Dear friends and colleagues, 

Only a few days will pass - and December will give way to January, 2019 will pass the baton to the year, which is indicated on the calendar by a very beautiful number - 2020. These dates are always perceived as a new frontier, a countdown to a new stage in history, the beginning of a new, important period of life for the whole country and for each of us. Despite the fact that December has been almost snowless, we are all already in the New Year's mood, excited, and waiting for a miracle which the New Year has been associated with since childhood.

However, before we start making plans for the coming year, I suggest that everyone should summarize the results of the year which is coming to an end. For Penza State University, for everyone who is connected with our common alma mater, it has become a year of solving important and complex tasks, taking common and personal heights in acquiring new knowledge, in research activities. Some of you just entered PSU in 2019, someone graduated from the University and started working. And if, tearing off the last pages of the calendar, you can say to yourself: “I have done everything I could”, it means it has been a good, kind and successful year.

In 2019 we celebrated important dates for all of us. Firstly, this is the 80th anniversary of the Penza region formation. Throughout its history, PSU has been and remains the main “talent factory” for our home town, giving a start to the lives of tens of thousands of highly qualified specialists in various sectors of the economics, science, medicine, education, art, and sports. Many university graduates have glorified the Penza region throughout the country and the whole world. And so, I am convinced, it will continue to be. This means that the anniversary of the region is one of the main holidays for PSU, its teachers, employees, students, and graduates.

In addition, in September we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Medical Institute, which trains specialists for the medical industry in the region. We also celebrated another important date - the 80th anniversary of the opening of the teacher's institute - the first university in Penza, whose successor is the Institute of Teacher Education, the oldest constituent part of PSU. This fact implies that it is our university that is the founder of higher education in the Sura region, and today, being the leader of higher education in the region, it maintains glorious historical traditions. We have the right to be proud of this!

The coming year, 2020, will also have an important event. In May we are going to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. And this is also our common holiday: the holiday of veterans of the Great Patriotic War and the holiday of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that is, you and me. Let us be worthy of the Soviet soldiers and officers’ bravery who won in this 

And naturally, on New Year's Eve, I would like to wish each of us peace on the whole Earth, because it is the main reason for our victories and our development, our common happiness. On behalf of the administration of Penza State University and on my own behalf, I cordially congratulate the faculty, staff, all students, post-graduate students and graduates of PSU with their most beloved, brightest and most dreamlike holiday! I wish each of you good health, success in work and study, new victories, true friendship, happy love! Let every day of the coming year become bright and full of magical events for you.

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!

A.D. Gulyakov, Rector of Penza State University