Short answers, pulled from the story.
Peter the Great issued a decree on the 24th of January 1724 that established Saint Petersburg University alongside the Academic Gymnasium and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. This institution claims to be one of the oldest universities in Russia, though Moscow State University was founded later in 1755.
The university educated Russian presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, both studying law there. Dalia Grybauskaite studied at the institution before becoming 8th president of Lithuania from 2009 to 2019, and Ion Inculeţ led the Moldavian Democratic Republic as its first president from 1917 to 1918.
On the 24th of March 1896, Alexander Popov publicly demonstrated transmission of radio waves for the first time in history on campus. Dmitri Mendeleev developed the periodic table while affiliated with the institution, and Heinrich Lenz contributed significantly to physics research there.
The university renamed itself 1st Petrograd State University in 1918 and then Petrograd State University in 1919 after merging with other institutions. It changed its name again to Leningrad State University in 1924 and finally returned to Saint Petersburg State University in 1991 after its namesake city changed name.
Admissions remain competitive with average Unified State Examination scores reaching 90 points out of 100 for domestic applicants in 2023. Only 4,617 domestic applicants gained acceptance from over 106,000 who applied, resulting in an overall acceptance rate of approximately 4% for both domestic and international scholarship-seeking students.