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
on the occasion of its 125th anniversary and for its contribution to science and culture. The Faculty of Oriental Studies was split from the Faculty of Philology, and the Faculty of Law was re-created in 1944.
In 1948 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union named the university after
Andrei ZhdanovAndrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and rose through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party leader in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
, a prominent communist official who had recently deceased. This decision was revoked in 1989 during
Perestroikais the Russian term for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
.
In the late 1940s the university was hit hard by ideological and anti-Semitic purges. In particular, in 1949 several leading professors of the Faculty of Philology were accused of "
cosmopolitanismRootless cosmopolitan was a Soviet euphemism widely used during Joseph Stalin's antisemitic campaign of 1949–1953, which culminated in the "exposure" of the alleged Doctors' plot...
", and some of them (
Viktor ZhirmunskyViktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky was a Russian literary historian and linguist...
, Mark Azadovsky, Grigory Gukovsky) were expelled from the university. Throughout the post-war Soviet years, unofficial
ethnic quotasJewish quota was a percentage that limited the number of Jews in various establishments. In particular, in 19th and 20th centuries some countries had Jewish quotas for higher education, a special case of Numerus clausus...
severely limiting
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish admittance to Leningrad State University existed, which lasted at least until
Perestroikais the Russian term for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
.
In 1949–1950 several professors died in prison during the investigation of the
Leningrad AffairThe Leningrad Affair, or Leningrad case , was a series of criminal cases fabricated in the late 1940s–early 1950s in order to accuse a number of prominent members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of treason and intention to create an anti-Soviet organization out of the Leningrad...
fabricated by the central Soviet leadership, and the Minister of Education of the RSFSR, former rector
Alexander VoznesenskyAlexander Voznesensky was a Soviet economist, brother of Nikolai Voznesensky. He served as rector of Leningrad State University in 1941-1948 and Minister of Education of the Russian SFSR in 1948-1949. Arrested during the Leningrad Affair in 1949, Alexander Voznesensky was executed in 1950....
, was executed.
In 1961 the Faculty of Journalism split from the Faculty of Philology. In 1966 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union decided to build a new suburban campus in Petrodvorets for most of the mathematics and natural science faculties. The relocation of the faculties had been completed by the 1990s.
The Faculty of Psychology split from the Faculty of Philosophy in 1966. In 1969 the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union awarded the university with the
Order of the Red Banner of LabourThe Order of the Red Banner of Labour was an order of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in labour and civil service. It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner...
. The Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes was split from the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics in 1969.
Among the renowned scholars affiliated with Leningrad State University were mathematicians
Vladimir SmirnovVladimir Ivanovich Smirnov was a Russian mathematician who made significant contributions in both pure and applied mathematics, as well as the history of mathematics.Smirnov worked on diverse areas of mathematics, such as complex functions and conjugate functions in...
,
Yuri LinnikYuri Vladimirovich Linnik was a Soviet mathematician active in number theory, probability theory and mathematical statistics....
and
Aleksandr AleksandrovAleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov , was a Soviet/Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and mountaineer.- Scientific career :Aleksandrov graduated from the Department of Physics of Leningrad State University...
, physicist
Vladimir FockVladimir Aleksandrovich Fock was a Soviet physicist, who did foundational work on quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics....
, astrophysicist Viktor Ambartsumian, botanists
Vladimir KomarovVladimir Leontyevich Komarov was a Russian botanist.Until his death in 1945, he was senior editor of the Flora SSSR , in full comprising 30 volumes published between 1934–1960...
and
Vladimir SukachevSukachev, Vladimir Nikolayevich is a Russian geobotanist, engineer, geographer, corresponding member and full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences....
, historians Mahapandit
Rahul SankrityayanRahul Sankrityayan was one of the most widely-traveled scholars of India, spending forty-five years of his life on travels away from his home. He is known as the . He became a buddhist monk and eventually took up Marxist Socialism...
,
Yevgeny TarleYevgeny Viktorovich Tarle was a Soviet historian and academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.He is known for his books about Napoleon's invasion of Russia and on the Crimean War, and many other works....
and
Boris GrekovBoris Dmitrievich Grekov was a Soviet historian noted for his comprehensive studies of Kievan Rus and the Golden Horde...
, philologists
Lev ShcherbaLev Shcherba was a Russian linguist and lexicographer specializing in phonetics and phonology....
,
Vladimir ProppVladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Russian formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.-Biography:...
and
Viktor ZhirmunskyViktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky was a Russian literary historian and linguist...
, orientalists
Vasily StruveVasily Vasilievich Struve was a Soviet orientalist from the Struve family, the founder of the Soviet scientific school of researchers on the Ancient East history....
,
Joseph OrbeliJoseph Orbeli was a Soviet orientalist of Armenian descent who specialized in medieval history of Southern Caucasus and administered the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg from 1934 to 1951...
and
Boris PiotrovskyBoris Borisovich Piotrovsky was a Soviet Russian academician, historian-orientalist and archaeologist who studied the ancient civilizations of Urartu, Scythia, and Nubia. He is best-known as a key figure in the study of the Urartian civilization of the southern Caucasus...
.
In 1989 the Faculty of Sociology was opened. In 1991 the university was renamed back to Saint Petersburg State University after its namesake city. During the 1990s three new faculties were opened: the Faculty of Management in 1993, the Faculty of International Relations in 1994 and the Faculty of Medicine in 1995.
List of rectors
- 1819–1821 Mikhail Balugyansky
- 1821–1825 Yevdokim Zyablovsky
- 1825–1836 Antoine Jeudy Dugour
- 1836–1840 Ivan Shulgin
- 1840–1861 Pyotr Pletnyov
Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnyov was a minor Russian poet and literary critic, who rose to become the dean of the Saint Petersburg University and academician of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences ....
- 1861–1863 Alexander Voskresensky
- 1863–1865 Heinrich Lenz
Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz was a Russian-German-Estonian physicist most noted for formulating Lenz's law in electrodynamics in 1833....
- 1865–1867 Alexander Voskresensky
- 1867–1873 Karl Kessler
- 1873–1876 Pyotr Redkin
- 1876–1883 Andrei Beketov
- 1883 (1884)–1887 Ivan Andreevsky
- 1887–1890 Mikhail Vladislavlev
- 1890–1897 Pyotr Nikitin
- 1897–1899 V. Sergeevich
- 1899–1903 Adolf Holmsten
- 1903–1905 A. Zhdanov
- 1905–1910 Ivan Borgman
- 1910–1911 David Grimm
David Ivanovich Grimm was a Russian architect, educator and historian of art of Byzantine Empire, Georgia and Armenia. Grimm belonged to the second generation of Russian neo-Byzantine architects and was the author of orthodox cathedrals in Tbilisi, Chersonesos and smaller churches in Russia and...
- 1911–1918 Erwin Grimm
- 1918–1919 Alexander Ivanov
- 1919 Sergei Zhebelev
- 1919–1922 Vladimir Shimkevich
- 1922–1926 Nikolay Derzhavin
- 1926–1927 V. Tomashevsky
- 1927–1930 Mikhail Serebryakov
- 1930–1932 Yury Nikich (director)
- 1932–1933 V. Seryozhnikov (director)
- 1933–1938 Mikhail Lazurkin (director)
- 1938–1939 Konstantin Lukashev (director)
- 1939 A. Marchenko (director)
- 1939–1941 P. Zolotukhin (director)
- 1941–1948 Alexander Voznesensky
Alexander Voznesensky was a Soviet economist, brother of Nikolai Voznesensky. He served as rector of Leningrad State University in 1941-1948 and Minister of Education of the Russian SFSR in 1948-1949. Arrested during the Leningrad Affair in 1949, Alexander Voznesensky was executed in 1950....
- 1948–1950 Nikita Domnin
- 1950–1952 Alexey Ilyushin
- 1952–1964 Aleksandr Aleksandrov
Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov , was a Soviet/Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and mountaineer.- Scientific career :Aleksandrov graduated from the Department of Physics of Leningrad State University...
- 1964–1970 Kirill Kondratyev
- 1970–1975 Gleb Makarov
- 1975–1986 Valentin Aleskovski
- 1986–1993 Stanislav Merkuriev
- 1993(1994)-2008 Lyudmila Verbitskaya
- since 2008 Nikolai Kropachev
Governance
The university is a federal state institution of higher education managed by the Government of the Russian Federation. It consists of twenty faculties, which are further subdivided into departments, and other main structural subdivisions, including the Sports Department, Rectorate, Gorky Scientific Library, Academic Gymnasium, publishing house, and clinic.
The superior body of self-government of the university is its Assembly, which shall elects the Rector and the Academic Board of the University for a five-year term, as well as adopt the Charter of the University and the Routine Regulations later approved by the Rector. The Assembly of the University consists of the members of the Academic Board of the University and the staff delegated by the general assemblies of the main structural subdivisions according to quotas set by the Academic Board of the University. The general administration of the university is vested in the Academic Board, which consists of the Rector, who presides over it, as well as the President of the University, vice rectors and representatives of the main structural subdivisions.
Likewise, the general administration of a faculty is vested into its respective academic board elected by the faculty assembly for five years. The procedure of election and department quotas are decided by the faculty-level academic board itself. The dean, who leads the faculty and presides over its academic board, is elected for five years by the faculty academic board.
Academic year
The academic year in St. Petersburg State University according to the Routine Regulations normally starts on September 1. One lesson normally lasts 1 h 30 m (two academic hours). Like in other higher education institutions in Russia, the academic year is divided into two terms. The first semester ends by late December, the second one starts in mid-February and lasts until late May. Both terms are followed by a series of preliminary tests (in the last week of December/May) and exams (in January/June).
Campuses
The university is organized around two main campuses: on
Vasilievsky IslandVasilievsky Island is an island in Saint Petersburg, bordered by the rivers Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva from South and Northeast, and by the Gulf of Finland from the West. Vasilievsky Island is separated from Dekabristov Island by the Smolenka River...
in the historical city center and in
PeterhofPeterhof is a municipal town within Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of Saint Petersburg on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland . It hosts one of two campuses of Saint Petersburg State University...
(formerly Petrodvorets), a southwestern suburb, which can be reached by railway from the city's Baltiysky Rail Terminal. The main building of the university,
Twelve CollegiaThe Twelve Collegia, or Twelve Colleges is the largest edifice from the Petrine era still extant in Saint Petersburg. It was designed by Domenico Trezzini and Theodor Schwertfeger and built from 1722 to 1744.- Description :...
, is located on Vasilievsky Island and includes the Library, the Faculty of Biology and Soil Science and the Faculty of Geology. The Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Oriental Studies share the nearby 18th-century
Petrine BaroquePetrine Baroque is a name applied by art historians to a style of Baroque architecture and decoration favoured by Peter the Great and employed to design buildings in the newly-founded Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, under this monarch and his immediate successors.Unlike contemporaneous Naryshkin...
building on
Universitetskaya EmbankmentUniversitetskaya Embankment is a 1.2 km long embankment on the right bank of the Bolshaya Neva, on Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia...
of the
Bolshaya NevaBolshaya Neva is the largest armlet of Neva river. It starts near the Vasilievsky Island's Strelka .The length of Bolshaya Neva is 3.5 km, the width is from 200 to 400 meters, depth up to 12.8 meters...
, designed by
Domenico TrezziniDomenico Trezzini was a Swiss Italian architect who elaborated the Petrine Baroque style of Russian architecture.Domenico was born in Astano, near Lugano, in the Italian-speaking Ticino . He probably studied in Rome...
and originally built as the Palace of
Peter II of RussiaPyotr II Alekseyevich was Emperor of Russia from 1727 until his death. He was the only son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, son of Peter I of Russia by his first wife Eudoxia Lopukhina, and Princess Charlotte, daughter of Duke Louis Rudolph of Brunswick-Lüneburg and sister-in-law of Charles VI,...
. The New
Gostiny DvorGostinyi dvor is a historic Russian term for an indoor market, or shopping centre. It is translated from Russian either as "Guest Court" or "Merchant Yard", although both translations are admittedly inadequate....
designed by
Giacomo QuarenghiGiacomo Quarenghi was the foremost and most prolific practitioner of Palladian architecture in Imperial Russia, particularly in Saint Petersburg.- Career in Italy :...
and built in the 19th century in that part of the island is now occupied by the Faculty of History, Faculty of Philosophy and Political Science, and Clinic. The Faculty of Psychology is situated in front of it on Admiral Makarov Embankment of the
Malaya NevaMalaya Neva is the second largest distributary of the Neva River. The Neva splits into Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva near the Vasilievsky Island's Strelka , in the historic center of the city of Saint Petersburg.The length of Malaya Neva is 4.25 km, the width is from 200 to 400 meters, depth is...
. The Graduate School of Management, Faculty of Journalism, Faculty of Geography and Geo-Ecology, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Military Studies are all situated on Vasilievsky Island, but farther to the west. Three other social science faculties are hosted in the east of the city center on the southern bank of the Neva: the Faculty of Economics is not far from the
ChernyshevskayaChernyshevskaya is a station on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of Saint Petersburg Metro, opened on June 1, 1958. It is a deep underground pylon station at 70 m depth with a short central hall. The station is named after Chernyshevsky Prospekt, which is in turn named after Russian materialist...
metro stationThe Saint Petersburg Metro is the underground railway system in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It has been open since November 15, 1955.Formerly known as the V.I...
, while the Faculty of Sociology and Faculty of International Relations both occupy historical buildings of
Smolny ConventSmolny Convent or Smolny Convent of the Resurrection , located on Ploschad Rastrelli, on the bank of the River Neva in Saint Petersburg, Russia, consists of a cathedral and a complex of buildings surrounding it, originally intended for a convent.Construction on the complex begun as a Russian...
. The new suburban campus consists of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, and Faculty of Physics, which are situated in modern buildings in
PeterhofPeterhof is a municipal town within Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of Saint Petersburg on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland . It hosts one of two campuses of Saint Petersburg State University...
.
Faculties
SPbSU is made up of 19 specialized faculties (departments), which are:
- the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes (*rus)
- the Faculty of Biology and Soil Studies (*rus)
- the Faculty of Chemistry (*rus)
- the Faculty of Economics (*rus)
- the Faculty of Geography and Geoecology (*rus)
- the Faculty of Geology (*rus)
- the Faculty of History (*rus)
- the Faculty of International Relations
- the Faculty of Journalism (*rus | *eng)
- the Faculty of Law (*rus)
- the Faculty of Management (Graduate School of Management) (*eng)
- the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics (*rus)
- the Faculty of Medicine
- the Faculty of Oriental Studies (*rus)
- the Faculty of Philology and Arts (*rus)
- the Faculty of Philosophy and Political Science
- the Faculty of Physics (*rus)
- the Faculty of Psychology (*rus)
- the Faculty of Sociology (*rus)
There is also a Faculty of Military Studies and a Chair of Physical Culture and Sports.
Famous alumni and faculty
Saint Petersburg State University has produced a number of Nobel Prize winners. Both the former President, Prime Minister
Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin was the second President of Russia and is the current Prime Minister of Russia as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus...
, and the current President Dimitry Medvedev of Russia are alumni.
Eight of the graduates of the university are
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
recipients:
Ivan PavlovIvan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian, and later Soviet, physiologist, psychologist, and physician. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for research pertaining to the digestive system...
(Physiology and Medicine, 1904), Ilya Mechnikov (Physiology and Medicine, 1908),
Nikolay SemyonovNikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov was a Russian/Soviet physicist and chemist. Semyonov was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanism of chemical transformation.-Life:...
(Chemistry, 1956),
Lev LandauLev Davidovich Landau was a prominent Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics...
(Physics, 1962),
Aleksandr ProkhorovAlexander Mikhaylovich Prokhorov was a Soviet/Russian physicist.He was born in Atherton, Queensland, to a family of Russian immigrants. He and his parents relocated to the Soviet Union in 1923....
(Physics, 1964),
Wassily LeontiefWassily Wassilyovitch Leontief , was an economist notable for his research on how changes in one economic sector may have an effect on other sectors. Leontief won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1973.-Early life:Wassily Leontief was born on August 5, 1905 in Munich, Germany as the...
(Economics, 1973),
Leonid KantorovichLeonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich was a Soviet/Russian mathematician and economist, known for his theory and development of techniques for the optimal allocation of resources. He was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1975 and the only winner of this prize from the USSR.Kantorovich...
(Economics, 1975) and
Joseph BrodskyIosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky was a Soviet-Russian-American poet, essayist, and Nobel Laureate in Literature. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1991.-Early years:...
(Literature, 1987). However, none received the prize while working at the university or for the work done while affiliated with it.
Partner universities
McMaster UniversityMcMaster University is a public research university located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It bears the name of William McMaster, a prominent Canadian Senator and banker whose substantial bequeathed funds helped form the beginning of the university. The institution being incorporated under the...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
University of TartuThe University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. Regarded by many Estonians as the country's "national university", it is the highest-ranked university in Estonia as well as one of the highest-ranked in former Eastern Europe...
,
EstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
University of Greifswald,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
University of GroningenThe University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the world and one of the largest universities in the Netherlands. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
, the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
Ching Yun UniversityChing Yun University（; Hakka: Ciàng-iŭn Tai-hok; abbreviation CYU）is a university in Jhongli City, Taoyuan County, Taiwan. CYU is also known as Ching Yun Tech .- Present Situation :...
,
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
Cal Poly Pomona University,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
External links