Foundation of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy , the benefactor of Kyiv Collegium. Today's National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy claims as its predecessor the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, one of the oldest academic and theological schools amongst the
Orthodox Christian countries of
Eastern Europe. That Academy was first opened in 1615 as the school of the Kyiv
bratstvo ("brotherhood"). When, in 1632, the
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra school and Kyiv Brotherhood School merged they formed Kyiv's, and by extension Ukraine's, first institution of higher education. The newly formed 'collegium', then located in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, was given the Polish name 'Mohylańska' (), in honour of
Petro Mohyla, a key figure in bringing about the institution's foundation and proponent of modern Western educational standards at the academy. In 1658 under the terms of the
Treaty of Hadiach the Collegium obtained the status of an 'academy', similar to the
Kraków Academy – at that time the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's premier university. From 1686 Kyiv came under Russian rule as a result of the
Polish-Russian war. In 1694 the Collegium was also recognised as an academy by the
Tsar Ivan V; this was later reaffirmed by his half-brother, co-ruler, and successor,
Peter the Great. Subsequently, during the 17th and 18th centuries the academy was known for its education of the Russian and Ukrainian political and intellectual elites; it was highly acclaimed throughout Eastern Europe and accepted students of all classes and backgrounds from the territories of modern-day
Ukraine,
Russia,
Poland,
Belarus,
Romania,
Serbia,
Bulgaria and
Greece. In particular the
hetmans – military
leaders of the famed
Zaporozhian Cossacks – were benefactors of and actively supported the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The school flourished under the term of
Hetman Ivan Mazepa, an alumnus, and was later able to support the foundation of a number of other colleges built on its model, such as the
Vasilian College in
Moldavia and the
Slavic Greek Latin Academy in
Moscow. Due to the exceptional quality of the language program many of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy's students continued their education abroad, which at the time meant many of them were required to convert from the
Orthodox faith to Roman Catholicism. Despite this, many returning alumni readopted the Orthodox religion, as this was necessary in order to attain positions in the clergy or Academia. By sending so many of its graduates abroad the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy played a vital role in facilitating the transfer of knowledge eastwards across Europe and popularising the
Renaissance in
Russian Empire. With the passing years the need for a new, modern, institution of the higher education in Kyiv became apparent and the Tsar's ministers began to consider the establishment of such a school. It would, however, take a long time before the actual opening of a university in the city and when it finally did occur it did not come in the form of a reopened Kyiv-Mohyla Academy but in the foundation of an entirely new secular university - the
Saint Vladimir University, founded in 1834 on the orders of the
Tsar Nicholas I.
During the Soviet era and quotes by
Vladimir Lenin:
"Study, study, study..." and
"The Party is the mind, honour and conscience of our age". This mosaic replaced the image of an open Bible previously presented at the Kyiv Theological Academy wall. With the success of the
October Revolution of 1917 and subsequent establishment of the
Soviet Union, atheism became the only state sanctioned belief system and the church (along with its associated organs) were repressed. Shortly thereafter the authorities of the newly proclaimed
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ordered the closure of the Kyiv Theological Academy; its library was later plundered and the main church of the school, the Bogoyavlenskiy Cathedral, was demolished with explosives in 1935. The premises of the disbanded theological college were later used for a new Soviet military education facility - the
Kyiv Higher Naval Political School () - the only naval academy that trained specialist
political commissars for the
Soviet Navy. To this day one of the university's buildings still bears a mosaic portraying a warship, academic badge and open book displaying quotes by
Vladimir Lenin; upon the reestablishment of NaUKMA in 1992 a conscious decision was made to retain this mosaic as a visible reminder of the site's prior usage and totalitarian past.
Since Ukrainian independence Following
Perestroika and the fall of the
USSR in 1991, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was reestablished. This was made possible through the efforts of
Vyacheslav Bryukhovetsky, a high-profile Ukrainian academic, who later became the first president of the 'National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy' (NaUKMA). The reestablished institution became the first Ukrainian educational institution to be modelled on and structured according to the basic concepts of the
North American higher educational system, with
Bachelor's and
Master's degrees offered according to the requirements of an
academic credit system. On 24 August 1992, the first anniversary of
Ukraine's independence, the first cohort of students matriculated at NaUKMA, and by June 1995 the first six graduates of the reborn Kyiv-Mohyla Academy had received their degrees. Since then, NaUKMA's reputation for academic excellence has become well known throughout Ukraine; the university is now consistently ranked as one of the country's top educational institutions. In 1994 NaUKMA was a key lobbyist for and partner in the revival of another historically noteworthy Ukrainian educational institution, the
Ostroh Academy. Today the Ostroh Academy maintains strong links to NaUKMA and, in the year 2000, joined it as one of Ukraine's 19 'national' research universities. The NaUKMA widely got to be known for being the first university of which students and professors (among the other parties of the
Orange Revolution in
Kyiv) openly protested against the massive electoral selection fraud during the Ukrainian
presidential election in 2004. After those events a museum dedicated to the
Orange Revolution was opened at the
NaUKMA.
Claims of continuity with the old Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Because of its location on the site of the ancient Mohyla Academy, NaUKMA claims to be the oldest institution of higher education in Kyiv and all of Ukraine. However, this is disputed because NaUKMA has formally existed as a modern university (with a different focus and structure) only since 1991, without any clear continuity during a long break of 174 years in its history. The modern
National University of Ostroh Academy has a similar history of revival, taking its name from
Ostroh Academy (dating to 1576), which is considered to be the first institution of higher education in the territory of present-day Ukraine. Another claimant to the title of the oldest institution of higher education in Ukraine is
Lviv University, founded in 1661, which holds the undisputed record for being the oldest continuously operating university in Ukraine.
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (established in 1834) is the oldest continuously operating higher educational institution in the nation's capital,
Kyiv. Besides NaUKMA, two modern theological schools claim continuity with the academic traditions of the old Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. These are the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy of the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Research Center "Legacy of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" was founded in 1992 to research the history of the Mohyla Academy and promote NaUKMA's claim to continuity with the traditions of the old Mohyla Academy. ==Academics==