Peoples' Friendship University

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

Российский Университет Дружбы Народов
Motto	Scientia unescamus (Let us be united by knowledge)
Type	Public
Established	1960
Rector	Vladimir Filippov
Administrative staff	5000
Students	28,000
Address	117198, Moscow Miklukho-Maklaya str. 6, Moscow, Russia
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	IFPU
Website	www.rudn.ru

The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (Russian: Российский университет дружбы народов, РУДН) is an educational and research institution located in southern Moscow. It is ranked by the Ministry of Education of Russia as the country's third-best university after Moscow State University and Saint Petersburg State University. The institution was founded in 1960 as the Peoples' Friendship University (Russian: Университет дружбы народов им. Патриса Лумумбы). Its stated objective during the height of the Cold War was to help developing nations, mainly in Asia, Africa and South America, by providing higher education and professional training. Many students from developed countries also attended the university.

The name of the University in Russian is Российский университет дружбы народов, which translates to Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, the acronym for that being PFUR. Российский университет дружбы народов transliterates to "Rossijskij Universitet Druzhby Narodov" which renders the approximate Latin character equivalents of the Cyrillic characters of the original. The acronym formed from this transliteration would be RUDN, and some sources use this transliteration acronym to denote the university.

The USSR Government founded the Peoples' Friendship University (PFU) on 5 February 1960. On 22 February 1961, the University was named Patrice Lumumba University after the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba.

Professor Sergey Vasilievich Rumiantsev, Doctor of engineering, Honored scientist of the RF, was the first Rector of the University. He took an active part in the foundation of the University and remained its Rector till 1970. In 1960, Russian language studies for international students started at the preparatory Faculty. On 1 September, the Russian language studies were introduced at the six main faculties of the PFU (Engineering faculty, faculty of History and philology, Medical faculty, Agricultural faculty, faculty of Science, faculty of Law and economics).