This week - 26 September - Volga Region University will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary.
We offer to recall memorable dates, names and places from the half-century history of the university.
The order to establish a branch of the Volgograd State Institute of Physical Culture in Kazan was signed on 26 September 1974. The order was signed by Vyacheslav Zakhavin, acting chairman of the Committee for Physical Culture and Sport under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR.
On 1 September 1975 the first academic year began - 150 students came to the departments headed by Zufera Urazaeva, Artyom Maisky and Boris Ivanov. Oleg Novak, the founding father of Kazan water polo, became the rector of the university. In addition to the chairs, the Kazan Branch Council, the institute's governing body, was established. Public organisations obligatory for that time appeared: party, Komsomol, trade union.
The institute had no sports facilities - there was only a small gymnasium. With the permission of the Kazan authorities, the institute rented the Central Stadium, swimming pool and sports halls of children's and youth sports schools.
By the end of the seventies, the Institute continued to reorganise its departments: a new Department of Sports Medicine and Hygiene was established, and the Department of Sports Games and Wrestling began to be taught by Olympic champion in fencing Valentina Nikonova and USSR champion in classical wrestling Khafiz Timashev.
