Don Polytechnic University, one of the oldest educational institutions in Novocherkassk, was founded in 1907. Two years later, it was named Alexeyevsky Don Polytechnic Institute in honor of Tsarevich Alexey. The construction of new buildings was overseen by the architect of Polish descent Bronislaw Stanislavovich Rogulsky, but World War I and the Civil War hindered the completion of the work. Despite this, the university successfully operated even before the revolution.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the first independent elections for the Ataman of the Host since the time of Peter the Great were held in the Don region, resulting in General of Cavalry Alexey Maximovich Kaledin being elected. His name became so popular among the Cossacks that the university was renamed Kaledin University.

Many students voluntarily joined the white Cossack partisan units, but even during the most difficult periods of the Civil War, classes at the university continued, interrupted only during the city's capture by the Reds in the winter and spring of 1918. The new ataman, Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov, supported educational institutions, striving for peaceful life in the capital of the Don Host, a sentiment shared by African Petrovich Bogaevsky. In the winter of 1920, the city was finally occupied by the Red Army, and the university temporarily closed, with many students and teachers leaving with the whites.

After some time, classes resumed, but the university was simply called Don Polytechnic, without mention of Tsarevich Alexey or Ataman Kaledin. In 1930, the construction of its buildings was completed, some of which have survived to this day. In the following decades, the university changed its name several times and in 1999 became the Southern Federal University of Technology. Today, it comprises 10 faculties, 4 institutes, and 39 departments, but few remember how the history of Don University began.