I believe everyone is interested in what kind of university Lomonosov Moscow State University (LMSU) is. Is there anything special about it?
The main thing is that MSU is the oldest and the largest university in Russia. It was founded in 1755 under the initiative of a great Russian scientist MV Lomonosov.
There were some difficult moments in the history of our university. One of them was the invasion of the French Army led by Napoleon. Almost all university buildings were burned down. The library, archives, museum and all the equipment were destroyed. After the war it was the joint effort of all educated people in Russia that made the restoration of the university possible.
Another difficult period was during the World War II. A group of university students and staff joined the army on the third day of fighting. One of the divisions formed out of university volunteers fought heroically defending Moscow.
There are also legends connected with the Main Building. They say that there is a secret subway also constructed in Soviet times. Also, the matter is that the Main Building of MSU is built by prisoners. Now, people who live there say that at night they can hear voices of those prisoners. The story goes that during the construction works one of the prisoners jumped out of a window with the help of a self-made parachute. He ran away and the police could not have found him.
I would also like to present some figures about MSU which are very interesting as well. There are 40,000 undergraduates, about 7,000 postgraduates and more than 8,500 professors and researchers in our university. MSU has more than 600 buildings and facilities, which are situated in several parts of Moscow. MSU comprises more than 30 faculties and over 350 departments, 15 research institutes, 4 museums, the Science Park, the Botanical Gardens, The Library, the University Publishing House, etc. The first Russian Science Park appeared at MSU 10 years ago. Now it unites about 2,000 scientists who work on technological innovations.
The most interesting about MSU is the university life. Classes usually begin on the first day of September and this day is considered to be almost a national holiday. I believe our discussion about the college life next time will be very exciting, because I am sure everyone has a lot to say on this topic.