Kazan, University of

(full name, V. I. Ul’ianov-Lenin University of Kazan), one of the oldest universities in the USSR. It was founded in 1804 and comprised four faculties in the prerevolutionary period: history and philology, physics and mathematics, medicine, and law. Many scientific schools originated and developed at the university, enriching science with important discoveries.

Among prominent Russian scientists who studied and worked there were N. I. Lobachevskii (who was rector of the university from 1827 to 1846), A. M. Butlerov, the astronomer I. M. Simo-nov, the chemists K. K. Klaus, N. N. Zinin, V. V. Markov-nikov, and A. M. Zaitsev, the astronomer M. A. KovaPskii, the biologists and medical researchers V. M. Bekhterev and P. F. Lesgaft, the Orientalists O. M. Kovalevskii and V. P. Vasil’ev, the historian A. P. Shchapov, the linguist I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, the specialist in mechanics I. S. Gromeka, and the geologist N. I. Golovkinskii. L. N. Tolstoy and the Tatar revolutionary Kh. M. Iamashev studied at the university, and its graduates included the writers S. T. Aksakov, I. I. Lazhech-nikov, P. I. MePnikov-Pecherskii, and I. I. Panaev, the artist V. I. Iakobi, the composer M. A. Balakirev, the first Buriat scientist D. Banzarov, and the Tatar educator K. Nasyri. The university was one of the centers of progressive social thought and revolutionary struggle in Russia. In 1887, V. I. UPianov-Lenin was admitted to the law faculty, and later that year, on Dec. 4 (16), 1887, he was expelled for his part in organizing and holding a student protest rally.

In the Soviet period the university has developed into a major scientific and educational institution. A number of higher educational institutions in Kazan have evolved out of the university: schools of medicine, pedagogy, aviation, chemical engineering, agriculture, and economics and finance. The university has played an increasingly important role in the educational and cultural development of the peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. In 1925 it was renamed the V. I. UPianov-Lenin University of Kazan. Among the outstanding discoveries made by scientists at the university are those of the mathematicians N. G. Chebotarev and A. Z. Petrov, the specialist in mechanics N. G. Chetaev, the biologists and medical specialists A. F. Samoilov, A. V. Vishnevskii, S. S. Zimnitskii, and N. A. Mislavskii, the linguist V. A. Bogoroditskii, the astronomer A. D. Dubiago, the chemists A. E. Arbuzov and B. A. Arbuzov, and the physicist E. K. Zavoiskii.

In 1972 the university had departments of biology and soils, geography, geology, history and philology (with a division in Tatar language and literature), mechanics and mathematics, physics, chemistry, and law. The university also has a department for the advanced training of teachers in higher educational institutions, a preparatory division, a graduate school, evening and correspondence courses, 65 subdepartments, the N. G. Chebotarev Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, the A. M. Butlerov Institute of Chemistry, the V. P. EngePgardt Astronomical Observatory, a computer center, a scientific-research section, eight special problems laboratories, the V. I. UPianov-Lenin Museum, zoological, geological, and ethnographic museums, meteorological and magnetism observatories, zoological and biological stations, and a publishing house. The N. I. Lobachevskii Scientific Library contains about 4 million holdings.

In the 1971–72 academic year some 9, 500 undergraduate andgraduate students attended the university, and the faculty num-bered 900 instructors and researchers, including 85 doctors ofsciences and professors and 435 candidates of sciences and do-cents. The university has published Uchenye zapiski since 1821.A monograph was published in honor of the university’s 125thanniversary (M. K. Korbut, Kazanskii gosudarstvennyi universi-tet im. V. I. Ul’ianova-Lenina za 125 let, vols. 1–2, 1930). In theSoviet period about 29, 000 specialists have been trained at theuniversity, which was awarded the Order of the Red Banner ofLabor in 1955.