The concept of the Museum first appeared in the 1930s on the pages of the University newspaper, and in 1939 in the visitor’s book of the exhibition on the history of the University.
During World War Two, the University was evacuated to Saratov. A group of historians continued to study the history of the University and collect materials for the future museum. They were supervised by the Dean of the Faculty of History Vladimir Mavrodin. In the autumn of 1944 after the University had returned from Saratov, a new large exhibition on the history of the University was launched. On 13 January 1945, there was a meeting of the deans of all of the faculties and directors of research institutions of the University. They decided to ‘reorganise the exhibition into a permanent museum’. Since that day, the Museum has been studying and popularising the memory of the history of the University.
Currently, there is a temporary exhibition dedicated to the foundation of St Petersburg University in 1724 and its history from the 19th century to the early 20th century.
At the end of the 19th century, people were very interested in observing the educational process. That is why the exhibition presents authentic dismountable models of flowers, various devices, specimen and mechanisms of the outstanding scientist Pafnuty Chebyshev.
Today, an important part of the exhibition work of the History Museum is the creation of a new collection. The Museum is open to suggestions and proposals from both teachers and students of the University (you can contact us via e-mail museum@spbu.ru).
Students of humanities do their internship at the Museum.
The collection of the Museum consists of: authentic documents and photos, devices and learning workbooks, books, pieces of art and personal belongings of distinguished scientists; as well as prizes and presents of the University. The collections can be divided by their themes and functions. Most of them are collections of personal belongings that can tell a lot about the live and work of the great scientists of the University: Mikhail Balugyansky (this is the collection of the earliest authentic documents in the Museum, which date back to the beginning of the 19th century), Aleksandr Inostrantsev, Nikolai Kareev, Vladimir Fock, Alexander Terenin, Petr Lukirskii, Sergei Frish, Yuri Linnik, Boris Ananiev, Alexei Ukhtomsky, and many others.
St Petersburg University History Museum Collections
- Documents and manuscripts (comprises the collections ‘The History of the University’, ‘Faculties and Departments’, ‘The Great Patriotic War’, ‘Revolutionary Movement’)
- Collection of everyday items (comprises the collections ‘Person’, collections of personal belongings of professors and researchers of the University)
- Graduate School for Women
- Collection of videos, photographs, photographic negatives and records
- Rare prints collection
- Phaleristics and numismatics
- Furniture and applied art
- Devices and visual aids
- Natural science collection
- Presents and prizes of St Petersburg University