Foundation of the Ural State University in Yekaterinburg

October 19, 1920 Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, V. I. Lenin signed a decree on the establishment of the Ural State University in Yekaterinburg - the first university in the Soviet history and one of the oldest universities of the Middle Urals.

The need for the Ural region to have its own institution of higher education became apparent back in the 18th century. However, the first Russian university to the east of the Volga River was opened only in 1878 in Tomsk. In the 1890's discussion of the need to have its own university erupted on the pages of Yekaterinburg newspapers. In 1896, at a special meeting of the Ural Society of Naturalists, I. S. Sigov reported about the necessity of opening the higher education institution in the Urals, combining a university course of natural science with courses of applied knowledge in agriculture, mining and forestry.

In early 1920 President of the Ural Trade Union of Education Ya. G. Rajevski launched a campaign for the organization of the Ural regional university, putting forward the idea of ​​a universal educational institution of regional importance. To the drafting of the centralized university structure contributed a lot a prominent scientist, founder and Rector of the Pedagogical University of Petrograd, A. P. Pinkevich.

The official opening of the Ural State University was held on January 8, 1921 and caused a wide public resonance. The University originally included six institutes (Mining, Technical, Medical, Agricultural, Pedagogical and of Social Sciences), and a Workers’ Department.

May 6, 1925 the Ural State University was renamed into the Ural Polytechnic Institute, which in July 1930 was divided into ten separate institutions under a reform of Higher Education of the USSR. In October 1931 there was a new restructuring, in which the historic establishment was returned the name of the university and was now called the Sverdlovsk University. However, in 1934, the Ural Polytechnic Institute was reconstituted as a result of integration of a number of industry universities into a single Ural Industrial Institute, which by the end of that year, was named after a Soviet party leader Sergei M. Kirov.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Ural State University was authorized accept for consideration candidate and doctoral dissertations, and in 1944 there was established a Scientific Student Society. February 22, 1945 under a decree of the Soviet of People’s Commissars of the USSR, the Sverdlovsk University was returned its original name. In 1948 the Ural Industrial University was again renamed into the Polytechnic University.

In the postwar years on the basis of the Ural University were formed basic scientific schools. In 1957, Professor P. G. Kontorovich organized the first in Russia since 1917 Mathematical Society. In 1960, scientist M. N. Rutkevich created at the University the first Soviet Sociological Laboratory, and Professor B. V. Pavlovski - the first outside of Moscow and Leningrad Department of Art History. In 1970 the University was awarded the Order of Red Banner of Labor.

In 1991, under the Ural State University was founded the first in the USSR Institute of Russian Culture. Archaeological research laboratory at the University collected one of the largest collections of early printed books and manuscripts of Cyrillic tradition of 15th – 20th centuries. In addition, there was also developed a collection of research literature on the history of the Byzantine Empire.

In 1995, employees of the Kourov Astronomical Observatory of the University developed and put into operation a unique automated telescope, which provides the results of astrophysical observations of high accuracy, previously unachievable in the middle latitudes of Russia.

In 1992 the Urals Polytechnical Institute was renamed into the Ural State Technical University, and in 2000 received the name of the Ural State Technical University - UPI (UGTU-UPI).

In late 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the establishment on the basis of the Ural State Technical University the Ural Federal University, which in May 2011 was integrated with the Ural State University.

Lit.: Главацкий М. Е. История Уральского государственного университета. Екатеринбург, 2000; Он же. Рождение Уральского государственного университета. Екатеринбург, 1995; Декрет СНК об учреждении Уральского государственного университета в г. Екатеринбурге // Декреты Советской власти: [Сб.]. Т. 11. М., 1983. С. 71—72; Мазур В. А. Ректоры Уральского государственного университета. Екатеринбург, 2005; Уральский государственный университет. Свердловск, 1980; Уральский государственный университет в биографиях. Екатеринбург, 2000; Уральскому университету — 70 лет. Свердловск, 1990.

Уральский федеральный университет имени первого Президента России Б. Н. Ельцина: сайт. Б. д. URL: http://ustu.ru/.