On October 4, Saratov State University will celebrate the centenary of the university's naming after Nicholas Chernyshevsky. His contribution to science and education is great. Although the native of Saratov did not see the opening of the university in his city, he always dreamed about it.

In the 1850s, Chernyshevsky headed a coterie of advanced local intelligentsia, where they discussed how important it was to share scientific knowledge and strengthen the authority of education in the minds of citizens. It was in this coterie that the idea of establishing a university appeared.

On the opening day of Saratov State University on December 6, 1909, in the speeches of Rector Vasily Razumovsky and Dean Ivan Chuyevsky, Chernyshevsky’s name was mentioned among those who contributed to the foundation of the university.

On December 19, 1921, the RCP(b) SSU party proposed to name the university after Chernyshevsky. On October 4, 1923, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR was issued on naming Saratov State University after the great writer.

In honour of the anniversary, SSU is to host open lectures on his life and work. Everyone is invited.

At 2 p.m. in Room 108 auditorium, SSU Bldg. 10, Professor of the Department of Russian History and Archaeology, the Institute of History and International Relations, SSU, Yurii Varfolomeyev is to give a lecture on the 100th anniversary of the naming Saratov State University after Nicholas Chernyshevsky.

At 2 p.m. in Room 503, Bldg. 10, the scientific secretary of the Chernyshevsky Museum-Estate Alexander Semyonov is to tell how the famous writer tried to invent a perpetual motion machine.

The lecture series will continue on October 5. Professor of the Department of Russian and Worlds Literatures, the Institute of Philology and Journalism Aleksei Gaponenkov is to speak about Chernyshevsky’s novel What to Do? as a universal question of the meaning of life. The lecture is to be held at 10 a.m. in Room 503, Bldg. 10.

An exhibition in the Scientific Library is timed to the memorable date. The exhibition presents the papers, which had been prepared by the philologists, historians, and philosophers of Saratov State University. The visitors will see the first bibliography Saratov State University and Nicholas Chernyshevsky by Vladimir Sushitsky, a series of bibliographic indexes, and the collections of unpublished works of the writer prepared by the university scholars, etc. Read more about the exhibition here.

On the morning of October 4, SSU staff and students are to take part in laying flowers at Chernyshevsky’s memorial at the Resurrection Cemetery and the statue of the writer at Student Square in campus.