Odessa (formerly Novorossiysk) University was founded on May 1 (13), 1865 on the basis of the Richelieu Lyceum, which at the time of reorganization included physics, mathematics, law and cameral departments, the Institute of Oriental Languages, the Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The urgency of creating a higher educational institution in southern Russia was dictated by the development of capitalism and the need to develop the Novorossiysk Territory, which included the southern part of Ukraine, Bessarabia, Crimea and the Black Sea coast of the North Caucasus. The local advanced community insisted that the university be opened in Odessa. The famous Russian surgeon and public figure N.I. Pirogov, who served as the trustee of the Odessa school district, especially actively defended this idea. But the tsarist government was afraid of the creation of a higher educational institution in this large port city, and for a long time the issue remained unresolved. And yet, contrary to reactionary circles, the university was opened in Odessa, and not in the relatively deaf Taganrog or Nikolaev (these were government projects). The government decree read: "Having recognized for the benefit of granting the Novorossiysk Territory ways to higher education of youth and approving the assumptions considered now in the State Council on this subject of the Minister of Education, we order: instead of the Richelieu Lyceum, establish an imperial Novorossiysk University in Odessa with three faculties: historical and philological, physical and mathematical and legal, on the basis of the general charter of universities and the two states attached to this: normal and temporary, opening this university on May 1 of the future, 1865, by special order, together with this Minister of Education"