Kuban State University was opened in Krasnodar on September 5 (19), 1920. Its first Rector was Nikandr A. Marx, a former general in the tsarist army, a prominent historian and a specialist in ancient Russian paleography. At the same time, the Institute of Public Education was also founded. Famine and devastation in Soviet Russia led to the abolition of many national universities, including Kuban State University. However students and teachers of the university were able to move to the Institute of Public Education, which was renamed Kuban Higher Pedagogical Institute. The Institute was temporarily renamed Kuban Agronomical Pedagogical Institute in 1931, and in 1933 it was renamed Krasnodar State Pedagogical and Teacher Institute named after the 15th anniversary of the Komsomol. In the late 1940s, it had another official name of Krasnodar State Pedagogical Institute named after the 15th Anniversary of the Komsomol. Krasnodar State Pedagogical Institute was reorganized into Kuban State University on February 18, 1970.
In 1982, Vladimir A. Babeshko, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the awardee of the State Prize, was elected the Rector of the University and served as a rector for 26 years. Under his leadership, the university staff implemented a large-scale and successful development project which improved the educational process, expanded the curriculum and increased the commitment of scientific research, strengthening links with employers and cooperation with Moscow State University, Leningrad State University and the USSR Academy of Sciences. The University was developing dynamically, and by the end of the 1980s its scientific research was rated as the most important in the Soviet Union in a number of areas.
When the economy collapsed in 1991, the country changed significantly. However, the commitment of the university and its faculty toward the education and the students remained high. As a result, Kuban State University was able to adapt successfully to the changed conditions.
