Peter the Great St University

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, abbreviated as SPbPU is a major Russian technical university located in Saint Petersburg. Other former names included Peter the Great Polytechnic Instituteand Kalinin Polytechnic Institute The university is considered to be one of the top research facilities in Russian Federation and CIS member states and is a leading educational facility in the field of applied physics and mathematics, industrial engineering, chemical engineering, aerospace engineering and other academic disciplines. In 2012, SPbPU was ranked among the top 400 universities in the World. It houses one of the country's most advanced research labs in hydro–aerodynamics. The university's alumni include famous Nobel Prize winners, such as Pyotr Kapitsa, prominent nuclear physicists and atomic weapon designers such as Yulii Khariton and Nikolay Dukhov world-class aircraft designers and aerospace engineers, such as Yulii Khariton, Oleg Antonov, Nikolai Polikarpov and Georgy Beriev. The university offers academic programs at the Bachelor, Master's and Doctorate degree levels. SPbSPU consists of structural units called Institutes divided into three categories:

Engineering Institutes

Physical Institutes

Economics and Humanities Institutes

Revolution

On June 5, 1918 the institute was renamed to First Polytechnic Institute (with the Second Polytechnic Institute being the former Women's Polytechnic Institute). In November 1918 Sovnarkom abolished all forms of scientific decrees, licenses and certifications. There remained only two positions for the faculty: Professor (that required three years of engineering experience) and instructor (with no formal requirements at all). Departments were renamed Faculties (факультеты), and the director became rector. A Soviet (Council) of 11 professors and 15 students was given the main authority in the Institute. One of these 15 students in the Soviet was Pyotr Kapitsa, the future Nobel-prize winner in physics.

In March 1919 two additional faculties were formed: the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics and Chemical . The Faculty of Physics and Mechanics, headed at that time by Abram Ioffe, focused on atomic and the solid state physics, which was notably progressive for an Engineering school of 1918.

In winter of 1918/1919 there were food shortages and no heating on campus due to fuel shortages; many students and faculty members died of starvation and freezing temperatures. In the beginning 1919 there were only around 500 students at the University. In August 1919 the new semester started but on August 24 all the students were mobilized to fight Yudenich army. The Institute itself was encircled by stanchions and barbed wire and transformed into a Red Army fortification. After December 1919 the Institute was completely empty.