Their structure originally consisted of two departments: History and Philosophy and Physics and Mathematics. On the last one were soon opened two offices: mathematical and natural, and after a few years two more – medical and chemical-pharmaceutical. The initiators and the first lecturers were outstanding scientists, academics subsequently S. A. Chaplygin, V. I. Vernadsky, N. D. Zelinsky (the inventor of the gas mask (1916)), Professors V. F. Davidov, B. K. Mlodzeevskii, A. N. Reformatsky, A. A. Eichenwald, S. G. Krapivin.