Top 10 Amazing Facts about Moscow State University

Main building of Moscow State University. Photo by Dmitry A. Mottl. Wikimedia Commons.

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Moscow State University

Moscow State University is a faculty of Moscow State University, created in 1938 by order 109 dated 23 July 1938. It has the largest collection of geographers in the world with 780 researchers, 1100 students and 200 post-graduates are working at the facility.

The school has several departments. They include; human geography, physical geography, hydrometeorological, geoecological and geoinformatics branch. The school also has a number of laboratories that work on different researches. Presently, it has more than 350 laboratories, a number of research institutes, several observatories, and also several affiliated museums.

Moscow State University is the largest and oldest university in Russia. It was set up in 1755. Moscow State University was made by Ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonosov. It is named after Lomonosov. The university is modelled after German universities. Here are the Top 10 Amazing Facts about Moscow State University.

1. Moscow State University is named after Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Lomonosov, commemorative plaque on his working place in Freiberg, Fischerstraße 41. Photo by Unukorno. Wikimedia Commons.

Lomonosov was an amazing self-made man. Born in a village near Archangelsk (North of Russia), he was so keen to study that he took what he could learn in his village and then left home and moved first to Moscow and St. Petersburg and later to Germany.

Lomonosov became a professor of Chemistry when he was 34. Founding of Moscow State University was done under his influence and according to his project.

2. The university was built by prisoners

This building was built by prisoners – in Stalin times it was a typical practice. There is a sad legend, which may be true, that one of the prisoners decided to escape, like Ikar, but plywood wings did not hold him well enough and he died.

Moscow State University remains the tallest educational building in the world. It was designed by architect Lev Rudnev. The main tower consumed over 40,000 tons of steel for its framework and 130,000 cubic meters of concrete.

Moscow University is probably the best known of Rudnev’s buildings, for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1949. The University skyline inspired various buildings in the socialist countries, like the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, and also the logo of 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.

3. The building is an example of Stalinist architecture

The tower at the university is the largest one in Moscow. The tower was designed by architect Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev. It was built after the war. He was awarded the Stalin Prize for its construction, in 1949. The building was the largest skyscraper outside New York for a long time.

It was the tallest building in Europe, until 1988. The central tower is 240m high. It has 36-stories. It is 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.

4. The school has many facilities

The Logo of the MSU Faculty of Law. Photo by MSU. Wikimedia Commons.

Moscow State University is a state of art building. The school has very many essential facilities. These include; 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, a canteen, bank offices, shops, cafeterias, and a bomb shelter.

5. The star on top of the building is extremely large

The star on the top of the tower is large enough so that it has a small room and a viewing platform; it weighs 12 tons. The building’s facades are decorated with giant clocks, barometers, and thermometers, statues, carved wheat sheaves, and Soviet crests. The school stands before a terrace featuring statues of male and female students gazing optimistically and confidently into the future.

6. The school underwent expansion after the Russian revolution

Moscow State University. This is an HDR image constructed from three different raw files using Photomatix. Photo by Eldar Vagapov. Wikimedia Commons.

The university underwent a notable expansion following the Russian Revolution, and it maintained its preeminent role in mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, astronomy, and other disciplines during the Soviet period. It presently has more than 350 laboratories, a number of research institutes, several observatories, and also several affiliated museums.

7. Moscow State University has one of the largest libraries in Russia

The library of the university in Moscow. Photo by Hanno Böck. Wikimedia Commons.

This is the A.M. Gorky Research Library. It is one of the oldest and largest libraries in Russia. The Library can boast a wealthy variety of its funds and is equal in importance and quality with the world-renowned university library collections.

The Library offers its services to academic staff and students of the Russian and international universities, and individual researchers. The reading rooms also serve students and academic staff.

8. The school has a number of notable alumni

Among Moscow State University’s better-known students were writers Mikhail Lermontov, Anton Chekhov, and Ivan Turgenev, radical intellectuals Aleksandr Herzen and V.G. Belinsky, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Other notables are; Mikhail Gorbachev, Anton Chekhov, Wassily Kandinsky, Lev Vygotsky, Katerina Tikhonova, Saule Omarova, and Anna Chapman.

9. Moscow State University offers many programs

The Moscow State University grants degrees in over fifty different areas of study, most of which fall into the humanities and science categories. In most of these areas, students are allowed to progress from undergraduate to the graduate and sometimes post-graduate level of study. In addition to Ph.D.s, the university also offers specialized medical and legal degrees.

10. The school observes the Russian Students Day

“Celebrating Students’ Day on Red Square’s skating-rink”. Moscow college and university students celebrating their holiday, the Students’ Day on Red Square’s skating-rink. Photo by RIA Novosti archive. Wikimedia Commons.

Russian Students Day, (also known as Tatiana Day) is a Russian religious holiday observed on January 25 according to the Gregorian calendar. It is named after Saint Tatiana, a Christian martyr in second century Rome during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus.

In 1755 on the name day of Ivan Shuvalov’s mother Tatiana Rodionovna, his mistress Empress Elizabeth of Russia endorsed his petition to establish the university in Moscow. The church of Saint Tatiana was later built in the university campus, and the Russian Orthodox Church declared Saint Tatiana the patron saint of students.