Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Росси́йский Университе́т Дру́жбы Наро́дов, РУДН


Established	1960
Type	Public
Location	Moscow, Russia
Website	www.pfu.edu.ru

The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (Росси́йский Университе́т Дру́жбы Наро́дов, РУДН) is located in southwest Moscow. It was founded in 1960 as the Peoples' Friendship University. Its primary goal was to help nations of the Third World at the height of the Cold War, providing higher education as well as a KGB training ground for young communists from developing countries.

In 1961, the university became Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University, named after the Congolese revolutionary and prime minister Patrice Lumumba. In the first year, 539 foreign students from 59 countries were enlisted (plus 57 Soviet students). The terrorist Carlos the Jackal studied at this university, along with guerrillas and revolutionaries from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

1 After the collapse of USSR
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] After the collapse of USSR

In 1992 the university was renamed the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and students who once were schooled in Marxist philosophy now take courses in capitalist business^[1]. In 2004 there were roughly 13,000 graduate and undergraduate students from more than 100 countries. The great majority of the student body today, however, is Russian. The school's fortunes have faded since the Soviet collapse, but it is still a draw for many foreign students with few higher-education alternatives, despite the many dangers.

Black and Asian students have increasingly been subject to violent racist and anti-foreigner attacks, including a number of murders. On the night of 24 November 2003, a mysterious fire in a university student dormitory left over 40 foreign students dead. Russian media later cited a police source as saying all the doors leading to the fire escapes had been blocked^[2]. The fire services blame an electrical fault, however students blamed arsonists; the previous night, they said, two skinheads had been chased from the area following an attempted arson attack^[3]. There has been no police investigation.