On 25 July 1805 the Russian senate adopted a resolution on founding Prince Bezborodko's Gymnasium of Higher Learning in Nizhyn.

The main building of the gymnasium was designed in the style of classical architecture by a famous 19th-century architect, Luigi Rusca.

[2] Nizhyn State University has seven faculties: Philology, History and Law, Social and Humanitarian, Foreign Languages, Culture and Arts, Nature and Geography, Physics and Mathematics.

In front of the main building is Gogol Square with a memorial to the victims of World War II.

The four-storey construction hosts the university administration and Social and Humanitarian, Physics and Mathematics faculties.

The main aim of the museum was to elucidate for the present generations Gogol's life and his creative work of the Nizhyn period.

The library has the Museum of Rare Books, the Gogol Research Centre, five reading halls for 600 readers.

Among them are the ancient editions of the 16th–18th centuries such as the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, Aeneid by Vergil, Grammar by Meletius Smotrytsky, Arithmetic by Leonty Magnitskyy, etc.

There are a number of works concerning Gogol's life and his literary activities published by the professors and lectures of the university.

Many outstanding writers and poets studied in Nizhyn Higher School: Nikolay Gogol, Yevhen Hrebinka, V. Zabila, L. Hlibov, M. Herbel, Yu.

The history of higher school in Nizhyn is connected with the names of artists: Ya.-de-Balmen, M. Samokysh; actors: F. Stravynsky, M. Kazmin.

Among the graduates of Nizhyn Higher School are well-known educators, scholars, statesmen, cultural figures: academicians M. Derzhavin, A. Bohomolets, T. Buhaiko.

At the time of the Prince Bezborodko Gymnasium of Higher Sciences a group of qualified teachers worked there: professors K. Shapalynsky, M. Belousov, F. Zinher and the artist K. Pavlov.