page_title: Saint Petersburg State University
section_title: Notable alumni and faculty
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Petersburg State University / Notable alumni and faculty
caption_attribution_description: English: President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė Lietuvių: Lietuvos Prezidentė Dalia Grybauskaitė
context_page_description: Saint Petersburg State University 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.
  Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the University from the very beginning has had a strong focus on fundamental research in science, engineering and humanities.
  It is made up of 24 specialized faculties and institutes, the Academic Gymnasium, the Medical College, the College of Physical culture and Sports, Economics and Technology. The university has two primary campuses: one on Vasilievsky Island and the other in Peterhof.
  During the Soviet period, it was known as Leningrad State University. It was named after Andrei Zhdanov in 1948.
context_section_description: Saint Petersburg State University has produced a number of Nobel Prize winners. The Russian revolutionary and the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin was an alumnus. Prime Ministers Pyotr Stolypin and Dimitry Medvedev of Russia, the President and former Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin, and the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė are alumni, as is the mathematician Mikhail Gromov.
  Eight of the graduates of the university are Nobel Prize recipients: Ivan Pavlov (Physiology and Medicine, 1904), Ilya Mechnikov (Physiology and Medicine, 1908), Nikolay Semyonov (Chemistry, 1956), Lev Landau (Physics, 1962), Aleksandr Prokhorov (Physics, 1964), Wassily Leontief (Economics, 1973), Leonid Kantorovich (Economics, 1975) and Joseph Brodsky (Literature, 1987).
  Grigori Perelman and Stanislav Smirnov are two graduates awarded by the Fields medal.
  Among the renowned scholars affiliated with St-Petersburg State University have been Leonard Euler, Mikhail Lomonosov, chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, mathematicians Mikhail Ostrogradsky, Pafnuty Chebyshev, Vladimir Smirnov, Andrey Markov, Sergei Sobolev, Vladimir Steklov, Aleksandr Lyapunov, Solomon Mikhlin, Yuri Linnik and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, physicists Boris Rosing, Vladimir Fock, Elena Besley, astrophysicist Viktor Ambartsumian, botanists Vladimir Komarov and Vladimir Sukachev, physiologists Ivan Sechenov, Kliment Timiryazev, philosopher and sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, historians Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Yevgeny Tarle and Boris Grekov, philologists Ivan Turgenev, Ilia Chavchavadze, Alexander Blok, Lev Shcherba, Vladimir Propp, Viktor Zhirmunsky, orientalists Vasily Struve, Joseph Orbeli, Boris Piotrovsky, artist Nicholas Roerich, Zare Yusupova and others.
  Composer Igor Stravinsky attended the university from 1901 to 1905.
  The American novelist Ayn Rand attended the university from 1920 to 1924, graduating with honors in history.
  Ukrainian nationalist and publicist Dmytro Dontsov studied law at the university for some time after 1900.
  Joseph Shor, a student of the School of Mathematics and Mechanics, is known as the main protege of Ostap Bender. Igor Artimovich is known for creating Festi. Yakov Rekhter is known for creating BGP.
  Pavel Durov graduated the department of philology while his brother Nikolai Durov received his PhD from the department of mathematics.
caption: President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė
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