Turkmen State University named after Maxim Gorky was founded on July 14, 1950, through the reorganization of the Ashkhabad Pedagogical Institute, which had existed since 1931.

In 2007, the French company Bouygues built the main building of TSU with a library, a reading room, an assembly hall and a total area of 13,500 m2 at a cost of $40 million.

[5] On September 1, 2011, the faculty of geography and two blocks of dormitories built by Bouygues were opened.

Among the Moscow State University graduates in 1942 was the famous Soviet physicist and human-rights defender Andrei Sakharov, who completed his degree program in Ashkhabad.

[7][8] Other alumni include football manager Kurban Berdyev, businessman Igor Makarov, and entomologist Svetlana Myartseva.