In Tambov, on the building of the Drama Theater a memorial plaque appeared in honor of the 105th anniversary of the founding of Derzhavin Tambov State University. 27 October, 1918 the first university in Tambov province was established at the Coliseum Theater - now Tambov Drama Theater. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars, signed by Vladimir Lenin, established the official date of birth of the University – 7 November, 1918 the day of the first anniversary of the October Revolution.
– For more than a century, Tambov has been a university city. Every twentieth Tambov resident is either a student, a teacher or an employee of Derzhavin University,” says rector Pavel Moiseev. – Residents of more than seventy regions of our great Russia study with us. I’m proud to say: people come to Tambov to gain knowledge from all over the world. Today, more than three thousand students from more than sixty countries study at Derzhavin University. I'm not sure the Founding Fathers thought about this. But after more than a hundred years, the University is doing everything to be worthy of their plan! I believe that 105 years since the creation of our University is not just a fact of our own biography, but a milestone in the development of the entire Tambov region.
In 1921, the University was divided into three educational institutions, of which only the workers'; faculty remained. In 1930, it became the basis for the creation of the Agricultural Pedagogical Institute, and later the Tambov State Pedagogical Institute. The university was recreated in a new era of change: by decree of the Russian President of 29 December, 1994. In 1995 the University received the name of Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin, a Russian poet and statesman.