Belarusian State University

On February 25, 1919, the Central Executive Committee of the Belorussian SSR resolved to establish the first national university in Belarus. However, the occupation of Minsk by the Polish army delayed these plans, and the university was actually opened on October 30, 1921. The historian and slavist Uładzimier Pičeta became its first rector.

Initially the university comprised three faculties (Workers, Medicine, and Humanities) that enrolled a total of 1,390 students. The faculty included 14 professors, 49 lecturers and 10 teaching assistants, most of whom were transferred from the universities of Moscow, Kazan and Kiev. In 1922, the Pedagogical Faculty was established. The first class that counted 34 economists and 26 lawyers graduated in 1925. The university started offering post-graduate programs in 1927. Construction of the campus was started in the fall of the same year. In 1928, the university actively participated in the creation of the Institute of Belarusian Culture that was later reorganized into the Belarusian Academy of Sciences.

By 1930, the university consisted of six faculties: Workers, Medicine, Pedagogical, National Economy, Law and Soviet Development, Chemical Technology. The faculty and staff has expanded to include 49 professors, 51 assistant professors, 44 lecturers, and over 300 research personnel. In May 1931, the People's Commissariat for Education of the Byelorussian SSR decided to reorganize some faculties of Belarusian State University into new establishments of higher education: the Minsk Medical Institute, the Higher Pedagogical Institute, the Institute of National Economy, the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute, and the Minsk Institute of Law (reintegrated into Belarusian State University as the Faculty of Law in 1955).