Dmitry Mendeleev, one of the most famous scientists in the world, the discoverer of the periodic law of chemical elements, graduated from the department of natural sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg (later became part of St. Petersburg University). Nikolai Lobachevsky, a mathematician and one of the founders of non-Euclidean geometry, studied at Kazan University. The creator of television, Vladimir Zvorykin, is a graduate of the St. Petersburg Practical Technological Institute. The alma mater of Nobel Prize laureates in physics Igor Tamm, Ilya Frank, Alexey Abrikosov, Vitaly Ginzburg is Moscow State University (MSU).

In the field of medicine and physiology, graduates of St. Petersburg University Ivan Pavlov, Ilya Mechnikov, and Moscow State University graduates Nikolai Sklifosovsky and Nikolai Pirogov are famous. The world's favorite writer and playwright, Anton Chekhov, studied to become a doctor in Moscow.

Sergei Korolev, a rocket and space technology designer who launched the first artificial Earth satellite and the first manned spacecraft, and Nikolai Dollezhal, a reactor designer at the world's first nuclear power plant, graduated from the Bauman Moscow Technological University. The designer of the tallest Ostankino television tower of his time, Nikolai Nikitin, studied at the Tomsk Polytechnic University, and Igor Kurchatov, who was the first to propose the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, studied at the university in Crimea.

Graduates of Russian universities are also famous in the field of arts. Pyotr Tchaikovsky was one of the first students of the Moscow Conservatory, which also graduated musicians and composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Alfred Schnittke, Mstislav Rostropovich, Svyatoslav Richter. Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, one of the most famous Russian artists, Wassily Kandinsky, studied at Moscow University. The greatest dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, studied choreography in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

Among our contemporaries there are also many graduates of Russian universities who have become famous throughout the world. These are Nobel Prize winners in physics Zhores Alferov (graduate of the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute) and Konstantin Novoselov (graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology). Mathematician Grigory Perelman, the first in the world to prove the Poincaré conjecture, is a graduate of St. Petersburg State University. Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who studied at the same university. The developer of the Tetris game is Leonid Pajitnov, who studied at Moscow University. One of the world's leading information security specialists, Evgeny Kaspersky, is a graduate of the Russian FSB Academy. The famous pianist Denis Matsuev (Moscow Conservatory), conductor Valery Gergiev and singer Anna Netrebko (Conservatory in St. Petersburg). Grandmaster, world chess champion Sergei Karyakin is a graduate of the Russian State Social University. And many, many others.

Universities in Russia have been accepting foreign students almost from the very beginning. But if during the Soviet era there were not so many of them (for example, from 1950 to 1960, only about 6,000 foreign students graduated), then in 1990 more than 126 thousand foreigners were studying in the country, and in 2019 - more than 327 thousand . Now more than two million graduates of higher educational institutions of the USSR and Russia work in more than 180 countries of the world. Among them are current heads of state - for example, the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas completed his graduate studies at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and defended his dissertation at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.

Politicians who over the years occupied leading positions in governing states were educated in the USSR or Russia: the leader of China Deng Xiaoping, the President of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong, the President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena, the President of Angola Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his successor João Lourenço, President Egypt Hosni Maburak, Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo, Honduras President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, the first President of Mongolia Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat, Romanian President Ion Iliescu, as well as Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng, Deputy Chairman of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic. Other graduates are known in the professional community at home and abroad, recognized as specialists and influential people in various fields of activity.

President of the Chinese Educational Association for International Exchanges, former Deputy Minister of Education of the People's Republic of China Liu Limin received his PhD degree from the Pushkin State Institute of Russian Language in Moscow. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Rwanda to the Russian Federation Muzhawamaria Jeanne D'Arc studied at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. A graduate of the same Al-Nawais University, Mustafa Hammoud holds the post of Secretary General of the Constitutional Court of Jordan. Radmila Tonkovic, a graduate of Moscow State University, became the first and only woman to be awarded the Serbian Army Aviation Officer's Honorary Dress Dagger.