Petro Primo special project: why Polytechnic University is named after Peter the Great

The coming year will be marked by the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the birth of the Russian emperor in 2022 in October 2018. St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region will be the center of the anniversary celebrations, and anniversary events are also planned in other Russian cities. Polytechnic University is also preparing to hold a number of events.

Primo means «the First» in Latin. And indeed, Tsar Peter was, in many ways, the first. His large-scale transformations concerned all spheres of public life in the Russian Empire: the tsar laid the foundations of the modern state structure of Russia, created a regular army and navy, established a new system of education. To add new and important strokes to the portrait of Peter the Great is the purpose of the special project Petro Primo. Among the many interesting facts about the monarch-reformer, one of the most curious is why our university is named after Peter the Great since it was founded almost two centuries after the emperor’s death? We will tell you about it in the first issue.

On September 30, 1909 (the 10th anniversary year), the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute’s Council decided to petition Emperor Nicholas II for the Institute to be named after Peter the Great.

On October 16, 1909, the director of the Institute, Prince Alexei Gagarin, on behalf of the Council of the Institute addressed to the Educational Department of the Ministry: «On September 30, 1909, the Board recognized it to be especially desirable that the name of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute be connected with the name of EMPEROR PETER THE GREAT, since, on the one hand, the Institute contains branches corresponding to the fields of knowledge in which the Great Russian Reformer demonstrated his genius gifts, and on the other hand, there is not yet a single institution of higher education, which would bear the name of the Great Emperor» (Source: RGIA, f. 25, op. 1, d. 5866, pp. 41-45).

On January 19, 1910, Emperor Nicholas II signed a Decree «On naming the Institute «Emperor Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute». On January 20, the Board of the Institute received from Minister S. I. Timashev the following text:

«On 19th January the Emperorperor deigns, upon my report of the petition of the Council of St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute about awarding the institute with the name: „Emperor Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute“, to satisfy this petition. I congratulate the council of the institute with this gracious permission and express my hope that the institute will be worthy of the name it will henceforth bear. S. Timashev» (Source: RSHA, f. 25, op. 1, d. 5869 p. 3).

The Institute bore this name until 1918: until the People’s Commissariat for Education abolished diplomas and certificates, ranks, titles, and degrees (the Professorial Council of the Institute was to be dissolved, departments in institutes were renamed faculties, the director became rector). On July 5, 1918, the institute became known as the First Petrograd Polytechnic Institute.

On February 12, 2015, by Order № 88 of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, our university was returned to its historical name «Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University».

Prepared by the Department of Public Relations based on materials from the Museum of the History of SPbPU.