Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University

Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University (Vasyl' Stus DonNU) (, Donets’kyi Natsional’nyi Universytet; ) one of the leading higher educational institutions of Ukraine. The university's history starts in 1937 from the moment of creation of a pedagogical institute in Donetsk (then Stalino). In 1965, the institute was transformed into Donetsk State University. It was accorded the National status in 2000. In 2014, due to the war in Donbas, a number of teachers and students left Donetsk and subsequently reestablished the university as Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University in Vinnytsia. At the same time, the majority of teachers and students remained in Donetsk, therefore splitting the university in two. History 1937 to 1945 On July 15, 1937, a decree from the Ukrainian SSR established the Stalin State Pedagogical Institute in the city of Stalino (Donetsk). Its first director was Oleksandr Yevdokymenko, who was arrested in 1938 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge. Originally the institute consisted of two departments, History and Philology, and had five chairs.