Russian Empire
Though the Empire was only officially proclaimed by Tsar Peter I following the Treaty of Nystad (1721), some historians would argue that it was truly born either when Ivan III of Russia conquered Veliky Novgorod in 1478, or when Ivan the Terrible conquered the Khanate of Kazan in 1552. According to another point of view, the term "Tsardom", which was used after the coronation of Ivan IV in 1547, was already a contemporary Russian word for empire.
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics
The Moscow Commercial Institute was founded in 1907 on private donations of merchants, bankers and manufacturers, gathered by initiative of the Moscow merchant Alexei Vishnyakov. It was essentially the first institute in Russia which prepared qualified businessmen for rapidly developing branches of industry. Prior to the revolution of 1917 about 2000 specialists were graduated from the institute. In 1924 it was renamed for Marxist thinker Georgy Plekhanov. In the 1960s the Institute was merged with the Moscow Governmental Economic Institute and became one of the major centers of scientific education in the country. After 1991 the institute obtained its current name. Recent years were marked with rising international cooperation, such as the foundation of the Africa Business House. Now the university deals with more than 80 partners in 52 countries. Among its graduates, there are many prominent politicians and businessmen, such as Soviet statesman Mikhail Suslov, liberal democrat Grigory Yavlinsky, and faculty member Ruslan Khasbulatov, former Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR and later Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation (1991–1993).