The V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukrainian: Харківський національний університет імені В.Н. Каразіна, romanized: Kharkivskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni V.N. Karazina), also known as Kharkiv National University or Karazin University, is a public university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was founded in 1804 through the efforts of Vasily Karazin, becoming the second oldest university, and the oldest continuously operating one, in modern-day Ukraine.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, all buildings of the university were partially or fully destroyed by attacks from Russian forces.
Contents
History
Russian Empire
On 29 January [O.S. 17 January] 1805, the Decree on the Opening of the Imperial University in Kharkov came into force. The university became the second university in the south of the Russian Empire. It was founded on the initiative of the local community with Vasily Karazin at the fore, whose idea was supported by the nobility and the local authorities. Count Seweryn Potocki was appointed the first supervisor of the university, the first rector being the philologist and philosopher Ivan Rizhsky.
In 1811, the Philotechnical Society was founded, while the Mathematical Society of Kharkov, the Historical and Philological Society of Kharkiv, the Naturalists Society, Societies of Physics, Chemistry, Law, among others, were established in the second half of the 19th century. The first periodicals in Slobozhanshchyna appear in the university around this time, including Kharkovski Ezhenedelnik (1812), Ukrainski Vestnik (1816–1819), Ukrainski Zhurnal (1824–1825), etc.
In 1839, a veterinary school, which in 1851 became an independent institute, was established at the university. By this time, the campus included laboratories, clinics, an astronomical observatory, a botanical garden and a library.
Previously, the university was autonomous with rectors being elected. However, from 1820 to 1850, all its activity was strictly controlled. Rectors were appointed by the Minister of Education, while scientific publications, and academic processes were censored. In 1863, under a new Statute, the university became partly autonomous.
The university has been publishing Scientific Notes since 1874.
From the 19th century up to the early 20th century, the University of Kharkiv had four schools: School of Physics and Mathematics, School of History and Philology, School of Medicine, School of Law. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries new faculty buildings and dormitories were erected with the support of sugar industrialist I. Kharytonenko.
Ukrainian SSR
From 1917 to 1920, there was a struggle between advocates of the Ukrainian statehood and Russian course at the university. Some of the professors who opposed new political realities left. Most of the Ukrainian professors remained in Kharkiv. They continued working in the institutions founded by the Soviet government: the Academy of Theoretical Knowledge (1920–1921), Kharkiv Institute of Public Education (KhIPE, 1921–1930), Kharkiv Institute of National Economy, Institute of Physics and Chemistry, and Institute of Law. Kharkiv State University, consisting of seven schools — School of Physics and Mathematics, School of Chemistry, School of Biology, School of Geology and Geography, School of Literature and Linguistics (with Department of Philosophy), and School of Economy (with Department of Economic Geography) — was restored on their basis in 1932–1933.
In 1921, Kharkiv Medical Institute was founded based on the School of Medicine of the University of Kharkiv.
In 1936, the university was named after the late Russian writer Maxim Gorky, despite him not being related to the establishment during his life. During the German-Soviet war, it was evacuated to the city of Kizilord in Kazakhstan, where it merged with the Kyiv University to form the United Ukrainian State University. In 1943/44, the university returned to Kharkiv (the first academic year after the liberation of the city on 1 November 1943). In 1951, 800 university students suffered from persecution after they refused to pass exams in Russian. Court trials were held behind closed doors.
In 1977 the university had 12,000 students, including 300 foreigners. The following schools were operating in the university: School of Mechanics and Mathematics, School of Physics, School of Geology and Geography, School of Economy, School of History, School of Philology, School of Foreign Languages, School of General Sciences, School of Correspondence Learning, and Night School.
Independent Ukraine
On 11 October 1999, Leonid Kuchma, the President of Ukraine issued a decree, in which he, "taking into consideration considerable contribution that Kharkiv State University made to training qualified specialists and to development of science" granted the status of a national university and named it after its founder, Vasyl Karazin.
In 2004, the university was given a twin building (the former Govorov Academy), opposite Svobody Square.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine shells hit the building of the Faculty of Economics which was subsequently destroyed by further Russian shelling. On 5 March the university sports complex was partially destroyed. On 11 March — the building of the Faculty of Physics and Technology was partially destroyed and on 18 March — the Institute of Public Administration was partially ruined. As of 22 March 2022, according to the university's press service, the university had no intact buildings left.
In total, the university suffered 12 billion hryvnias of damage as a result of the Russian invasion. Despite this, the establishment continued its educational and research activities. As of March 2026, the university had 13,332 students, of whom 11,314 studied in a remote mode, and 2,018 attended offline events. Many employees were forced to go on unpaid leaves due to the lack of government compensation for refugees temporarily residing in the university's dormitories. In June 2026 an underground safe space was established at the university with the aim of resuming in-person studies later that year.
Cultural role
During the early period of its existence between 1805 and 1835, the university exerted great influence on educational development in Slobozhanshchyna. Its printing press, which was established simultaneously with the institution's foundation in 1804, played a big role in the development of Ukrainian literature, serving as the centre of Kharkiv Romantic School. It produced many notable publications, including Izmail Sreznevsky's Zaporozhian Antiquities (1833-1838), Ivan Kotliarevsky's Natalka Poltavka (1838), The Muscovite Sorcerer (1841) and Eneida (1842), as well as works by Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovianenko, Petro Hulak-Artemovsky and other authors.
The university played a major role in the Ukrainian national revival, producing ethnographic studies of Ukrainian lands and contributing to the development of Ukrainian literature and theatre. Its students formed a number of Ukrainian hromadas, and part of its professors argued against government limitations in respect to Ukrainian language. Among honorary doctors of the university were Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ivan Franko and Olexandra Yefymenko. In 1907 the university started organizing lectures on topics of folklore, history of Ukraine and linguistics in the Ukrainian language.
Campuses and buildings
Main building
Northern building
Central Scientific Library
Students' Campus
Ranking
Under the Soviet Union, the University of Kharkiv was decorated the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of the October Revolution and the Order of Peoples' Friendship.
Kharkiv National University holds the second place in Ukraine in volume of publications and citations in scientific database Scopus and the Hirsch index, with the best academic results in the School of Medicine and School of Biology.
In 2017, according to QS World University Rankings, it is the best university in Ukraine and ranks as 382th university in the world.
Also, in 2021, according to THE World University Rankings, it is the best university in Ukraine and ranks as 477th university in the world.
Units
Departments
School of Biology
School of Chemistry
School of Computer Sciences
School of Ecology
School of Economics
School of International Economic Relations and Tourism
School of Foreign Languages
School of Medicine
School of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism
School of History
School Mechanics and Mathematics
School of Law
School of Physics
School of Philology
School of Philosophy
School of Psychology
School of Radiophysics
School of Sociology
Education and Research Institute of Ecology Archived 19 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
Education and Research Institute "Karazin Banking Institute"
Education and Research Institute "Institute of Public Administration" Archived 4 March 2024 at the Wayback Machine
Education and Research Institute "Karazin Business School"
Institute of High Technologies
School of Physics and Technology
School of Computer Science
School of Energy Physics
Scientific institutions
Kharkiv University History Museum
State Natural History Museum of National University of Kharkiv
The Museum of Archaeology
The Museum of Astronomy (Hosted by the Institute of Astronomy)
Notable alumni and professors
Nobel Prize winners
Élie Metchnikoff (Medicine, 1908)
Lev Landau (Physics, 1962)
Simon Kuznets (Economic Sciences, 1971)
Others
Aleksandr Akhiezer, physicist
Naum Akhiezer, mathematician
Vladimir Arnoldi, botanist
Petro Hulak-Artemovsky, historian
Nikolay Beketov, chemist
Sergei Natanovich Bernstein, mathematician
Vasily Danilewsky, chemist
Mikhail Khalansky, linguist
Mykola Kostomarov, historian
Maksim Kovalevsky, sociologist
Peter von Köppen, statistician
Andrei Krasnov, botanist
Vasily Krylov, pathologist
Volodymyr Levytsky, statistician
Evsei Liberman, economist
Evgeny Lifshitz, physicist
Aleksandr Lyapunov, mathematician
Volodymyr Marchenko, mathematician
Jerzy Neyman, mathematician and statistician
Timofei Osipovsky, mathematician
Mikhail Ostrogradsky, mathematician
Vladimir Palladin, botanist
Józef Piłsudski, Chief of State of Poland, first Marshal of Poland
Rectors
1805—1806, 1808—1811 Ivan Rizhsky
1807—1808, 1811—1813 Atanasije Stojković
1813—1820 Timofei Osipovsky
1821—1826 Vasily Dzhunkovsky
1826—1829, 1833—1836 Johan Christian Kroneberg
1829—1830 Andrej Dudrovich
1830—1833 Nikolai Yellinsky
1836—1837 Vasily Komlishinsky
1837—1838 Andrey Pavlovsky
1839—1841, 1849—1850, 1852—1853 Alexey Kunitsyn
1841—1849 Petro Hulak-Artemovskyi
1850—1852, 1872—1873 Alexander Paliumbetsky
1853—1859 Karl Voigt
1859—1862 Alexander Roslavsky-Petrovsky
1862—1872 Vladimir Kochetov
1873—1881 Adolphe Pitra
1881—1884 Grigory Tsekhanovetsky
1884—1890 Ivan Shchelkov
1890—1899 Mikhail Alekseyenko
1899—1901 Herman Lagermarck
1901—1905 Nikolay Kuplevasky
1905—1906 Ludwig Reinhard