Tomsk State University (formerly Tsarist Tomsk Imperial University) was founded in 1878. The university is the first university in the Siberian region of Russia and the Far East, its mission is based on higher education and basic scientific research, for the former Soviet Union and Russia has trained more than 100,000 outstanding professionals. Tomsk State University is a large comprehensive university combining education and research. It is one of the four top Russian state universities, after Moscow University, St. Petersburg State University and Novosibirsk State University.