Kazan Federal University (, Kazanskiy (Privolzhskiy) federalnyy universitet; ) is located in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia.
Founded in 1804 as Kazan Imperial University it is the second oldest among Russian universities. Famous mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky served there as the rector from 1827 until 1846. In 1925, the university was renamed in honour of its most famous student Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin). The university is known as the birthplace of organic chemistry due to works by Aleksandr Butlerov, Vladimir Markovnikov, Aleksandr Arbuzov, and the birthplace of electron spin resonance discovered by Evgeny Zavoisky.
In 2010, Kazan University received the federal status. It is also one of 15 Russian universities that were selected to participate in 5–100 Russian Academic Excellence Project coordinated by the Government of the Russian Federation and aimed to improve their international competitiveness among the world’s leading research and educational centers.
As of November 1, 2015, the University consists of 16 Institutes, 3 Higher Schools, Faculty of Law, and 2 regional branches. More than 40,000 students enrolled in 479 degree programs at undergraduate and postgraduate level (including 85 doctoral and 8 double-degree programs with partner universities).
Research priority areas are concentrated on biomedicine and pharmaceutics, oil extraction, oil refining and petrochemistry, informational communication and aerospace technologies, advanced materials, and social sciences along with humanities.