Peter the Great Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (Russian: Санкт-Петербургский политехнический университет Петра Великого, romanized: Sankt-Peterburgskiy politekhnicheskiy universitet Petra Velikogo), abbreviated as SPbPU (СПбПУ), is a public technical university located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The university houses one of the country's most advanced research labs in hydro–aerodynamics. The university's alumni include Nobel Prize winners, such as Pyotr Kapitsa and Zhores Alferov, physicists and atomic weapon designers such as Yulii Khariton, Nikolay Dukhov, Abram Ioffe, Aleksandr Leipunskii, and Yakov Zeldovich, aircraft designers and aerospace engineers, such as Yulii Khariton, Oleg Antonov, Nikolai Polikarpov, and Georgy Beriev, and chess grandmasters, such as David Bronstein. The university offers academic programs at the Bachelor, Master's, and Doctorate degree levels. SPbPU consists of structural units called Institutes divided into three categories: Engineering Institutes, Physical Institutes, and Economics and Humanities Institutes. In 2022, the university was ranked #301 in the world in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, #393 in QS World University Rankings, #679 in Best Global Universities Rankings by U.S. News & World Report, and #1,005 by Center for World University Rankings.

History

Imperial Russia

Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute was founded in 1899 as an engineering school in Russia. The main person promoting the creation of this university was the Finance Minister Count Sergei Witte. Witte viewed establishing an engineering school loosely modeled by the French École Polytechnique as an important step towards the industrialization of Russia.

The first director of the institute became Prince Andrey Gagarin. Unlike the French École Polytechnique, the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute was always considered to be a civilian establishment. In tsarist Russia it was subordinated to the Ministry of Finance; its students and faculty wore the uniform of the ministry.

The main campus was built on the rural lands beyond the dacha settlement Lesnoye. The location was intended to provide some separation between the campus and the capital city of Saint Petersburg. The institute was opened to students on October 1, 1902. Originally there were four departments: Economics, Shipbuilding, Electro-mechanics and Metallurgy.

Its work was interrupted by the Russian Revolution of 1905. One student, M. Savinkov, was killed during the Bloody Sunday events of 22 January [O.S. 9 January] 1905. The reaction of the student body was so strong that classes only resumed in September 1906, almost two years later. Among the polytechnic students who participated in the Revolutionary events were the future Bolshevik leader Mikhail Frunze and the future writer Yevgeny Zamyatin. Among the deputies of the First Duma were four Polytechnic Institute's faculties: N.A. Gredeskul (Н.А. Гредескул), N.I. Kareev (Н.И. Кареев), A.S. Lomshakov (А.С. Ломшаков) and L.N. Yasnopolsky (Л.Н. Яснопольский). In 1910 the institute was named Peter the Great Polytechnic Institute after Peter I of Russia. In 1914 the number of students reached 6,000.

With the onset of World War I many students found themselves in the Army and soon the number of students decreased to 3,000. Some students, like future Soviet military commander Leonid Govorov studied at the institute for one month. Part of the institute's buildings were transferred into the Maria Fyodorovna Hospital. Despite the war the institute did not stop its work.

In 1916 Abram Ioffe opened his Physics Seminar at the Polytechnic Institute. The seminar prepared three Nobel Prize-winners and many other prominent Russian physicists. Eventually, this seminar became the core of the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute.

Revolution

On June 5, 1918 the institute was renamed to First Polytechnic Institute (with the Second Polytechnic Institute being the former Women's Polytechnic Institute). In November 1918 Sovnarkom abolished all forms of scientific decrees, licenses and certifications. There remained only two positions for the faculty: Professor (that required three years of engineering experience) and instructor (with no formal requirements at all). Departments were renamed Faculties (факультеты), and the director became rector. A Soviet (Council) of 11 professors and 15 students was given the main authority in the Institute. One of these 15 students in the Soviet was Pyotr Kapitsa, a future Nobel-Prize winner in physics. The Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, headed at that time by Abram Ioffe, focused on atomic and the solid state physics.

Current status

In September 1991 Leningrad returned its historical name Saint Petersburg and the Institute was renamed St. Petersburg State Technical University (the word "Technical" was changed to "Polytechnic" in 2002). Finally, in 2015, the institute took its current name Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the University issued a public statement strongly supporting Russian actions, calling the assault a "denazification operation" and accusing Ukrainian leadership of endangering the security and existence of Russia and "all of humanity". According to Andrey Rudskoy, head of the university, while scientific cooperation with Western universities had been developed over decades, after the invasion it was almost completely destroyed, with foreign universities halting their ties with the university.

World ranking

2022: #301 in the world in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, #393 in QS World University Rankings, #679 in Best Global Universities Rankings by U.S. News & World Report (in 2023), and #1,005 by Center for World University Rankings.

Students

More than 30,000 students are enrolled in the university. International students countries of origin include US, UK, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden and most of the CIS state members.

Department enrollment

Proportion of student body enrolled in each department, where enrollment exceeds 10%:

• Economics and Management – 23%
• Energy, Power engineering and Electrical engineering – 17%
• Metallurgy, Machinery and Materials processing – 10%

Campus

• The campus consists of
• Buildings – 112; Students dormitories – 15 buildings
• Students – 30,197 (including 2,916 foreign students)
• Teaching staff – 3,300; University staff – 5,274

Structural units

Today the Polytechnic University includes 6 associated institutes outside Saint Petersburg in the cities of Pskov, Cheboksary, Cherepovets, Sosnovy Bor, Smolensk and Anadyr.

• 21 faculties and institutes
• Over 150 departments, 120 R&E laboratories, 26 research and educational centers
• 3 branches and 6 representatives
• St. Petersburg College of Information and Management

Alumni and faculty

The university has graduated over 150,000 students. Notable alumni and faculty include:

• Nobel Prize winners Pyotr Kapitsa, Nikolay Semyonov, and Zhores Alferov
• Academicians Igor Kurchatov, Anatoly Liberman, and Georgy Flyorov
• Physicists Abram Ioffe, Aleksandr Leipunskii, and Yakov Zeldovich
• Nuclear weapon designers Yulii Khariton and Nikolay Dukhov
• Aircraft designers Yulii Khariton, Oleg Antonov, Nikolai Polikarpov and Georgy Beriev
• T-34 tank designer Mikhail Koshkin
• Navy Admiral Aksel Berg
• Chess grandmasters David Bronstein and Russian-Israeli Dina Belenkaya
• Writers Boris Gavrilovich Gavrilov, Daniil Granin, and Yevgeny Zamyatin
• US journalist Matt Taibbi
• Theology lecturer Grigory Spiridonovich Petrov
• Former president of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Alexandrov
• Former Turkmenistan president Saparmurat Niyazov
• First cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

Official names

The university has undergone several name changes throughout its existence. Detailed list of name changes is as following:

• 1899–1910 – Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute (Санкт-Петербургский политехнический институт)
• 1910–1914 – Saint Petersburg Peter the Great Polytechnic Institute (Санкт-Петербургский политехнический институт императора Петра Великого)
• 1914–1922 – Petrograd Peter the Great Polytechnic Institute (Петроградский политехнический институт императора Петра Великого)
• 1922–1923 – First Petrograd Polytechnic Institute (Первый Петроградский политехнический институт)
• 1923–1924 – Petrograd Polytechnic Institute (Петроградский политехнический институт)
• 1924–1930 – Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (Ленинградский политехнический институт)

1930–1934 – Divided into various colleges and branches under a variety of names.

• 1934–1940 – Leningrad Industrial Institute (Ленинградский индустриальный институт)
• 1940–1990 – Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (Ленинградский политехнический институт)
• 1990–1991 – Leningrad State Technical University (Ленинградский государственный технический университет)
• 1991–2002 – Saint-Petersburg State Technical University (Санкт-Петербургский государственный технический университет)
• 2002–2015 – Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University (Санкт-Петербургский государственный политехнический университет)
• Since 2015 – Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (Санкт-Петербургский политехнический университет Петра Великого)

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)