Санкт-Петербургский политехнический университет Петра Великого | |
Former name | Saint Petersburg State Technical University |
|---|---|
| Type | Public / National research university |
| Established | 1899 |
| Endowment | US $298 million |
| President | Mikhail P. Fedorov |
| Rector | Andrey I. Rudskoy |
Academic staff | 3291 |
Administrative staff | 1,940[1] |
| Students | 32,250[1] |
| Address | Polytechnicheskaya 29, 195251 ,, |
| Campus | Urban, city center, 102 hectares |
| Colours | Green/Golden |
| Nickname | Polytech |
| Mascot | Two-Headed Eagle |
| Website | www.spbstu.ru |
 | |
| University rankings | |
|---|---|
| Regional – Overall | |
| QS Emerging Europe and Central Asia[2] | 46 (2022) |
Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, abbreviated asSPbPU, is apublictechnical university located inSaint Petersburg,Russia. The university houses one of the country's most advanced research labs inhydro–aerodynamics. The university's alumni includeNobel Prize winners, such asPyotr Kapitsa andZhores Alferov, physicists and atomic weapon designers such asYulii Khariton,Nikolay Dukhov,Abram Ioffe,Aleksandr Leipunskii, andYakov Zeldovich, aircraft designers and aerospace engineers, such asYulii Khariton,Oleg Antonov,Nikolai Polikarpov, andGeorgy Beriev, and chess grandmasters, such asDavid Bronstein. The university offers academic programs at theBachelor,Master's, andDoctorate degree levels. SPbSPU consists of structural units called Institutes divided into three categories:[3] Engineering Institutes, Physical Institutes, and Economics and Humanities Institutes. In 2022, the university was ranked #301 in the world in theTimes Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, #393 inQS World University Rankings, #679 in Best Global Universities Rankings byU.S. News & World Report, and #1,005 byCenter for World University Rankings.[4][5][6]
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 CountSergei Witte. Witte viewed establishing an engineering school loosely modeled by the FrenchÉcole Polytechnique as an important step towards the industrialization of Russia.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
The main campus was built on the rural lands beyond thedacha settlementLesnoye. 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.[citation needed]
Its work was interrupted by theRussian Revolution of 1905. One student, M. Savinkov, was killed during theBloody Sunday events of January 22 [O.S. January 9] 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 futureBolshevik leaderMikhail Frunze and the future writerYevgeny Zamyatin. Among the deputies of theFirst 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 afterPeter I of Russia. In 1914 the number of students reached 6,000.[citation needed]
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 commanderLeonid Govorov studied at the institute for one month. Part of the institute's buildings were transferred into theMaria Fyodorovna Hospital. Despite the war the institute did not stop its work.[citation needed]
In 1916Abram Ioffe opened his Physics Seminar at the Polytechnic Institute. The seminar prepared threeNobel Prize-winners and many other prominent Russian physicists. Eventually, this seminar became the core of theIoffe Physico-Technical Institute.[citation needed]
On June 5, 1918 the institute was renamed toFirst Polytechnic Institute (with theSecond Polytechnic Institute being the formerWomen's Polytechnic Institute). In November 1918Sovnarkom 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) andinstructor (with no formal requirements at all).Departments were renamedFaculties (факультеты), and the director became rector. ASoviet (Council) of 11 professors and 15 students was given the main authority in the Institute. One of these 15 students in theSoviet wasPyotr Kapitsa, a future Nobel-Prize winner in physics. The Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, headed at that time by Abram Ioffe, focused onatomic and thesolid state physics.[citation needed]
In winter of 1918/1919 there werefood shortages and no heating on campus due tofuel shortages; many students and faculty members died of starvation and freezing temperatures. In the beginning 1919 there were only around 500 students at the university. In August 1919 the new semester started but on August 24 all the students were mobilized to fightYudenich army. The Institute itself was encircled by stanchions and barbed wire and transformed into aRed Army fortification. After December 1919 the Institute was completely empty.[citation needed]
The Institute started working again in April 1920 when it became a part of the planning team for theGOELRO plan. Professor of the Institute, A. V. Wulf was the chairman of the group working on the electrification of the Northern Region ofRSFSR. The Institute developed projects of theVolkhov hydroelectric dam on theVolkhov River and theDnieper Hydroelectric Station on theDnieper River.[citation needed] In autumn 1920, due to the cold weather and the absence of heating some lectures were only attended by one or two students. At that difficult timeNikolay Semyonov andPyotr Kapitsa discovered a way to measure themagnetic field of an atomicnucleus. Later the experimental setup was improved byOtto Stern andWalther Gerlach and became known asStern–Gerlach experiment. In another laboratory another student of the Institute,Léon Theremin worked on the development ofelectronic musical instruments. His first demonstration of thetheremin was held in Polytechnic Institute in November 1920.[citation needed]
After the end of theRussian Civil War many students returned to the Institute. By the spring of 1922 there were 2800 students on the campus. In 1926,Sovnarkom re-established the titleEngineer and allowed "children of working intelligentsia" to enter the tertiary schools; prior to this only workers and children of workers were allowed. The number of students enrolled at the Polytechnic Institute reached the 1914 level of 6,000. By 1928 there were 8,000 students.[citation needed]
In 1930,Sovnarkom decided to create a network of highly specialized Engineering schools. On June 30 Polytechnic Institute was closed and a number of independent institutes were created instead:
Soon anotherInstitute of Military Mechanics forked from theMachine Building Institute.[citation needed]
In April 1934, most of these institutes were merged back into theLeningrad Industrial Institute. In November 1940, the Institute almost got its original name back. Now it was named the Kalinin Politechnical Institute (Leningradskij Politekhnicheskij Institut imeni Kalinina) after thePresident of the Presidium of the Supreme SovietMikhail Kalinin.
With the onset of theeastern front of World War II, 3500 students went to the army and hundreds were involved in constructing fortifications to the university itself. The main building was transformed into a hospital and another building was used as a tank school. Institute shops filled military contracts. On September 8, 1941 theSiege of Leningrad began. Research on the strength of ice by employees S. S. Golushkevich, P. P. Kobeko, N. M. Reyman and A. R. Shulman proved the feasibility of transporting vital materials across ice. The researchers selected the safest route for theRoad of Life - the transport route across the frozenLake Ladoga, which provided the only access to the besieged city.[citation needed] Some faculties and students were evacuated toTashkent in January 1943 where they were able to hold classes. In November 1943 they restarted classes in Leningrad as well. In 1943 in Leningrad there were 250 students and 90 teachers at the Institute. The Polytechnic Institute was the only school in the besieged city that had the authority to evaluate theKandidat (Ph.D) andDoctor of Science dissertations. Before the end of the siege the Polytechnic Institute evaluated 19 dissertations, many related to military defense.[citation needed]
In 1952,Radio-physics Department was created.[citation needed] In 1988, the newPhysics-Technical (Fiziko-Tekhnichesky) Department (faculty) of the Institute was created. The department was modeled on theIoffe Physico-Technical Institute and headed by the director of the Ioffe InstituteZhores Ivanovich Alferov, recipient of the 2000Nobel Prize in physics.[citation needed]
In September 1991 Leningrad returned its historical name Saint Petersburg and the Institute was renamedSt. Petersburg State Technical University (the word "Technical" was changed to "Polytechnic" in 2002). Finally, in 2015, the institute took its current namePeter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.[7]
During the2022 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".[8][9] 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.[10]
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.[citation needed]
Proportion of student body enrolled in each department, where enrollment exceeds 10%:
The campus consists of[11]
Today the Polytechnic University includes 6 associated institutes outside Saint Petersburg in the cities ofPskov,Cheboksary,Cherepovets,Sosnovy Bor,Smolensk andAnadyr.[citation needed]
The university has graduated over 150,000 students. Notable alumni and faculty include:
The university has undergone several name changes throughout its existence. Detailed list of name changes is as following:
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60°00′26.41″N30°22′22.66″E / 60.0073361°N 30.3729611°E /60.0073361; 30.3729611
