state-controlled institution of higher learning at Moscow, the oldest-surviving, largest, and most prestigious university in Russia. It was founded in 1755 by the linguist M.V. Lomonosov (Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilyevich) and was modeled after German universities, its original faculty being predominantly German. In the second half of the 19th century, Moscow State University became the most important centre of scientific research and scholarship in Russia. The university underwent a notable expansion following the Russian Revolution, and it maintained its preeminent role in mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, astronomy, and other disciplines during the Soviet period. It presently has more than 350 laboratories, a number of research institutes, several observatories, and also several affiliated museums. The university's A.M. Gorky Research Library is one of the largest libraries in Russia. The university has continued to grow and is now housed in new buildings on the Lenin Hills within Moscow.

Among Moscow State University's better-known students were the writers Mikhail Lermontov (Lermontov, Mikhail), Anton Chekhov (Chekhov, Anton), and Ivan Turgenev (Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich), the radical intellectuals Aleksandr Herzen (Herzen, Aleksandr Ivanovich) and V.G. Belinsky (Belinsky, Vissarion Grigoryevich), and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (Gorbachev, Mikhail).