Early neuroscience research at the Medical Faculty of Tartu University in Estonia

In 1632, King Gustav Adolf II of Sweden founded a university, the Academia Gustaviana, in Tartu in Estonia, which at that time was part of Sweden. After the Swedish defeat in the Great Nordic War in 1710, Estonia became part of Russia. The University of Tartu was then closed until 1802, when Czar Alexander I ordered its reopening with the intention of attracting Western culture and science to Russia. The medical faculty of Tartu University drew distinguished neuroscientists from around the world, among them Kupffer, Rauber, Schmidt, Buchheim, Schmiedeberg, von Bergmann, Kernig, and Puusepp, and became a flourishing academic eastern outpost in medicine. After suffering severe setbacks and destruction in the 20th century, Tartu University has once again begun to flourish after the liberation of Estonia in 1991.