Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistics University named after N.A. Dobrolyubov (NGLU, known locally as *inyaz* — the foreign-language institute) is a federal institution of higher education in the Nizhegorodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod, at Minin Street, 31a.[1] It trains translators, foreign-language teachers, international relations specialists, social communications professionals, and teachers of Russian as a foreign language. The founding authority is the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia; the official date of establishment is 13 September 1937.[1] The university traces its own lineage to 1917, when municipal foreign-language courses were first opened.[2][3] As of 1 October 2025, 3,308 students were enrolled in higher education programmes here.[3]
The Landau Courses
The beginning was laid by foreign-language courses opened in Nizhny Novgorod in 1917; their initiator and first director was Max Mikhaylovich Landau.[2] English, German, and French were taught, along with Esperanto — a language on which hopes were then pinned as the future medium of international communication.[2]
In 1922 the courses were granted state status and became the Provincial Higher Courses in Foreign Languages and Literatures under the provincial department of public education. Graduates received a higher-education diploma and the qualification of foreign-language teacher and translator.[2][3]
The Institute of 1937
On September 13, 1937, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR resolved to establish the Gorky Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages.[2][1] The first director, appointed as early as August 1935, was Aleksandr Ivanovich Berezin.[2] In its first year of operation, 148 students studied across three faculties, and 21 instructors worked across five departments: English, French, and German languages; social and economic sciences; and linguistics and the Russian language.[2]
The institute succeeded in attracting prominent philologists — A. I. Smirnitsky, N. S. Chemodanov, G. P. Torsuev, A. V. Kunin, L. V. Shcherba, V. M. Zhirmunsky, and B. A. Ilyish.[2] In December 1939, the institute received the building of School No. 16 at Black Pond, and in 1940 the foundation was laid for a four-story building on Minin Street — the very building that became the first academic block of what is now the university.[2] In May 1940, a correspondence division was opened.[2]
The War
Dozens of faculty members, staff, and students never returned from the front; the director Mikhail Ivanovich Sharkov also went to war, and from late August 1941 his duties were carried out by Pyotr Ivanovich Shulpin.[2] From October 1941 to January 1942, three hundred students and faculty members built a defensive line, excavating around five thousand cubic meters of earth.[2]
In 1942, the institute's staff contributed 45,115 rubles in cash and 42,000 rubles in bonds toward the construction of a tank column called "For Advanced Science."[2] That same year, on November 1, 1942, the institute established a two-year translation division — a direct wartime response to the need for people who understood the enemy's language.[2] Between 1941 and 1943, 121 people left the institute's walls for the front.[2]
From Institute to University
The institute's own academic building was commissioned in 1949.[2] From 1955 onward the institute published its own Scholarly Notes; in 1956, postgraduate programmes opened at the departments of English, German, and French philology, and a second foreign language became compulsory for all students.[2]
In 1961, the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR named the institute after Nikolay Aleksandrovich Dobrolyubov. From 1962, a military department operated there training interpreter-clerks; over the course of its existence it prepared more than eight thousand reserve officers.[2] In 1963, a student dormitory opened on Gagarin Avenue and construction began on the Linguist sports camp on the Gorky Sea.[2] In 1964, the translation faculty was established as an independent unit, and for the first time a professional linguist — Anatoly Ivanovich Domashnev — was appointed to head the institute.[2]
The institute received its second academic building on Bolshaya Pecherskaya in 1966, and its third — on Minina — in 1981.[2] In 1988, the first election of a director was held: the staff elected Ryabov Gennadiy Petrovich as rector.[2]
In 1991 the institute was renamed Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1994 the Russian government granted it the status of a linguistics university.[2][3] During the 1990s, Italian, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, and Arabic were added to the three core languages; a philological faculty, a faculty of international relations, economics and management, a linguistics college, and cultural and educational centres — French, Austrian, Italian, Luxembourgish, Lithuanian, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian — were all established.[2] The fourth building, completing the quadrangle on Minina, was opened in 2007 to mark a double anniversary — the ninetieth year of the courses and the seventieth year of the institute.[2]
How the university is organised
Degree programs are offered by four vysshaya shkolas (higher schools) and one institute: the Vysshaya Shkola of Linguistics, Pedagogy and Psychology; the Vysshaya Shkola of Translation; the Vysshaya Shkola of Social Sciences; the Vysshaya Shkola of International Relations and World Politics; and the Institute of the Russian Language.[3] Continuing education is concentrated in the Institute of Continuing Education, and secondary vocational education in the NGLU College.[3]
As of 1 October 2025, a total of 3,308 students were enrolled in bachelor's, specialist, and master's programs: 2,101 full-time, 363 part-time (combined attendance), and 844 by correspondence.[3] Of these, 1,736 students — 52.47 percent of the total enrollment — were funded by the federal budget; the share of international students, including citizens of CIS countries, stood at 4.92 percent.[3] More than 52.5 percent of the teaching staff held a candidate's or doctoral degree.[3]
Research is conducted across fifteen areas — ranging from social varieties of language and translation studies to automatic speech recognition and linguistic security.[3] The doctoral program offers four specializations; in 2025, ten candidate's dissertations were defended before the university's dissertation councils.[3]
- Vysshaya Shkola of Linguistics, Pedagogy and Psychology[3]
- Vysshaya Shkola of Translation[3]
- Vysshaya Shkola of Social Sciences[3]
- Vysshaya Shkola of International Relations and World Politics[3]
- Institute of the Russian Language[3]
2026 Admissions
In 2026 the university received 249 state-funded places for bachelor's and specialist degree programs — one third more than the previous year, while the number of applications submitted grew by more than half.[4] The average passing score for state-funded admission reached 258, with the highest — 283 — recorded in International Relations.[4] Ten places were filled by applicants admitted under the targeted quota for education programs, fourteen under the special quota, and thirty-two under the separate quota.[4]
This year the number of state-funded places increased by 30%, while the number of applications submitted grew by 55%.
International Ties
By the end of 2025, NGLU's register of international agreements listed 77 contracts with partner universities abroad; in 2025 alone, fifteen new agreements were added — with universities in Egypt, Thailand, Lebanon, China, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ethiopia, Armenia, and Serbia.[3]
The fourth building on Minin Street houses the Russian-Chinese research and education center "Confucius Institute at NGLU": the Chinese partner is Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing, and the center offers Chinese language instruction and cultural outreach programs.[5]
In summer 2026 the university hosted the "Summer Institute" for young teachers and researchers for the fourth time: twenty-five participants from fourteen countries studied Social Sciences, and the program included trips to Kazan, Saransk, Innopolis, and Knyaginino.[6]
Leadership
| Name | Years | Notable for |
|---|---|---|
| Aleksandr Ivanovich Berezin | from August 1935 | first director; the institute was established on 13 September 1937[2] |
| Mikhail Ivanovich Sharkov | until August 1941 | left for the front[2] |
| Pyotr Ivanovich Shulpin | from late August 1941 | served as acting director during the war[2] |
| Anatoly Ivanovich Domashnyev | from 1964 | first professional linguist to head the institute[2] |
| Ryabov Gennadiy Petrovich | from 1988 | first leader elected by the staff; under his tenure the institute became a university[2] |
| Zhanna Vladimirovna Nikonova | from 2018 | elected rector[2] |
| Nikita Vladimirovich Avralev | from 26 August 2025 | appointed by order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education[3] |
By Order No. 10-01-08/169 of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, dated August 26, 2025, Nikita Vladimirovich Avralev was appointed rector; prior to his official appointment, he had served as acting rector for approximately ten months.[3] His predecessor was Zhanna Vladimirovna Nikonova, who was elected rector in 2018.[2]
In February 2025, Nikonova and the director of the university's Institute of Continuing Education were charged with abuse of authority; the defendant did not admit guilt.[7] In April 2026, the investigation concluded, and the criminal case against the former rector and two of her former employees was referred to the Nizhegorodsky District Court: according to investigators, the case involves the embezzlement of 5.5 million rubles in university funds and damages of 1.3 million rubles from unpaid taxes.[8]
See also
- Lobachevsky University
- Pedagogical University
- School of Militia
- Universities in Nizhny Novgorod
- Minin Street
References
- Official website (archive) (lunn.ru)
- Wikidata (archive) (Q4318649 — entry in the open knowledge base)
- ROR (013gnjn86 — registry of research organizations)
- VIAF (315536776 — virtual international authority file)
- ISNI (0000000406451363)
In September 2026, NGLU and the Nizhny Novgorod House of National Unity signed a cooperation agreement providing for joint educational, social, cultural, and patriotic projects; the first event under the agreement was an educational and tourism program, "NGLU University Sessions: Speaking One Language with the World," for children of military personnel from various districts of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[9]
Sources
- Vremya N — In September 2026, NGLU and the Nizhny Novgorod House of National Unity signed a cooperation agreement providing for joint educational, social
- lunn.ru — NGLU named after N. A. Dobrolyubov — Basic information about the educational organization (archive)
- lunn.ru — NGLU named after N. A. Dobrolyubov — History of the university (archive)
- lunn.ru — NGLU named after N. A. Dobrolyubov — Self-assessment report of NGLU named after N. A. Dobrolyubov for 2025 (archive)
- Vremya N — Average passing score for state-funded places at NGLU reached 258 in 2026 (archive)
- lunn.ru — NGLU named after N. A. Dobrolyubov — Russian-Chinese scientific and educational center "Confucius Institute at NGLU" (archive)
- nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — NGLU launches regional stage of the "Summer Institute — 2026" project
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Nizhny Novgorod — Former NGLU rector Zhanna Nikonova does not admit guilt in embezzlement of university funds (archive)
- NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — Former NGLU rector Zhanna Nikonova to stand trial for misappropriating millions (archive)