The documented history of the Russian community in Oxford dates from the visit of Peter I in 1698. Since then, over the course of more than three hundred years, many of his compatriots have left their mark on the history of Oxford: eminent statesmen, scientists and artists visiting the city, Russian professors working at the university, and students. Alexander I visited Oxford in the year 1814, leaving as a gift a vase made of Siberian jasper, which can still be seen today. Other visitors to Oxford include Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev, and the University of Oxford has conferred honorary doctorates on Ivan Turgenev, Dmitri Mendeleev, Anna Akhmatova, Andrei Sakharov and others. A large number of Russian alumni of the university have devoted their lives in service to their homeland, among them Mikhail Pleshcheev, of aristocratic birth, who later became the ambassador to Russia in England. In the year 1909, Prince Felix Yusupov, then studying at Oxford, founded the Oxford University Russian Society.



The Russian Society currently numbers around 900 members. The aims of the society are to unite compatriots in Oxford, to promote Russian language and culture, and to support Russian-speaking students wishing to enter Oxford. In order to realise these aims, the Russian Society regularly holds many events, for example screening Russian films, organising conversational lunches, holding Russian celebrations and concerts, and organising appearances by famous politicians and cultural figures, which has so far included Grigory Yavlinsky, Boris Nemtsov, Gennady Zyuganov, Boris Berezovsky, Baroness Cox, Vladimir Bukovsky and others.

Russian Musical Evening

This vase was presented to Merton College by Alexander I