SPbPU 125th Anniversary

On February 19, 1899, Emperor Nickolas II signed the Decree on founding Polytechnic Institute in St. Petersburg.

In the establishment of the Institute, its founders followed the principles of Peter the Great and sent specialists to Europe to explore operation of European universities. In the result of these efforts, the idea of a Polytechnic Institute complex emerged and the institute was designed following the model of university cities of Oxford and Cambridge.

A.G. Gagarin (1855-1920), the first Director of Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic Institute
The Main Academic Building

In the 125 years of its existence, Polytechnic Institute has several times changed its names and structure, but it remained the Polytechnic and now is called Polytechnic University. Since the very first years of its existence, the university had been training highly qualified specialists for the industry, and this remains the essential feature of training bachelor’s, specialists’, master’s degree holders and postgraduate students at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

Overall plan of Polytechnic Institute
The first lecture for the students

In the years of the university’s existence, its teachers, students, and graduates made many outstanding and significant discoveries and inventions; new areas of studies and university structures have appeared, and major contributions to the science and industry of the country and the world made. Such outstanding Nobel Prize winners as N.N. Semenov (Chemistry, 1956), P.L. Kapitsa (Physics, 1978), and Zh.I. Alferov (Physics, 2000) had studied and worked at Polytechnic University.

In 2024, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University celebrates its 125th birthday. Through all the time of its existence, our alma mater has been making its worthy contribution both to the development of the Russian science and education, and to the establishment of the world science, education, and industry.

Polytech today