Moscow State University

M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
Московский государственный университет имени М.В.Ломоносова
	Moscow State University's main building
Established	25 January 1755
Rector	Viktor Sadovnichiy
Academic staff	4,000
Undergraduates	40,000
Postgraduates	7,000
Location	Moscow, Russia

M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russian: Московский государственный университет имени М.В.Ломоносова, romanised: Moskovskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet imeni M.V. Lomonosova, often abbreviated МГУ, MSU, MGU) is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it claims to be the oldest university in Russia. As of 2004, the university has some 4,000 staff teaching 31,000 students and 7,000 postgraduates. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy.

History

The university was established on the instigation of Ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonosov by a decree of Russian Empress Elizabeth dated January 25 (January 12 old style), 1755. First lessons were held on April 26. January 25 is still celebrated as Students' Day in Russia.

It is disputed whether the Moscow State University or the St. Petersburg State University is the oldest higher education institution in Russia. While the former was established in 1755, the latter, which has been in continuous operation under the name of university since 1819, 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.

Originally located in the Principal Medicine Store on Red Square, the university was transferred by Catherine the Great to the present Neoclassical building on the other side of Mokhovaya Street. The main building was constructed between 1782 and 1793 to a Neo-Palladian design by Matvei Kazakov and rebuilt after Fire of Moscow (1812) by Domenico Giliardi.

In the 18th century, the university had three faculties: philosophy, medicine, and law. A college for future students was affiliated with the university before being abolished in 1812. In 1779, Mikhail Kheraskov founded a boarding school for noblemen (Благородный пансион), which was transformed into a gymnasium for the Russian nobility in 1830. The university press, run by Nikolay Novikov in the 1780s, published the most popular newspaper in Imperial Russia — Moskovskie Vedomosti.

Today, the Old Building houses Departments of Psychology and Journalism.

In 1804, medical education was split into Clinical (therapy), Surgical, and Obstetrics faculties. In 1884-1897, the Department of Medicine, supported by private donations, City Hall, and the national government, built an extensive, 1.6 kilometer long, state-of-the-art medical campus in Devichye Pole, between the Garden Ring and Novodevichy Convent. It was designed by Konstantin Bykovsky, with University doctors like Nikolay Sklifosovskiy and Fyodor Erismann acting as consultants. The campus, and medical education in general, were separated from the University in 1918. Devichye Pole is now operated by the independent Moscow Medical Academy and various other state and private institutions.

In 1905, a social-democratic organization was created at the university calling for the tsar to be overthrown and for Russia to be turned into a republic. The Tsarist government repeatedly began closing the university. In 1911, in a protest over the introduction of troops onto the campus and mistreatment of certain professors, 130 scientists and professors resigned en masse, including prominent ones such as Nikolay Dimitrievich Zelinskiy, Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev, and Sergei Alekseevich Chaplygin. Thousands of students were also expelled.

After the October Revolution in 1917, the school began allowing the admission of children of the proletariat and peasants, not just those of the well-to-do. In 1919, tuition fees were done away with, and a preparatory facility was created for children of the working class so that they would be able to pass the admission examinations. The political repressions of the 1930s and 1950s negatively affected the development of scientific ideas, as Soviet scientists had virtually no contacts with their colleagues abroad, while certain branches of science were condemned as based on the ideology alien to Communist ideas, and a number of scientists and scholars were sentenced for life imprisonment.

The university was renamed in 1940 in honor of its founder Mikhail Lomonosov.

The World War II (Great Patriotic War) was one of the most difficult periods in the history of Russia. The first group of University students and staff joined the army on the third day of fighting. One of the divisions formed out of University volunteers fought heroically defending Moscow.

Moscow University professors, students and staff were evacuated during the war first to Ashkhabad, Turkmenia, then to Sverdlovsk, returning to Moscow in 1943, after the German troops were defeated near the capital. During the war over 3000 specialists were trained at the University; the University scientists continued their research; their contributions to applied science allowed improvements in aircraft development, in the accuracy of artillery fire etc. New explosives were invented, a study of uranium was carried out, a preparation causing blood coagulation was introduced into practice; University geologists discovered a tungsten deposit in Central Asia and new oil wells, University geographers supplied the Red Army with maps and charts. University scholars popularized the ideas patriotism, and University lawyers made their contribution during the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials.

During the post-war period the leading role of Moscow University in the restoration and further development of the country was fully recognized. There was a fivefold increase in the state funding, the new University campus was built on Vorobievy Gory (Sparrow Hills), where all the lecture halls and laboratories had the latest equipment available at the time.

After 1991, nine new faculties were established. In 1992, the university was granted a unique status: it is funded directly from the state budget (bypassing the ministry of education) which provides a significant level of independence.

On September 6 1997, the entire front of the university was used as a giant projection screen for a concert by French electronic musician Jean Michel Jarre, who had been specially invited to perform there by the mayor of the city. The stage was directly in front of the building, and the concert, titled "The Road To The 21st Century" in Russia, but renamed "Oxygen In Moscow" for worldwide video/DVD release, attracted a world record crowd of 3.5 million people.

The campus

Since 1953, most of the faculties have been situated on Sparrow Hills, in the southwest of Moscow. The Main building was designed by architect Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev. In the post-war era, Stalin ordered seven huge tiered neoclassic towers built around the city. The MSU Main building is by far the largest of these. It was also the tallest building in the world outside of New York City at the time of its construction, and it remained the tallest building in Europe until 1988. The central tower is 240m tall, 36-stories high, and flanked by four huge wings of student and faculty accommodations. It is said to contain a total of 33 kilometers of corridors and 5,000 rooms. Facilities available inside the building include a concert hall, a theatre, a museum, various administration services, a library, a swimming pool, a police station, a post office, a laundry, a hairdresser's salon, several canteens, bank offices and ATMs, shops, cafeterias, a bomb shelter, etc. Along with the university administration, four of the main faculties - Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, the Faculty of Geology, the Faculty of Geography, and the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts - now remain in the Main building. The star on the top of the tower is large enough to include a small room and a viewing platform; it weighs 12 tons. The building's facades are ornamented with giant clocks, barometers, and thermometers, statues, carved wheat sheaves, and Soviet crests (recently renovated). It stands before a terrace featuring statues of male and female students gazing optimistically and confidently into the future.

While the Sparrow Hills were on the outskirts of the city at the time of the construction of the Main building, they are now about halfway from the Kremlin to the city limits. Several other buildings and sports facilities were later added to the city campus, including the only baseball stadium in Russia. Currently, a new building is under construction for the social sciences faculties, and a vast new facility has just been built for the library, which is the second largest in Russia by volume (number of books). The university also has several dormitory buildings in the southwest of Moscow outside the campus.

The historical building on Mokhovaya Street now houses mainly the Faculty of Journalism, the Faculty of Psychology, and the The Institute of Asian and African Studies.

Faculties

As of 2008, the university has 29 faculties and 15 research centers:

File:Msu-stalinweddingcake-seabhcan.JPG

Institutions and research centres

Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics
Institute of Mechanics
Sternberg Astronomical Institute
A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology
Research Computing Center
N.N.Bogoliubov Institute for Theoretical Problems of Microphysics
White Sea Biological Station
and several others

Famous alumni and faculty

Moscow State University has produced a number of Nobel laureates, Fields Medal winners and Heads of states.

Partner universities

Ching Yun University, Taiwan

References

History of Moscow University – from the official website of MSU.

External links

55°42′10″N 37°31′50″E / 55.70278°N 37.53056°E / 55.70278; 37.53056.