The symbol of New York is the Liberty Statue, that of France is the Eiffel Tower in Paris; with Russia, it is the Palace of Sciences on Vorobyovy Gory (Hills), in Moscow. It is strikingly attractive early in the morning when the windows of the main building, of 32 storeys and the “wings” 9-18 storeys high, mirror the sun and in the evening, when illuminated by floodlights, it seems to be held aloft in mid-air, high above the city. The complex of the University buildings takes up an area of 167 hectares. The main building is crowned with a 57-metre spire with a star atop whose diameter, with the ears of wheat, is 9 metres. The dial plates of the clocks (timepieces), thermometers, and barometers adorning the towers of the main building are also about 9 metres across.
The main building accommodates the Rector’s Office (University Administration), an assembly hall, a club, and a sports complex with a swimming pool. Lecture and study halls and rooms, various laboratories and the Chairs of Mechanics and Mathematics and of Geography and Geology are higher.
The students and post-graduates dormitories are in the building’s lateral wings. The outlying buildings accommodate about 170 flats of members of the Faculty. The buildings of various faculties are located near.
The University is a veritable city of science comprising over 600 buildings and structures, and not only on Vorobyovy Gory (Hills). The principal faculties are: of Mechanics and Mathemarics; Computing Mathematics and Cybernetics; Physics; Chemistry; Geology; Biology; Geography; Pedology (soil science); Fundamental Medicine; History; Philology; Philosophy; Foreign Languages; Economics; Journalism; Law, Psychology and Sociology; the Institute of Asian and African Countries; the Institute of State Administration (Government), and of Social Studies; the Higher College of Science of Materials and the Faculty of Pedagogical Education.
The MSU provides instruction to over 30,000 students, post-graduates, and other pupils and trainees. The research and teaching staff totals 8,760 specialists including: 1,650 Doctors of Sciences and Professors and over 5,000 Candidates of Sciences and Associate Professors. Representatives of 97 countries are among the 2,000 foreign students.
Not infrequently, foreign guests ask Rector of the Moscow University V.A. Sadovnichii as to why the University was named after a man who never taught at the University and never was there. The invariable answer is: “For the idea. Mikhail Lomonosov was not only a scientist of encyclopaedic knowledge. He was a profoundly Russian man, a patriot who realized the necessity of establishing a national Russian university precisely in Moscow, inasmuch as Moscow is ‘at the centre of the Russian state’.”
This is how it all began.
In the summer of 1754 Professor of Chemistry of the Russian Academy M.V. Lomonosov addressed a letter to Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov, his friend, a noted patron of sciences, arts and literature, a young favourite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, with a proposal: to open a Russian University. I.I. Shuvalov was a striking personality, a man of keen mind and affectionate character. He was highly educated and knew the French, Italian, German and Latin languages. He immediately supported the sceintist’s initiative. Having familiarized herself with the project and design of the new educational establishment, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna endorsed an Edict on founding the Moscow University and two gymnasias (secondary schools) on January 25, 1955 (on the Day of St. Tatiana, according to the Church Calendar). Shuvalov was appointed its first Curator. His outstanding services to Russian science and education have not been forgotten: now, whenever Tatiana Day is celebrated to mark another MSU anniversary, the Winners of the Prizes named for the University’s founders, M.V. Lomonosov and I.I. Shuvalov, are feted and honoured.
The Empress’ Edict said in part: “Any good comes from an enlightened mind, and evil is eradicated thereby.”
Under Lomonosov’s plan, the University had three faculties concerned with: philosophy, law and medicine. The students would begin their studies at the Philosophy Faculty where they were given fundamental instruction in the natural sciences and humanities (liberal arts). One’s education could be continued in more specialized fields at the Faculties of Law, Medicine and, again, of Philosophy. Lectures were delivered not only in Latin, then universally recognized in the scientific realm, but also in Russian.
The Preamble to the Edict on the institution of the Moscow University said in part that it was intended also “for general instruction of commoners”. Students could come from different estates with the exception of serfs. As Lomonosov stressed, invoking the example of Europe: “At the University that student is respected who has learned more than others; and it does not matter whose son he is.” Established by the will of the powers that be, the University initially had no special liberties like those enjoyed by its West-European brethren. So, its genial democratic atmosphere which was fostered by the enlightened Curator who supervised all affairs at the University, from financial and personnel to educational and instructive matters in the space of forty two years played a growing role.
The first student enrolment included graduates of religious schools, mostly poor people, many of them orphans. Commoners also prevailed among the teachers and instructors. In the second half of the 18th century only three out of the 26 Russian professors were of “noble birth” representatives of the gentry and nobility.
Originally, the University was located in Red Square, in the building of the Main Pharmacy, on the site now occupied by the History Museum. In the late 18th century it moved to a building raised specifically for it according to a project of Architect M.F. Kazakov on the other bank of the Neglinnaya river, facing the Kremlin.
The more able and gifted students were sent to foreign universities, to continue studies. Representatives of the general public were allowed to attend professors’ lectures and student disputes. The University’s enlightening and instructional activities were aided by publication of the country’s first non-governmental newspaper, “Moscow News”, in a printing shop opened in the spring of 1756. Moscow’s first literary magazine entitled “Useful Diversion” began coming out in January 1760. For a fairly long time the printing shop was run by a University gymnasia graduate, N.I. Novikov, later an outstanding Russian enlightener.
The University library opened as a bookshop in 1756, was the one and only library then providing free access to Muscovites for over 100 years thereafter. The first scientific societies concerned with natural studies, Russian history and antiques, and that for lovers of Russian literature, were opened under University auspices in the 19th century. The Museums of History, Technology and Fine Arts (now the A.S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts) as well as the Zoo were opened then... All that took place with direct participation of the Moscow University which, in Herzen’s words, turned into “a focus of Russian education”.
The University Charter was adopted in 1804. It provided for a significant measure of autonomy. The Rector and faculty Deans were thenceforth elected from among Professors. The University’s Learned Council decided all matters pertaining to University life. The books published upon its approval in the local printing shop were not subject to censorship.
There were 500 students in 1820. They were given instruction at four departments (faculties) which were concerned with: ethical and political sciences; physical and mathematical sciences; medical and linguistic sciences. After three years of instruction and examinations, the best graduates were granted the degree of Candidate; the rest were accorded the title of “real student”.
During the War of 1812 M.I. Kutuzov commended especially the work of University medics on the battlefield. When Moscow was occupied by Napoleon the University building was tottaly destoyed by fires. The old building in the capital’s centre was restored by Architect D.I. Zhilyardi in 1817.
In the fisrt half of the 19th century the Moscow University played a leading role in Russian public life. Quite a few Decembrists were among University graduates. The spirit of free thinking distinguished the student circles lead by the Kritsky brothers, N.P. Sungurov, V.G. Belinsky, A.I. Herzen, I.P. Ogaryov, N.V. Stankevich. The Westerners and Slavophiles debated about the ways of Russia’s further development. Moscow intellectuals applauded the lectures delivered by R.N. Granovsky, an outstanding historian.
A. Mickiewicz’s “Sonnets” and I.S. Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” were first published in the University printing shop.
After abolition of serfdom, a new University Charter was adopted in 1863. It reflected the Government’s general course for implementation of bourgeois reforms. The University’s self-government was furthered. The number of study programmes (curricula) and that of instructors and professors were growing. Practicals, laboratory work and seminars were included in the programmes on a growing scale. Elections of the Rector and the Deans, abolished in the “iron” time of Emperor Tsar Nicholas I, were resumed. The number of students at the four faculties — of History and Philology, Physics and Mathematics, of Law, and Medicine, was about 1,500, mostly commoners. The 1863 Charter lasted for but two decades thereafter. After the assassination of Emperor Alexander II by an agent of the People’s Will clandestine organization in 1881, the University’s autonomy was sharply limited. Yet, the Moscow University still remained the country’s main scientific and cultural centre. Students took an active part in the 1905-07 Revolution. In 1911, 130 University professors and instructors, including K.A. Timiryazev, P.N. Lebedev, N.D. Zelinsky, N.A. Umov, S.A. Chaplygin, V.I. Vernadsky, V.I. Picheta, and others, tendered their resignations in protest at the unlawful discharge of a number of professors and violation of University autonomy.
Until the year 1917 the Moscow University had trained and graduated 40 thousand specialists for Russia.
October, 1917 and the Civil War exerted a contradictive impact on the lot of the University as well as on the life of the country. On the one hand, tuition fees and charges were abolished; state scholarships were given to students to facilitate access to higher schools for the children of workers and peasants; a preparatory Workers’ Faculty was opened at the University and functioned for seventeen years thereafter. On the other hand, special emphasis was placed on ideology and politics in society. Restriction of contacts between the higher school and science and the outside world proved damaging for Moscow University. The countless reorganizations initiated with the object of sharply increasing the number of specialists for the country constituted another negative factor. A number of leading faculties were withdrawn from the University and converted into “self-sufficing” establishments of higher learning. Years later some of them were returned to the Alma Mater. Another aberration was the brigade-laboratory method of instruction and education abolishing lectures and replacing individual exams by brigades’ collective progress reports.
In 1929, when the University celebrated its 175th anniversary, some people in high places began calling for its final dissolution, on the plea that “the old man has lived long enough...” Fortunately for Russia that did not come to pass. The Moscow University held out against all encroachments. By the year 1941 it had had seven faculties including: of Mechanics and Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology and Pedology, Geography, and History. About 5,000 students studied at the “day” departments. The University also included 10 research institutes. Over 30 professors and research associates became Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The eternal flame shielded by steles fashioned in the likeness of bayonets reminds today’s students of the grim but glorious days of the Great Patriotic War. MSU volunteers who formed the 8th (Krasnaya Presnya) Home Guard division defended approaches to the capital. Over 5,000 students, post-graduates, professors, instructors, and other staffers of the University, fought at the front. About 3,000 of them did not return from the war.
In October 1941 the University was evacuated to Ashkhabad and later, to Sverdlovsk and returned to Moscow in the spring of 1943. MSU takes credit for thousands of research development and engineering projects which hastened the arrival of Victory. They greatly contributed to aircraft manufacturing, control of ships and vessels, substantiation of the theory of artillery fire accuracy, accurate time signals, and invention of explosives. A very large number of wounded servicemen and civilians were saved thanks to administering of thrombin — a medicinal preparation accelerating the process of blood coagulation. Uranium research was launched. Geologists discovered in Central Asia large tungsten deposits and did much to develop “the second Baku” oil fields. In the postwar years, “catching wind” of a nascent technological revolution, the University set course for fundamental education, focussing upon modern-day problems arising both in the realm of natural sciences and humanities. The University’s scientific and technical facilities were being improved. In January 1949 the first bucket of earth was removed in digging the foundation pit of the main building on Lenin (Vorobiyevy Gory) Hills and already on September 1, 1953 studies began there. New buildings were being raised one after another. The old research computing centre was expanded; the building for the A.N. Belozersky Physical Chemistry Research Institute was commissioned, as well as those for the department of non-linear optics and for student dormitories. The MSU was enlarged to include the Institute of Oriental Languages (the Institute of African and Asian Countries since 1972), the Psychology Faculty, the Faculty of Computing Mathematics and Cybernetics, and the country’s first Pedology Faculty. The M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University ranks with the world’s ten most prestigious Universities. Scientific schools of world importance, modern teaching (instructional) methods, conformity of instruction to the highest international standards make it clear why the diplomas and certificates issued by the MSU are held in high regard in other countries too.
The achievements by mathematicians, physicists, biologists, geologists, chemists and representatives of other fields of scientific inquiry secured not only at the faculties, research centres and laboratories but also at the MSU leading research institutes, have been generally recognized. The said establishments include the P.K. Sternberg State Astronomy Institute, the Mechanics Research Institute, the D.V. Skobeltsyn Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, the A.N. Belozersky Research Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, the MSU Scientific Park... The Centre of Molecular Medicine was opened in a new building in February 1998.
The MSU has branches and subsidiaries in such research centres of the Russian Academy of Sciences as Pushchino and Chernogolovka. Over 200 Academicians and Corresponding Members of the Academy of Sceinces now work at the University.
Convincing evidence of the high international authority of the MSU is its contacts with UNESCO, the World Bank, as well as other major organizations; over 300 agreements have been entered into with other Universities on every continent. The University maintains partnership relations with many international associations. MSU Rector V.A. Sadovnichii has been elected President of the Association of Universities, he is also Chairman of Rectors of Russia...
The Moscow University, actively resisting the threat of declining scientific and educational standards, is still the leader of Russia’s higher school and regards it as a vital factor of the country’s national security. Its priority objectives include: furtherance of the integrity of the University; enhancement of its competitiveness on the domestic and world markets of education-and-instruction services, and preservation of a strong and, indeed, unique Moscow University for the future of Russia.
All that is served and furthered by the University’s growing autonomy (self-government) re-affirmed by a Presidential Decree issued in December, 1996.
High hopes are associated here with the construction of a new complex of the Moscow University upon a plot of land bordering Lomonosov Prospekt (thoroughfare). It will comprise new buildings for instruction and research work, a number of libraries, a swimming pool, a stadium, a Palace of Culture, and other centres and facilities for rest and recreation and provision of communal services. Implementation of that project will serve to increase the enrolment of students including those from near and far-away countries.
Internet: www.msu.ru
