Moscow State University

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Moscow State University's main building

“MGU” redirects here. For other uses, see MGU (disambiguation).

M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russian: Московский государственный университет имени М.В.Ломоносова, often abbreviated МГУ, MSU, MGU) is the largest and one of the oldest universities in Russia, founded in 1755. As of 2004, the university has some 4,000 staff teaching 31,000 students and 7,000 postgraduates. Its current rector (chancellor) is Viktor Sadovnichiy.

1 University history
2 The campus
3 Faculties
4 Institutions and research centres
5 Famous alumni and faculty
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] University history

Main buildings of the university in the Mokhovaya Street, 1798.

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 the Students' Day in Russia.

Originally allocated in the Principal Medicine Store on the Red Square, the university was transferred by Catherine the Great to the present Neoclassical building on the other side of the Mokhovaya Street. The main building was constructed between 1782 and 1793 to a Neo-Palladian design by Matvei Kazakov and rebuilt after Napoleon's invasion of Russia by Domenico Giliardi.

In the 18th century, the university included three faculties — of 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 board school for noblemen (Благородный пансион), 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 housed 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 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, advised by University doctors like Nikolay Sklifosovskiy and Fyodor Erismann. The campus, and medical education in general, were separated from the University in 1918. Devichye Pole is now operated by 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 of 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 expelled in 1911 as well.

After the October Revolution in 1917, the school opened up to allow the children of the proletariat and peasants, not just those of the more well-to-do petits bourgeois. 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 university was renamed in 1940 in honor of its founder Mikhail Lomonosov.

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

[edit] The campus

MSU Main Tower

Since 1953 most of the faculties are 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 was by far the largest. It was also the tallest building in the world outside of New York City at that time, and it remained the tallest building in Europe until 1988. The central tower being 240m and 36-stories high, was flanked by four huge wings of student and faculty accommodations. It is said to contain a total of 33 kilometers of corridors and 5000 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, a canteen, bank offices, 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 buiding. The star on the top of the tower is large enough to provide 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 sport facilities were later added to the city campus, including the only specialized baseball stadium in Russia. Currently a new building is in construction for the social sciences faculties, and a vast new facility has just been built for the library, which is the second biggest in Russia by the number of books. The university also has several dormitory buildings in the southwest of Moscow outside the campus.

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

The building's coordinates are 55°42′10″N, 37°31′50″E.