V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University - one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe. Established in November, 1804 at the initiative of the prominent educator Vasily Karazin according to the order of Emperor of Russian Empire Alexander I.

With the establishment of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University tied a very interesting story. Using proximity to Emperor Alexander I Vasily Karazin decided to establish a university in Kharkiv. So in 1802 Vasily Karasin expressed the idea to Emperor Alexander I about creating of Kharkiv University which would have been better than Moscow University. The idea perceived favorably by the Emperor.

In fact Vasily Karazin exaggerated the propitiousness of the Emperor Alexander I. Among the new projects of universities in Russian Empire there was idea about university in Kharkiv. So Vasily Karazin went for cheating: persuaded the nobility of Kharkiv region to collect funds for the university without official approval of Emperor Alexander I and confirmed to Emperor Alexander I that the nobility will give the money with wish to have the university in Kharkiv after the approval of Emperor Alexander I. So Emperor Alexander I gave the approval as charter and nobility collected the money to open the first university in Kharkiv.

Later time the Emperor Alexander I guessed that Vasily Karazin played double game so he lost the favor of the emperor at the end of 1802 and was fired. So Vasily Karazin sacrificed a career for the university which opened in Kharkiv on 29th of January 1805.

Nobel Laureates of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University - the only one in Ukraine in which has trained and worked three Nobel laureates - biologist Ilya Mechnikov, economist Semen Kuznets (Simon Smith), physicist Lev Landau.

Ilya Mechnikov - a prominent physiologist and embryologist, honorary doctor of Kharkiv Imperial University. In 1882 Ilya Mechnikov invented the phenomenon of phagocytosis and further developed the phagocytic theory of immunity. For these outstanding achievements in 1901 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

Semen Kuznets (Simon Smith) - a famous economist. His scientific work on calculating national income is the largest contribution to economic science. Semen Kuznets (Simon Smith) was the first scientist who studied the interdependencies between economic fluctuations and long-term economic growth. He was the creator of the theory of building cycles - fluctuations duration of 18-25 years are associated with recurrent massive upgrade housing of new generation. In 1971 Semen Kuznets (Simon Smith) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Lev Landau - theoretical physicist and academician. In 1935 Lev Landau headed the Department of Physics of Kharkiv University. The subject of his works are quantum mechanics, solid state physics, the theory of phase transitions, the theory of superfluid liquid, cosmic ray physics, hydrodynamics, physical kinetics, theory of quantum field, plasma physics. He is one of the founders of the theory of superconductivity. In 1962 Lev Landau was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on the theory of condensed matter and liquid helium.

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University Nowadays

Today V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University has 20 faculties: Biology, Physics and Technology, Radio Physics, Physics, Computer Science, Philosophy, Mathematics and Mechanics, international economic relations and Tourism, Geology and Geography, Environmental, Economic, Foreign Languages, History, Philology , Medical , Chemistry, Sociology, Psychology, Law, Physics and Energy.

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University offers 115 specializations that cover the entire spectrum of modern classical university education.

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University Museums, Library and Botanical Garden

Botanical Garden of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University was founded in 1804. It is the oldest botanical garden in Ukraine which is a state preserve with a unique collection of plants from different botanical and geographical areas around the world.

Natural History Museum of the University was founded in 1807 and is one of the oldest university museums in the world. Each year the museum is visited by over 22 000 of tourists from Ukraine and other countries. The 23 rooms of the museum (an area of 2 000 square meters) located about 250 000 exhibits of the following sections: Human origins, Darwinism, Zoology and Geology. V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University also has Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Sloboda Ukraine whose collection includes about 150 000 exhibits.

Central Scientific Library of Kharkiv National University was founded on 30th of January 1805. General fund of the library has 3 500 000 books, among them - 50 000 unique titles (17 incunabula, over 1 000 manuscripts, 300 paleotypes, editions of the classics of world literature, science and culture).

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is a co-founder of the Eurasian University Association, member of the World and the European University Association, Association of European Netwprk of Nuclear Education.

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