Question: Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnyov, was a minor Russian poet and literary critic, who rose to become the dean of the Saint Petersburg University (1840–61), a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg, and is the oldest and one of the largest universities in which country/nation?

Context paragraphs:
Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг , "Sankt-Peterburg"; ] ) is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea.  It is politically incorporated as a federal subject (a federal city).  Situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27 [O.S. 16] 1703 .  In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd (Russian: Петрогра́д ; ] ), in 1924 to Leningrad (Russian: Ленингра́д ; ] ), and in 1991 back to Saint Petersburg.  Between 1713 and 1728 and in 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia.  In 1918, the central government bodies moved to Moscow.

The Physiology of Saint Petersburg: The Physiology of Saint Petersburg (Russian: Физиология Петербурга ) is the first of three major literary almanacs compiled and edited in the 1840s by Nikolai Nekrasov.  It came out in two volumes in Saint Petersburg in 1845, to be followed by "The Petersburg Collection" (Петербургский сборник) and "April the First.  The Illustrated Comical Almanac" (Первое апреля.  Комический иллюстрированный альманах).  The "Physiology of Saint Petersburg" had considerable success and is regarded in retrospect as a major incentive for the development of realism in the Russian literature.

Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences: The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian: Библиотека Российской академии наук (БАН) ) is a large state-owned Russian library based in Saint Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island and open to employees of institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and scholars with higher education.  It is a part of the academy and includes, besides the central collection, the library collections housed by specialized academic institutions in Saint Petersburg and other cities.

Evgenia Baykova: Evgenia Vasilievna Baykova (Russian: Евге́ния Васи́льевна Байко́ва ; November 22, 1907 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire – 1997 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation) was a Russian Soviet realist painter and graphic artist, who lived and worked in Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad).  She was a member of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists (known before 1992 as the Leningrad branch of Union of Artists of Russian Federation), regarded as one of representatives of the Leningrad school of painting.

Alexander Kantorov: Alexander Kantorov (born 1947) is a Russian conductor who was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and was a graduate of both Moscow and Saint Petersburg Conservatories.  He used to take violin lessons under guidance from Mikhail Vaiman and then completed postgraduate education under guidance from Yuri Temirkanov.  He began his conducting career at the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and then became both a fonder and head conductor of both Sverdlovsk and Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestras. Currently he conducts numerous works by such famous Russian composers as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alexander Taneyev, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as well as German composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Julian Cochran from Australia and Gustav Mahler with Anton Bruckner from Austria.  Besides those, he also conducted works of Hector Berlioz and Antonín Dvořák.

Pyotr Pletnyov: Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnyov (Russian: Пётр Александрович Плетнёв ; August 21 [O.S. August 10] 1792 , Tebleshi, Tver Governorate — January 10 1866 [O.S. December 29, 1865] ) was a minor Russian poet and literary critic, who rose to become the dean of the Saint Petersburg University (1840–61) and academician of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1841).

Saint Petersburg State University: Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU, Russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, СПбГУ ) is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg.  It is the oldest and one of the largest universities in Russia.

Pavel Viskovatov: Pavel Alexandrovich Viskovatov (Russian: Па′вел Алекса′ндрович Вискова′тов , also: Висковатый, Viskovatyi; born December 6, 1842, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, - died April 29, 1905, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian historian of literature, editor, pedagogue and librettist (his were the lyrics to Anton Rubinstein's opera "The Demon", based on Mikhail Lermontov's poem of the same name).  The Derpt University professor of Russian language and literature (since 1873), Viskovatov devoted himself to re-discovering, compiling, and studying the vast and dispersed Lermontov's legacy.  He prepared and in 1891 published in Saint Petersburg the first ever edition of The Works of Mikhail Lermontov.  Featured here (in volume VI) the first ever comprehensive academic biography written by Viskovatov, has been used as blueprint by all the subsequent Russian biographers ever since.

Saint Petersburg State Medical Academy: The St. Petersburg I. I. Mechnikov State Medical Academy (SPSMA) is a public university located in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.  The SPSMA is one of the oldest and largest Russian Higher Medical Schools.  Over its 100 years of history, the Academy remains a leading institution of Russia in medicine and training specialists in preventive and clinical medicine.  It is often called the Second Medical College in St. Petersburg because of its renaming in 1920 (see below), relative to Saint Petersburg State Medical University, which is called the First Medical College.  The university is currently constructing the largest infectious diseases hospital in Saint Petersburg, a title formerly claimed by the Botkin hospital.

Pyotr Yefremov: Pyotr Alexandrovich Yefremov (Russian: Пётр Александрович Ефремов , born November 17 (O.S., 2), 1830, Moscow, Russian Empire, - died January 8, 1908 [O.S. December 26, 1907], Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Russian literary historian, publisher, editor and essayist whose works were published regularly by "Sovremennik" (where he debuted in 1857), "Otechestvennye Zapiski", "Russky Arkhiv", "Russkaya Starina", "Istorichesky Vestnik", newspapers "Golos", "Novoye Vremya", "Russkiye Vedomosti".  In 1864-1865 he edited the "Knizhny Vestnik" (The Books Herald) magazine.  Praised as one of the most competent literary scholars of the 19th century, Pyotr Yefremov compiled, edited and published the series of The Works of: Denis Fonvizin (1866), Valerian Maykov (1867), Antiochus Kantemir (1867-1868), Vladimir Lukin (1868), Bogdan Yelchaninov (1868), Alexander Radishchev (1872, Saint Petersburg; banned at the time), Kondraty Ryleyev (1872, 1874), Mikhail Lermontov (1873, 1880, 1887, 1889, also the "Early Dramas" compilation, 1880), Vasily Zhukovsky (1878, 1885), Alexander Pushkin (1880, 1882, 1905, plus two "Yevgeny Onegin" editions, 1874, 1882), Alexander Polezhayev (1889).  He is credited with having discovered, published and written analytical essays on numerous hitherto unknown autographs by classics like Pushkin, Ryleyev, Lermontov, Radishchev, Fonvizin, Zhukovsky.

Supporting paragraphs: Pyotr Pletnyov Saint Petersburg State University
Answer: Russia