On the eve of Victory Day, we are opening the #SFU Scientific Regiment section with a story about the first rector of the Russian State University and a hero of the Great Patriotic War.

Yuri Andreevich Zhdanov (08/20/1919 – 12/19/2006) – rector of Rostov State University (1957-1988), chairman of the North Caucasus Scientific Center for Higher Education (1969-2005).

In 1937, Yuri Andreevich entered the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University. The end of my studies coincided with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

From 1941 to 1945, Yuri Andreevich worked in the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army on the ideological front as a propagandist-writer. He celebrated victory in Vienna with the rank of colonel. Awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, fourth degree, two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Friendship, the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Zhukov medal, the medal N.K. Krupskaya and other awards.

In 1957, he defended his second candidate’s thesis and was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Chemical Sciences and the title of Associate Professor. From 1957 to 1988 he worked as the rector of our university. Under his leadership, RSU has become one of the leading universities in Russia, in which many natural sciences and humanities are successfully developing!

#SFU Scientific Regiment #SFU Scientists #SFU