page_title: Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Peoples' Friendship University of Russia / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Dmitriy Medvedev visiting Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.22.09.2012
context_page_description: The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, also known as RUDN University, is an educational and research institution located in Moscow. It was established in 1960 to provide higher education to Third World students. It became an integral part of the Soviet cultural offensive in nonaligned countries.
context_section_description: The Soviet government founded the university on 5 February 1960. Its stated objective during the height of the Cold War was to help developing nations. Many students from developed countries also attended the university. On 22 February 1961, the university was named Patrice Lumumba University after the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba, who had been killed in a coup that January. The stated purpose for establishing the university was to give young people from Asia, Africa and Latin America, especially from poor families, an opportunity to be educated and to become qualified specialists. The organizations that have been mentioned as founders of the university are the All-Union Central Soviet of Trade Unions, the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee, and the Soviet Associations Union of Friendship and Intercultural Relationship.
  Professor Sergey Vasilievich Rumiantsev, Doctor of Engineering, was the first Rector of the University. He took an active part in the foundation of the university and remained its Rector till 1970. In 1960, Russian language studies for international students started at the preparatory Faculty. On 1 September, Russian language studies were introduced at the six main faculties of the PFU (Engineering faculty, faculty of History and Philology, Medical faculty, Agricultural faculty, faculty of Science, faculty of Law and Economics).
  The first 288 students from 47 countries graduated in 1965. Around that time international construction teams started to appear and the first student teams of KVN were organized (later on, the PFUR KVN team became one of the most famous teams in the country).
  Professor Vladimir Frantsevich Stanis, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (RF), Doctor of Economics, became the second Rector of the PFU. It was he who proclaimed the “cult of knowledge” at the University, heading it from 1970 to 1993. In this period, the Peoples’ Friendship University became a major international scientific and educational centre. In 1972, Stanis proceeded to the extension of the duration of studies, which until then were shorter, along the lines of mainstream Soviet universities. At the Faculty of Medicine, for instance, the duration of studies was extended from five to six years. By 1975, the University had more than 5,600 graduates, among them 4,250 people from 89 foreign countries. That year, the University was awarded the Peoples’ Friendship Order for achievements in training experts for Asian, African and Latin America countries. The University’s name was changed to the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia on 5 February 1992 by the RF Government, which is considered the University’s founder.
  From 1993 to 1998, PFUR was headed by Vladimir Filippov, a 1973 graduate of Patrice Lumumba PFU. He held the position of Minister of Education of the Russia from 1998 to 2004, and was appointed the Prime Minister’s Assistant on Culture and Education in 2004. In the period from 1998 to 2005, PFUR was headed by Professor Dmitry Petrovich Bilibin, a 1966 graduate of Patrice Lumumba PFU, Honored scientist of the RF, Doctor of Medical Sciences. He was acting Rector till 2004, and was elected Rector of the University in 2004. Professor Filippov, Doctor of Sciences in physics and mathematics, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Education, was reelected Rector of the PFUR on 4 March 2005, and has headed the University since then.
  The 1990s saw the creation of new faculties and Institutes: the Ecological faculty, the faculty of Economics, the faculty of Law, the Philological faculty, the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the faculty of Refresher Training for Health Care Professionals, the Institute of Foreign Languages, the Institute of Distance Learning, the Institute of Hospitality Business and Tourism, and the Institute of Gravitation and Cosmology. The University also developed systems of pre-university and further professional education. 2006 was marked by the 50,000th diploma awarded by PFUR, received by José Atinensia Villagómez, an Engineering faculty graduate
caption: The third President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev visiting, 2011
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