St. Petersburg State University

Today, the University's fifteen departments have over 20,000 students, including students from many other countries. The teaching staff numbers over 3,000 lecturers and researchers.

Close to the University you will see the Rector's House (No. 9) where the Russian poet Alexander Blok (1880-1921) was born on November 28 and spent his childhood in the family of his grandfather, Andrei Beketov, Rector of the University. The University's philological and oriental studies departments occupy House No. 11, the former palace of Emperor Peter II (1715-1730), the grandson of Peter the Great.

The University's old buildings now accommodate the Rector's office and several departments. A new University campus has been built in Petrodvorets (formerly Peterhof), 29 km from St. Petersburg.

There was once a floating Isaakievsky Bridge that stretched across the river from house No. 13. Until the middle of the 1 9th century it was the only bridge connecting Vasilyevsky Island with the mainland. This vantage point affords an excellent view of the Neva waterfront with the Admiralty, the Palace Embankment and Decembrists' Square.