The concept of a Russian-American liberal arts college was first born in the minds and hearts of Russian educators who came to the United States in 1990, visited several Christian liberal arts colleges and universities, and were so impressed with both the quality of the education and the integration of moral values and ethics with living and learning that they approached the leadership of the Christian College Coalition with the request that a similar institution be established in Moscow. Five years later, this concept is a reality.

The Russian-American Christian University’s (RACU) mission statement reads as follows:

This university offers to Russian students an educational program that trains them to be productive citizens in the Russian Federation, in their neighborhoods, in their churches, and in the marketplace.

As the plans for the university were jointly formulated by Russian and American educators, the following educational goals were approved by RACU’s Board of Trustees as guidelines for its development:

• To establish a cooperative educational venture through the combined efforts of Russian and American educators, a venture which would bring together the strengths of each educational system and would result in a vibrant community of Christian scholars and students.
• To engage Russian university students in vigorous liberal arts education that would promote lifelong Christian service to church and society.
• To produce quality Christian scholarship by faculty and students, scholarship which would enhance the best insights of Russian culture and historic Christianity and engage issues in the intellectual and public spheres.
• To create a caring and diverse educational community where faculty and students would be challenged to acquire knowledge, cultivate aspirations, and practice lives of service.
• To offer to Russian society an intellectually credible Christian witness, a witness that would bear testimony to historic Christianity, through lectures and publications of its faculty.

With leadership from a voluntary Board of Trustees made up of both Russian and American Christians, RACU opened its doors in the Spring of 1995 with four evening courses, and then a four-week summer English Language Institute in July 1995 which served almost one hundred students. Evening courses were offered during the 1995-96 academic year, a second English Language was held in July 1996 and the beginning of the four-year undergraduate program took place in September 1996. RACU has two campus locations: one facility, which RACU partially owns, that houses administrative offices, and a second, leased facility where the classrooms, computer lab and offices are situated. Both of these campus buildings are in the southwest section of Moscow.

At the last stage of RACU's license hearing before the Ministry of Higher Education in June 1997, the Council of Rectors denied our request to use the word "university" in our title. Under a new Russian law regulating education institutions, the title of university is reserved for institutions that are well-established and national in scope; all newly-created institutions of higher education must begin their lives as "institutes." By law, an institute is allowed to offer Bachelors and Masters degrees, and to perform basic research, so it has a prestige that would not be associated with the word in English. As a result of these developments, we will be known in Moscow as the "Russian-American Christian Institute," but will continue to go by our registered name of "Russian-American Christian University" in North America.

On December 3, 1997, the Russian-American Christian University was granted its educational license by the Russian Ministry of Education and this license authorized RACU to offer university-level undergraduate courses. After several years of preparation, the university applied for state accreditation and, on November 12, 2003, the Ministry of Education granted RACU full accreditation for five years. This is an historic milestone in RACU's development - as far as we know, RACU is the first private faith-based liberal arts university to be accredited in Russia.

October 26, 1990
Initial request by the Russian Minister of Education to build a "Christian liberal arts university" in Moscow

September 28, 1992
Formation of the American Working Group to develop a Christian college in Moscow

July 25, 1994
First meeting of the Board of Trustees of RACU in Moscow

June 14, 1995
Incorporation of the RACU/U.S., Inc., a non-profit organization, formed in Oklahoma

April 2, 1996
Signing of the Foundation Agreement of RACU by the Board of Trustees in Moscow

June 1995 and
June 1996
RACU offers a four-week "Summer English Language Institute" on the campus of the Russian People's Friendship University

July 10, 1996
IRS grants tax-exempt status to RACU/U.S., Inc.

September 1996
RACU accepts its first class of full-time undergraduate students

October 1996
RACU moves into its new campus location at the Center for Christian Ministry

May 27, 1997
Approval of RACU's Charter by the Board of Trustees in Moscow

December 3, 1997
The Russian Ministry of Education awards RACU operational license with the right to grant undergraduate and graduate degrees

September 1999
RACU moves some academic operations to Moscow State University's Center for International Education

May 19, 2001
RACU's first commencement celebration for 19 graduates

September 28, 2001
the Board of Trustees for RACU/U.S., Inc., approves the building plans and capital campaign budget for a new campus facility in Moscow

November 12, 2003
The Russian Ministry of Education grants RACU full accreditation for five years - the first school of its kind to receive state approval