SchChat - School | Belarusian State University

Descriptions

The first national university in Belarus was opened on October 30, 1921. The historian and slavist Vladimir Picheta became its first rector. On October 31, 1921, the first lecture was delivered under the roof of the Belarusian State University. Regular classes began at its three faculties - Workers, Medicine, and Social Sciences. During the Great Patriotic War, the University staff and students fought the enemy at the fronts and in partisan detachments. Twelve BSU students and teachers were awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. On May 15, 1943, the Council of People"s Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution On the resumption of work of the Belarusian State University. The new location of BSU was the Skhodnya station of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, near Moscow. The main academic building was housed in the local school. After the end of military operations, the Belarusian State University relocated back to the capital of the republic, Minsk. On October 16, 1944, lectures resumed. In December, the new University structure was approved: administration, academic, personnel, and accounting departments, library, office of the registrar, dormitory, special department, deans’ offices. In addition to the History, Chemistry, Biology and Geography faculties working in evacuation, BSU opened Part-Time Faculty and the Faculty in Journalism. After Belarus gained independence in 1991, the Belarusian State University was officially recognized as the leading higher education institution in the new country. With the government’s support, since the late 1990s BSU has strengthened its resource base, renovated its fixed assets, restructured its educational and research system, and created a developed infrastructure. The University gave birth to a number of independent specialized institutions in Belarus (Belarusian State Medical University, Belarusian State Economic University, Belarusian National Technical University, among others). Today, BSU maintains its position as a leading higher education institution in Belarus, which honours its foundations and traditions.