The Bestuzhev Courses were the largest and most prominent women's higher education institution in Imperial Russia.

The institute opened its doors in 1878. It was named after Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin

Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin

Konstantin Nikolayevich Bestuzhev-Ryumin was one of the most popular Russian historians of the 19th century. He held a chair in Russian History at the University of St. Petersburg and was elected into the Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1890...

, the first director. Other professors included Baudouin de Courtenay, Alexander Borodin

Alexander Borodin

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...

, Faddei Zielinski

Faddei Zielinski

Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński ; September 14, 1859, Kiev Guberniya, Russia–May 8, 1944, Bavaria, Germany): was a polish prominent classical philologist, historian, translator of Sophocles, Euripides and other classical authors into Russian...

, Dmitry Mendeleyev, Ivan Sechenov

Ivan Sechenov

Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov near Simbirsk, Russia – , Moscow), was a Russian physiologist, named by Ivan Pavlov as "The Father of Russian physiology"...

, and Sergey Platonov

Sergey Platonov

Sergey Fyodorovich Platonov was a Russian historian who led the official St Petersburg school of imperial historiography before and after the Russian Revolution.Platonov was born in Chernigov and attended a private gymnasium in St...

. Nadezhda Krupskaya and Maria Piłsudska were among the graduates. The courses occupied a purpose-built edifice on Vasilievsky Island

Vasilievsky Island

Vasilyevsky Island is an island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, bordered by the rivers Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva in the south and northeast, and by the Gulf of Finland in the west. Vasilyevsky Island is separated from Dekabristov Island by the Smolenka River...

.

After the Russian Revolution they were reorganized as the Third University of Petrograd, which was merged into the Petrograd University in September 1919.