History of the University

Taurida National V.I.Vernadsky University is the leading institution of higher education in Crimea. The idea to establish this University originated back to the beginning of the last century.

Many academic centres contributed to the creation of the University. A special role is, however, attributed to St. Vladimir Kiev University which opened its branch in Yalta in May 1918 and dispatched a large group of professors, including M.V. Dovnar-Zapolsky, R.I.Helvig, S.M. Bogdanov, L.O.Kordysh, V.G. Korenchevsky, E.K.Meyer, S.O. Koliandyk, G.A. Semeka-Maksymovych and others.

By the fall of 1918, Taurida University was fully supplied with the specialists of highest qualification. N.I. Andrusov, V.I. Palladin, V.A. Obruchev, P.P. Sushkin and other world-famous academicians of that time moved to Crimea. All units of Yalta branch were transferred to Simferopol in late September 1918, and the opening ceremony of Taurida University, as an independent institution, was held on October 14.

In the years of Civil War, the University was the leading academic centre of the region. In October 1920, the University was headed by the academician V.I. Vernadsky who said in his time that then the University "was one of the strongest academic schools in the country". And so it was. Seven academicians (N.I. Andrusov, M.M. Bogoslovsky, V.I. Vernadsky, K.G. Voblyi, D.A. Grahve, A.E. Kessler, V.A. Obruchev), four Corresponding members of the Academy of Science (D.V. Ainalov, N.K. Gudziy, LA. Linichenko, V.E. Petukhov), more than one hundred professors: some of them future academicians and Corresponding members (G.N. Vysotsky, V.M. Gordon, N.S. Koshliakov, E.N. Pavlovsky, N.I. Palienko, O.L. Struve, F.V. Taranovsky, F.G. Yanovsky, D.V. Synitsyn, B.V. Choban-Zade, and others) worked in this University.

After two and a half years of its existence, in January 1921, Taurida University was renamed into Frunze Crimean University. This reorganization was not the only one in the history of the University. In 1925 it was renamed Frunze Crimean State Pedagogical Institute, and only in 1972 it restored its University status in the title of Frunze Simferopol State University.

The University entered its new important phase of life in August 1999, when the Ukrainian President L.D. Kuchma decreed to grant the title of National University to it and re-establish its original name.

Today Taurida National V.I.Vernadsky University carries on the best traditions of Taurida, Crimean and Simferopol Universities.