Southern Federal University is the largest research and educational establishment of
Rostov Oblast. The university began to operate in Rostov-on-Don in 1915 as an affiliate part of
Imperial University of Warsaw whose Russian staff had been evacuated from
Poland with the onset of
World War I. Later, with the collapse of
Russian Empire, the university was named Donskoy University after the region of
Don by the decree of
Russian Provisional Government on May 5, 1917. When founded in 1915, Donskoy University was the first higher education institution in Rostov-on-Don and had four academic departments: history & philosophy, medicine, physics & mathematics, and law. In 1917–1920, during
Russian Civil War, Rostov-on-Don was under the control of the anti-Soviet coalition forces of Russian
White movement including
Kaledin's
Don Army. Many of the staff who found refuge at Donskoy University at that time had a strong anti-Soviet stance and students were being drafted to
White Army. During the turmoil years of the Civil War the official name of the university was Bogaevsky Donskoy University named after Mitrofan Bogaevsky, assistant to
Ataman Alexey Kaledin. Following the takeover of Rostov-on-Don by
Red Army in January 1920, the authority over Donskoy University passed to the
Soviet government. That same year the Soviets purged the university off any seemed disloyal and pro-White movement staff members. ==Academics==