Artists / Smolensk State University

Smolensk State University is one of the oldest universities in Russia. It was established on 7 November in 1918 by the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars. At first the university combined humanitarian, natural-science and medical educational areas.
According to the decision of the government about a reform of higher and secondary vocational-technical education, on 18 April in 1930 the university was reorganized in two independent institutes. They were Smolensk State Teacher Training Institute and Smolensk State Medical Institute.
On 13 January in 1998 Smolensk State Teacher Training Institute was renamed, it became Smolensk State Teacher Training University. But the modern part of the university history begins on 19 December 2005 when according to the order of the Federal Educational Agency Smolensk State Teacher Training University was renamed again and became Smolensk State University. This decision was not a formal renaming; the status of the classical university was returned back to it.