Founded in 1917, the SSU Faculty of Physics and Mathematics was divided into the Faculty of Physics and the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, according to the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of July 18, 1945. And immediately after that the first admission campaign began to the newly formed educational institutions of the university.
On July 20, 1945, a special issue of the Stalinets university newspaper was published where the new faculties were presented. The first dean of the Faculty of Physics, Professor Peter Golubkov described the departments and courses at the Faculty of Physics. The first dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, Professor Georgii Boyev spoke about the courses at the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics.
In the same issue of the newspaper there was a memo for enrollees to SSU. The admission rules provided for special conditions for participants in the Great Patriotic War which had just ended:
“The admission to Saratov State University is the same as in all other universities in the country. Enrollees are accepted until August 15. Applications must be accompanied by a high school diploma (original), an autobiography, three photographs, and a certificate of military service. Those who graduated from high school in 1945 with gold and silver medals, as well as those who graduated in 1944 with an excellent student certificate are admitted to the University without exams; all the others are accepted only with exams. Under equal conditions, participants in the Great Patriotic War take priority. <…>
The exams are held from August 15 to August 25. Those who entered the Faculty of Physics will be given deferment from being drafted into the Red Army for the entire period of their studies. Classes start on September 17. Those working in enterprises and institutions during the exams, according to the order of the government, will have a leave, and those admitted to the University are released from work to study. All non-resident students admitted to the University are provided with accommodation and messing.”
You can also read the electronic version of the Stalinets newspaper for July 20, 1945.
July 18, 1945 is the formal establishment date of the new faculty. In fact, physical education and physical science at SSU (and in the region) originate from June 10, 1909, when Emperor Nicholas II signed the bill on the establishment of a university in Saratov. The university's only Faculty of Medicine at that time included five biomedical departments and a department of physics.
Today, the Faculty of Physics of Saratov University consists of the Departments of General Physics, Theoretical Physics, Optics and Biophotonics, Radiophysics, Radioteachnology and Electrodynamics, Computer Physics and Metamaterials (based on the Saratov branch of the V.A. Kotelnikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of RAS), Critical Physics and Special Technologies (based on JSC "Institute of Critical Technologies") as well as Physics and Methodic and Informational Technologies. Also the faculty has the Museum of Physical Instruments and Demonstrations leading its history since 1912. Besides, based on the Faculty of Physics there functions the International Education and Research Center of Optic Technologies in Industry and Medicine led by Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Valerii Tuchin.
The faculty staff consists of 30 professors with terminal degrees and 60 associate professors with PhDs. About 600 students study there, mainly full-time. This year, the faculty is ready to accept 140 enrollees.
Since 2010, the Faculty of Physics has been headed by Honoured Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation, Professor Valerii Anikin who also has Terminal degree in Physics and Mathematics. Celebrating the faculty anniversary, he addressed to his colleagues, students and graduates of the faculty:
“Peter Golubkov, speaking about the reasons to establish the Faculty of Physics in 1945, ranked physics as one of the most extensive areas of nature science, which influences the development of various industries and the national economy, and the growth the defense power of the country. In other words, physics is the foundation of the technical development of human civilization.
I congratulate all physicists who studied and continue to study, have worked and continue to work at the faculty, on its 75th anniversary! Be healthy and successfully teach and conduct the research, which in turn depends on the interested students and school children who come to the faculty.
Let the graduates successfully "fly" into their life horizon. I would like to say a few words to the students, too: develop your goals, concentrate on them, and strive to achieve those goals. There is a lofty word "patriotism" and a "down to earth" word "demand". Some philological, perhaps, paradox is that for university graduates their “demand” as a specialist in the motherland can be identified with patriotism,” concluded Valerii Anikin.
