History

The Faculty of Geography at Lomonosov Moscow State University was established on June 23, 1938. It was founded by dividing the Faculty of Soil into the Faculty of Soil and Geology and the Faculty of Geography. The Faculty had the Departments of Physical Geography, Physical Geography of Foreign Countries, Physical Geography of the USSR, Economic Geography of the USSR, Economic Geography of the Capitalist Countries, Cartography and Geodesy, and also the Research Institute of Geography.

Since 2 April 2015, the Faculty of Geography has been headed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Sergey Anatolyevich Dobrolyubov.

History of Geography at Moscow University 

Geography instruction has been established at Moscow State University since the day of its founding. M. V. Lomonosow was the first one, who drew the government’s attention to the place of geography in the system of sciences and the need for geographical education. 

In the 18th century, geography was a part of the course of lectures on Statistics. This course was taught, starting in 1757, at the History Department of the Faculty of Philosophy. At the end of 18th, a permanent course of general geography and statistics was established in the Faculty of Philosophy. The prominent scientist and university professor D.N. Anuchin became the founder of the geography school of Moscow State University and the head of the department.

Until the early twentieth century, the teaching of geography was only additional to other physical subjects. 

The Department of Geography and Ethnography of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics was divided into separate departments in 1919: Geography and Anthropology. In 1922, the Research Institute of Geography was established and the Department of Soils, Geology and Geography was organized within the Division of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. In 1926, a separate Geographical Division was created as well as the Department of Geography. The Department of Economic Geography and the Department of Cartography were established in 1929. And finally, in 1933, the Faculty of Soils and Geography appeared.

The development of the Faculty was greatly facilitated by the move to the new building of MSU on Leninskie Gory, which was inaugurated on 1 September 1953. The faculty received not only space, but also new equipment for laboratories, was granted financial independence, increased staff and allocations for scientific work. The development of new equipment gave a strong impact to the development of analytical directions in geography.

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