Peter the Great's ukase (edict) regarding the foundation of a university in St. Petersburg was approved by the Senate of the Russian Empire on 28 January 1724.

In the 1920s to 1930s several departments (subdivisions of the faculties) grew into respective new faculties: the Faculty of Physics, the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, the Faculty of Geography, the Faculty of Geology, and the Faculty of Biology; a number of new departments and research institutes were created, as well as the following faculties for the humanities: the Faculty of History (1934), the Faculty of Philology (1937), the Faculty of Political Economy (1939), and the Faculty of Philosophy (1940). By 1941 the University had as many as 10 faculties and 7 research institutes. In 1944 the Faculties of Oriental Studies and of Law were re-established Today St Petersburg State University is a major Russian centre of science, education and culture of international repute. Many important universities in Europe, America, and Asia — notably Cambridge University (UK), Bologna University (Italy), the Free University of Berlin and Hamburg University (Germany), Carlton University (Canada), Amsterdam University (the Netherlands), Stockholm University (Sweden), the Municipal University of Osaka (Japan), to name but a few, — have maintained various academic contacts with the University of St. Petersburg.

• A. A. Ukhtomsky Institute of Physiology, St. Petersburg State University
• Chebyshev Laboratory, St. Petersburg State University, Department of Mathematics and Mechanics
• Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University
• Institute of Chemistry, St. Petersburg State University
• Institute of Earth Sciences, St.-Petersburg State University
• Interdisciplinary Centre of St. Petersburg State University
• Interdisciplinary Resource Center for Nanotechnologies, St. Petersburg State University
• Laboratory of Modern Algebra and Applications, St. Petersburg State University
• Mendeleev Centre, Saint Petersburg State University
• Resource Center "Nanohotonics", St. Petersburg State University
• Russian Center of Laser Physics, Research Institute of St. Petersburg State University
• Saint-Petersburg State University, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
• Spin optics laboratory, Saint-Petersburg State University
• St. Petersburg State University, Resource Center for Optical and Laser Materials Research
• St. Petersburg State University, Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry
• St. Petersburg State University, Economic Faculty
• St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes
• St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Physics
• St. Petersburg State University, Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty
• St. Petersburg State University, Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics
• St. Petersburg State University, Research Institute of Radiophysics
• St.Petersburg State University, Research resource center "Physical Methods of Surface Investigation"
• V. I. Zubov Research Institute of Computational Mathematics and Control Processes, St. Petersburg State University
• V. V. Sobolev Astronomical Institute, St. Petersburg State University

• Leningrad State University
• Leningrad State University named after A. A. Zhdanova