Historical background

St. Petersburg State University

General information

Founded in 1724, St. Petersburg State University is the oldest institution of higher education in Russia. During the 289 years of its existence University secured the right to be acknowledged as one of the best institutions of higher education in Russia: its rich history, modern large-scale research activities, development and innovations make University ahead of the curve in the field of Russian science.

At present, there are more than 32,000 students in University, receiving education in 24 faculties. University's staff comprises about 13,000 people, including nearly 6,000 teachers (1,500 Doctors of Science, about 3,000 Candidates of Science, over 40 Academicians of state academies). The University has everything to enjoy studies, hobbies and research: the richest Research Library named after Maksim Gorky, research institutes, museums, the big University publishing house, the University choir of students, graduates and teachers, clubs (from rugby and orienteering to the Ingria search party), etc.

In November 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law granting St. Petersburg State University the special status of "a unique scientific and education complex, an oldest institution of higher education in Russia being of a great importance to the development of the Russian society". The right of giving its own diplomas with the official symbols of the Russian Federation has also been granted to University.

Historical background

Peter the Great's ukase (edict) regarding the foundation of a university in St. Petersburg was approved by the Senate of the Russian Empire on 28 January 1724. A characteristic feature of this, Russia's first, institution of higher education was its organic link with the other two constituents of St. Petersburg's scholastic trinity: the Academy of Sciences and the Grammar School.

Among the first members of the Academy and professors of the University were eminent scholars, such as the mathematician Euler (1707-1783), the physicist Craft (1701-1754), the Orientalist and philologist Bayer (1694-1738), and the physicist and philosopher Braun (1712-1768). Among the first particularly distinguished alumni were the mathematician Kotelnikov (1723-1806), the astronomer and mathematician Rumovsky (1734-1812), the poet, historian and translator Barkov (1736-1766), the astronomer Inokhodtsev (1745-1806), the mineralogist and chemist Severgin (1765-1826), and the poet, essayist and translator Popugayev (1778-1816). Practically all the Russian academicians of the eighteenth century were graduates of St Petersburg University. Many of them taught afterwards in other important educational establishments in Russia - for example, Adjunct Professor Adodurov, a graduate of St Petersburg University, became the first Warden of the University of Moscow founded by Lomonosov in 1755. The University originally provided tuition in three fields or "classes": mathematics, physics, and the humanities. Undergraduates followed the syllabi prepared by members of the Academy, while the most gifted of the students had individual curricula. The social composition of the first enrollments was very diverse, the offspring of the noble families studying on a par with representatives of the lower classes.

The fundamental document that legally formulated the academic principles of the University and the Grammar School was "The Regulations of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St.Petersburg", which was approved by Empress Elisaveta Petrovna in 1747. The appointment of the first Rector (Vice-Chancellor) - the eminent ethnographer and historian Gerard Frederich Miller (1705-1783) - was also made that year. In all, throughout the whole history of the University, the post of its head (referred to as Rector or Director) has been held by a succession of 60 scholars, such as the political economist and statistics expert German (1767-1838), the economist and lawyer Balugyansky (1769-1847), the botanist Beketov (1825-1902), the economist Voznesensky (1898-1950), and the mathematician Alexandrov (1912-1999), all of these scholars making as they did significant contributions to world science and culture.

In 1758-1765 the Academy's University and Grammar School were headed by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765). His multi-faceted work as Rector resulted, among other things, in more democratic admission procedures, as well as in strengthened relations with foreign universities and academies of sciences, particularly with German and French universities and the Paris Academy of Science.

After Lomonosov's death in 1765 the University and the Grammar School were reorganised into the Academy School. In 1783 Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova (1745-1810), the first woman official in the Russian civil service, was appointed Director of the Academy of Sciences. One of her indisputable achievements was the preservation of University-type instruction in the Academy School.

On 8 February 1819, St Petersburg University was re-created by an edict of Alexander I: the Institute of Education (founded in 1806 in the wake of the closure of the Academy School) was transformed into a university. Initially, it consisted of three faculties: those of History and Philology, of Philosophy and Law (afterwards, of Law), and of Physics and Mathematics. A new faculty, that of Oriental Studies, was added to them in 1854. These faculties made up the University structure until 1918.

In 1838 the Imperial University of St. Petersburg took over the entire building of the Twelve Colleges (government departments) allotted to it on the instructions of Nicholas I. The building, a notable architectural landmark of the eighteenth century (designed by the architect Trezzini), was to become an emblem of this first institution of higher education in Russia.

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the emergence within the University of a number of world-famous scientific schools, whose leaders were such outstanding scholars as P.Chebyshev in mathematics, E.Lenz in physics, D.Mendeleyev and A.Butlerov in chemistry, A.Beketov in botany, I.Mechnikov and O.Kovalevsky in embryology, I.Sechenov in physiology, V.Dokuchayev in soil science, A.Inostrantsev in geology, F.Sokolov in the classics, K.Bestuzhev-Riumin in Russian history, N.Kareyev in European history, and V.Vasilyev and V.Rosen in Oriental Studies.

In 1863 new statutes were adopted. They were based, for the first time in the history of St Petersburg University, on the idea of its autonomy as a corporation of professors. An Academic Council, which enjoyed a considerable amount of independence, was established to govern the University. The University Council had the right to elect and nominate the Rector, Deputy Rector, and Faculty Deans, as well as to offer vacant chairs to eligible professors. Their final appointment, however, was the prerogative of the Minister for Education.

In the period between the late 1860s and the 1890s, a number of University-affiliated academic Societies were formed: the Naturalists' Society, the Russian Chemical Society, and Societies for Philology, Anthropology, and History. The Botanical Garden and the Observatory were created. A new chemical laboratory was opened in 1893, and the Physics Institute, Russia's first, in 1901.

In 1878 some professors of the University participated in opening what later on became known as the Bestuzhev Higher Education School for Women, after its first director, Bestuzhev-Riumin (1829-1897). At a later date, in 1918, the Women's School was included in the University.

In the early twentieth century St Petersburg University, with about ten thousand students in its four faculties, became one of the world's largest universities.

After the October Revolution of 1917, despite structural transformations resulting from the changed social formation of Russia, the University's old scientific schools continued to develop, while some new ones emerged around distinguished scholars of the day, such as V.Smirnov, Yu.Linnik, A.Alexandrov, and D.Faddeyev in mathematics; A.Terenin, V.Fok, E.Gross, and S.Frish in physics; V.Ambartsumian in astronomy; A.Ukhtomsky, V.Komarov, V.Sukachev, and V.Dogel in biology. In the humanities there were such famous figures as the historians B.Grekov, E.Tarle, and V.Mavrodin; the philologists V.Shishmarev, V.Zhirmunsky, L.Shcherba, and B.Larin; the Orientalists V.Alekseyev, V.Struve, I.Krachkovsky, I.Orbeli, and B.Piotrovsky; the sociologist P.Sorokin; the philosopher V.Tugarinov; the economists V.Leontyev and N.Kondratyev, and the historian and ethnographer L.Gumilev.

In the 1920s to 1930s several departments (subdivisions of the faculties) grew into respective new faculties: the Faculty of Physics, the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, the Faculty of Geography, the Faculty of Geology, and the Faculty of Biology; a number of new departments and research institutes were created, as well as the following faculties for the humanities: the Faculty of History (1934), the Faculty of Philology (1937), the Faculty of Political Economy (1939), and the Faculty of Philosophy (1940). By 1941 the University had as many as 10 faculties and 7 research institutes. In 1944 the Faculties of Oriental Studies and of Law were re-established.

The winter of 1941-1942 was the hardest time of the siege of Leningrad, yet the University went on working. Part of it had been evacuated to the town of Elabuga in September 1941. Another part was evacuated to Saratov in February 1942, with only a small fraction of the University staff staying on in the besieged city; they were able to preserve the University's scientific and cultural treasure, defying the unbearable hardships of the siege. The Second World War claimed a great many lives, including those of the University professors, lecturers, employees and students who were killed on the front line or died in the besieged city. Such illustrious professors as the physiologist A.Ukhtomsky; the prominent specialist on Russian history N.Chayev, the geographer A.Semenov-Tian-Shansky, and dozens of other world-famous scholars died of starvation and disease in Leningrad during this period. Nevertheless, studies were resumed on the University's own premises already in the autumn of 1944.

In the 1960s more new faculties were opened: Psychology, Journalism, Applied Mathematics and Control Processes, as well as a number of new departments. In the same decade the construction of the Old Peterhof campus - for science faculties - was begun. Since the '60s the University has developed as a bipolar system with two bases - the older, centrally-located one on St. Basil's Island and the new suburban campus in Peterhof.

University Today

Today St Petersburg State University is a major Russian centre of science, education and culture of international repute. Many important universities in Europe, America, and Asia - notably Cambridge University (UK), Bologna University (Italy), the Free University of Berlin and Hamburg University (Germany), Carlton University (Canada), Amsterdam University (the Netherlands), Stockholm University (Sweden), the Municipal University of Osaka (Japan), to name but a few, - have maintained various academic contacts with the University of St. Petersburg.

The scientific discoveries and achievements of the University professors and alumni, seven of which are Nobel Prize winners (I.P. Pavlov, 1904, and I.I. Mechnikov, 1908, in Physiology and Medicine; N.N. Semenov, 1956, in Chemistry; L.D. Landau, 1962, and A.M. Prokhorov, 1964, in Physics; V.V. Leontyev, 1973, and L.V. Kantorovich, 1975, in Economics), went down in history of the global and Russian science and technology.

Many people who became famous all over the globe in various fields were the University alumni. These are world-known scientists, teachers, statesmen and public figures such as K.N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, А.F. Koni, P.А. Stolypin, D.I. Mendeleev, V.I. Vernadsky, D.S. Likhachev and dozens of others. The University has also given to the world most renowned people of art such as I.S. Turgenev, P.A. Bryullov, А.А.Blok, А.N. Benois, V.D. Polenov, S.P. Diaghilev, M.A. Vrubel, L.N. Andreev, I.Ya. Bilibin, N.K. Roerich, I.F. Stravinsky and many others.

Four heads of the Russian government were University alumni: B.V. Stürmer, A.F. Kerensky, V.I. Lenin, and V.V. Putin, as well as two Russian Presidents: V.V. Putin and D.A. Medvedev.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 707