- Russian:
- Sankt-Peterburgsky Gosudarstvenny Universitet
- Date:
- 1819 - present
- Areas Of Involvement:
- public education
St. Petersburg State University
When was St. Petersburg State University established?
What significant change occurred to St. Petersburg State University in 1819?
How did St. Petersburg State University contribute to women’s education?
How was the St. Petersburg State University affected during World War II?
Who are some of the notable alumni of St. Petersburg State University?
St. Petersburg State University (SPbU), coeducational state institution of higher learning in St. Petersburg, Russia, established by a 1724 decree of the Russian tsar Peter I as part of the Russian Academy of Sciences and reorganized in 1819 as St. Petersburg University. One of the largest and oldest universities in Russia, SPbU is a leading center for Russian scholarship. In addition to degree programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels, SPbU offers several specialist courses and nondegree programs. The university has one of the largest libraries in Russia.
History
On February 8, 1724, the enactment of a decree by Peter I established the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, with an academic gymnasium and a university as its parts. Throughout the 18th century this institution, a predecessor to the modern-day university, existed as a part of the academy. Leading scholars from Russia and other countries, including Leonhard Euler, Daniel Bernoulli, and Christian Goldbach, responded to Peter I’s invitation and took up teaching, research, and administrative positions in the academy. Mikhail Lomonosov, one of the first rectors (1758–65), is credited with proposing the charter for the university, although his dream of a fully developed academic institution was not realized until the 19th century.
In 1819 a decree by the Russian emperor Alexander I renamed the Main Pedagogical Institute—originally established as the Teachers’ Seminary in the 1780s—as St. Petersburg University, consolidating its status as an independent institution and paving the way for its autonomy. Over the years the university has undergone many name changes, often in keeping with the changing name of the city or to honor prominent politicians and leaders. It was called St. Petersburg Imperial University beginning in 1821. During the Soviet era it became Leningrad State University (1924–91) and briefly (1950–89) incorporated the names of important political figures, such as Andrey Aleksandrovich Zhdanov. The university has held its current name since 1991.
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Following the adoption of the 1863 university charter, several scientific societies were established in the university, the most notable being the Society of Naturalists, the Russian Chemical Society (later the Russian Physical and Chemical Society), and the Historical Society. The university made higher education accessible to women in 1878 by initiating the “Bestuzhev Courses,” named for their founder, historian and academician Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin. These were integrated into the university in 1919.
The 19th and 20th centuries saw major contributions to Russian academia by the university’s faculty and students, particularly in science. It was an important center for political discourse and a hub for reformist ideas during the 1861 student unrest for democratic and academic rights and freedom. During World War II the university was evacuated to Saratov. Although the university’s buildings were severely damaged during the Siege of Leningrad, they were later completely restored. In 2009 SPbU was accorded a special legal status through a presidential decree, which acknowledged its importance as one of the oldest academic institutions in Russia and granted it autonomy to issue its own diplomas.
- To honor St. Petersburg State University’s three centuries of distinguished legacy, a minor planet (number 549706) was named “Spbuni” by the International Astronomical Union in 2022.
- To commemorate the 300th anniversary of the university, a three-ruble silver coin was issued by the Bank of Russia in 2024.
Campuses and courses
The main campuses of the university are on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg and in the southwestern suburb Peterhof. The 18th-century Twelve Colleges building, overlooking the Neva River, is the main building of the Vasilyevsky Island campus and the university. Designed by the Swiss architect Domenico Trezzini primarily to house government offices, it was transferred to the university in March 1838 and currently hosts the M. Gorky Scientific Library, administrative offices, and some academic departments. The library began with book donations by the Russian empress Catherine the Great and has a collection of more than seven million printed books and manuscripts.
The Peterhof campus is home to the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes, Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, Faculty of Physics, and Institute of Theology. The university also has an academic gymnasium, the Institute of Medicine, and the College of Physical Training and Sports, Economics and Technology.
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SPbU offers about 500 degree programs and more than 700 nondegree programs in seven main areas: physics, mathematics, and computer sciences; natural sciences; economics and management; social sciences; humanities; art and culture; and physical training and sport. Master’s degree programs are offered in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian, in addition to Russian, and the university collaborates with international institutions to award dual degrees. SPbU has partnerships with universities in over 60 countries and has established representative offices in countries such as Thailand, China, Spain, Greece, and Italy. As a founding member of the Global Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) Alliance, SPbU is a key facilitator of modern distance learning. The university’s curriculum places great emphasis on multidisciplinary studies that combine theoretical knowledge and practical applications to solve 21st-century problems.
Notable faculty and alumni
Contributions by SPbU faculty and alumni members have shaped Russian and international science, technology, art, society, and politics for over three centuries. The university has been a seminal hub for modern scientific thinking since its inception. It counts among its alumni nine Nobel Prize winners (Ivan Pavlov, Élie Metchnikoff, Nikolay Semyonov, Lev Landau, Aleksandr Prokhorov, Wassily Leontief, Leonid Kantorovich, Joseph Brodsky, and Alexei Ekimov) and two Fields Medal winners (Grigori Perelman and Stanislav Smirnov). In addition, eminent figures such as the mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev, the chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, and the astronomer Viktor Ambartsumian have taught and worked here. The physicist Alexandr S. Popov, an alumnus who was once a lecturer at the university, successfully demonstrated radio-wave transmission between the university buildings on May 7, 1895, becoming the pioneer of wireless communication in Russia.
Writers and poets of renown, including Ivan Turgenev, Alexander Blok, and Ayn Rand, artists such as Igor Stravinsky and Mikhail Vrubel, and political leaders such as Pyotr Stolypin, Dmitry Medvedev, and Vladimir Putin are among some of the alumni of SPbU. The politician and head of Soviet state Vladimir Lenin received a degree in law from the university in 1891.