Kharkiv National University is one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe. Founded in November 1804 on the initiative of the outstanding educator VN Karazin, according to the diploma of Alexander I.

The grand opening of the university took place on January 29, 1805. The university has written many bright pages in the history of the Ukrainian national revival of the XIX-XX centuries, gave a powerful impetus to the transformation of Kharkiv into a major scientific and cultural centre, educational capital of Ukraine.

The history of Kharkiv National University is an integral part of the intellectual, cultural and spiritual history of Ukraine. The names of such world-famous scientists, scientists and educators as PP Gulak-Artemovsky, OM Lyapunov, MI Kostomarov, MP Barabashov, MM Beketov, D. are connected with it. I. Baggaley, AM Krasnov, MV Ostrogradsky, VA Steklov, OO Potebnya, OV Pogorelov and many, many others.

Kharkiv University is the only one in Ukraine where three Nobel Prize winners studied and worked - biologist Ilya Mechnikov, economist Semyon Kuznets, and physicist Lev Landau.

Honorary members and honorary doctors of the university at different times were elected prominent figures of science and culture of different countries: IV Goethe and O. Humboldt, Ivan Franko and Leo Tolstoy, PP Semenov-Tyan-Shansky and others.

Among the honorary doctors of the university is the first president of Ukraine Mykhailo Hrushevsky.

The publication of the first domestic newspapers and magazines, the creation of the first scientific societies is connected with the university.

Over the years of its existence, more than 130,000 people have graduated from the university. The names of university students are immortalized in geographical names, names of space objects, plants and minerals, laws and formulas. About 60 graduates of the university became full members and corresponding members of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.