Azerbaijan, University of

Azerbaijan, University of 

named for S. M. Kirov, opened in Baku in 1919 as a part of the medical and historiophilological faculties. First called Baku University, it became the University of Azerbaijan in 1924.

In 1930 it was reorganized into several independent higher educational institutions—including medical, pedagogical, and economic. In 1934 it was reinstated as a university and named after S. M. Kirov. Well-known scholars have taught at the university. Among them are the philologist N. Ia. Marr, the surgeon V. I. Razumovskii, who was also the first rector of the university, the chemist Iu. G. Mamedaliev, the linguist I. I. Meshchaninov, the botanist A. A. Grossgeim, the orientalist V. V. Bartol’d, and the writer A. B. Akhver-diev. There were 12 departments in the university in 1969: applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology and geography, history, philology, law, oriental studies, library science, journalism, and a faculty for raising the qualifications of teachers at higher educational institutions. There is also a graduate school. All departments have evening and correspondence-course divisions with the exception of chemistry, physics, and oriental studies. Courses are taught in Azerbaijani and Russian. During the 1968–69 school year over 11,000 students attended the university; the more than 600 faculty members in 64 subdepartments included 74 professors and doctors of science and 327 lecturers and candidates of science.

The university has a computer center, an astronomical station, 30 laboratories of which four are experimental (including paleobiogeochemistry and semiconductor physics), museums of fossils and useful minerals, and a library with over 1.5 million volumes. The university publishes Uchenye zapiski (since 1955). During the years of its existence the university has prepared more than 27,000 highly qualified specialists.

M. S. ALIEV