The metro reveals the design of the train carriages, branded for the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg University
To mark the anniversary of the St Petersburg metro, it has presented carriages of the branded train "300 years of St Petersburg University" for those who travel on the second line. The event is also set to mark the anniversary year for the University. The station with the symbolic name "Prospekt Prosveshcheniya," which reflects the contribution of St Petersburg University to Russian education, was the venue for the ceremony.
The train with the festive decoration started running in July 2024. The train will run on the second metro line until the end of 2024, which, by decision of Governor of St Petersburg Alexander Beglov, was named the year of St Petersburg University in the Northern Capital of Russia.
"Passengers who frequently use the metro have probably already travelled by this train. Its design is really stunning. Those who are going to become students can get some information about the oldest university in Russia," said Yulia Shavel, Head of the Press Office at the St Petersburg Metro. "Using QR codes, you can access pages on the websites of different faculties and institutes and get information about academic staff and rich history of how research fields in our city and the whole country have been evolving."
Opened on 15 November 1955, the Metropolitan Railway between Avtovo and Ploshchad Vosstaniya was the first, urban, underground railway in Leningrad. The first underground trains were shorter than the today’s ones and had only four carriages.
Branding the train is not the only joint project of the University and the St Petersburg Metro that has been implemented during this year, said Yulia Shavel. To mark the Day of Slavic Literature and Culture, which is traditionally celebrated on 24 May, philologists at St Petersburg University adapted the rules of conduct in underground transport to Old Church Slavonic and held workshops on their reading. To celebrate the birthday of Fyodor Dostoevsky on 11 November, the metro, with the participation of St Petersburg University students, developed a quiz for passengers on their knowledge of his works and the metro station was named in his honour.
The design of each carriage is dedicated to various educational and scientific departments or areas at St Petersburg University: physics, law, medicine, Asian and African studies, and arts. The head carriage is an "admissions office" where passengers can learn about the advantages of studying at the University and get acquainted with academic programmes of different levels of education.
"St Petersburg University opens up an incredible range of opportunities for development for everyone who study at the University. Students in all areas of study without exception are provided with access to the unique equipment of the Research Park and sports infrastructure. Beyond that, the University has an extraordinary range of opportunities to determine your student life to realise your creative potential," said Andrei Ivasko, Deputy Head of the Admissions Office at St Petersburg University.
Those who are still searching for their professional path are invited to take part in our career guidance events: lectures, workshops, project sessions and special sessions in areas of study, crash courses, conferences, schools, and student Olympiads. Information about them is also presented in the carriage.
Andrei Ivasko, Deputy Head of the Admissions Office at St Petersburg University
Young physicists participated in developing a non-trivial design that could reflect the entire history of this academic and research subdivision, said Aleksei Titov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Physics at St Petersburg University. "In 1933, the Faculty of Physics was separated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at the University. These 90 years of history were eventful, as evidenced by the number of Nobel laureates who are the graduates of the Faulty of Physics. There were four of them, including Alexey Ekimov, who was awarded the prize in 2023. In addition to Nobel laureates, the Faculty of Physics has been home to some of the most outstanding scientists, academicians and heroes of labour, whose scientific achievements and advanced discoveries were recognised with various awards," said Aleksei Titov.
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students from Russia and other countries of the world are currently pursuing academic programmes in physics at St Petersburg University.
Typical destinations for physics graduates include in leading research centres and world-class mega-facilities that are being built across the country as part of the federal scientific and technological programme for the development of synchrotron and neutron research. That is why graphic elements reminiscent of reactors are used in the design of the carriage.
The design concept of another carriage of the anniversary train is based on the idea of showing the development of Russian legal education, which will also turn 300 years old in 2024. It also features famous graduates and educators at St Petersburg University. Among them are the legal scholar Fyodor Martens, who took part in the preparation of conventions related to the protection of human rights, and the outstanding trial lawyer Anatoly Koni. According to Aleksandr Alekseenko, Associate Professor in the Department of Commercial Law and Chairman of the Scientific Committee in the field of law at St Petersburg University, passengers can learn about important current projects of the University’s lawyers: work on disclosing the concept of traditional values, monitoring law enforcement, research in the field of Chinese law, and Arctic law to name just a few.
The design of the "Asian and African" carriage reflects the diversity of cultures that are studied at the University, said Alexey Rodionov, Senior Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Asian and African Studies at St Petersburg University. In total, more than 63 languages of Asia and Africa are taught at St Petersburg University. Today, this is the largest number of Asian and African languages not only in Russia, but also in the world. Among them are not only such popular languages as Turkish, Arabic, Chinese, Persian, and Japanese, but also Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Uzbek, and eight Indian languages. 2024 has become an anniversary year for the Faculty of Asian and African Studies, which turned 170 years old in November.
Several metro stations, i.e. Ozerki, Dostoevskaya and Ulitsa Dybenko, were designed with the participation of Ivan Uralov, Senior Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts at St Petersburg University, Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation.
The carriage dedicated to the arts at St Petersburg University has a laconic design. "The coloured strokes can be associated with brush strokes of different colours. It is the same with us: different directions are combined into one team," explained Irina Tsymbal, Chairperson of the Teaching Methodology Committee of the Faculty of Arts at St Petersburg University. "The uniqueness of the Faculty of Arts is that it includes artists, musicians, actors, representatives of very different directions, and this synthesis, as it seems to me, gives a fascinating effect."
The carriage about medicine at the University unfolds the biographies of the first Russian Nobel laureates, Ivan Pavlov and Ilya Mechnikov, who are among the nine University Nobel laureates, said Andrey Sarana, Director of the Institute of Medicine at St Petersburg University. It presents academic programmes in dental medicine, pharmacy, medical and nursing care; information about the St Petersburg University branch in Egypt; and the Pirogov Clinic of High Medical Technologies at St Petersburg University, i.e. one of the 86 clinical bases of the University, where undergraduate students, clinical residency students and doctoral students study and carry out scientific work.