Today is the day of the founding of Baku State University.
Oku.Az Please note that the higher education institution was established on September 1, 1919 by the parliament of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
At that time, the Azerbaijani Parliament passed a law on the opening of the first university.
This law, entitled “On the Establishment of the State University in the City of Baku”, establishes that the university will consist of four faculties: history-philology, physics-mathematics, law and medicine, along with the oriental faculty.
Article 10 of the law states that Baku State University is considered to be opened on September 1, 1919. Taking into account the concerns of the public, Article II, Clause 2 of the law establishes that the Turkish language is a compulsory subject in all faculties. Taking into account the recommendation of the university commission and the submission of the Ministry of Public Education, the Government of Azerbaijan adopted a decision on the approval of the rector and deans of Baku State University on September 8, 1919.
The composition of the professors and other academic staff was approved at the first meeting of the University Council on November 10, 1919. The first school day at the university was announced on Saturday, November 15, 1919.
The first rector of the university, Professor Vasily Ivanovich Razumovsky, later wrote about the importance of the creation of this educational institution:
“Azerbaijan has created its own centre of enlightenment. A new bright page has been written in the history of the Turkish people. A new torch has been lit at the junction of Europe and Asia. We can consider ourselves happy witnesses of this great historical event.”
After the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922, Azerbaijani education was subordinated to the centre and the independence of the university was terminated.
In 1922, the university was renamed and Azerbaijan State University (ASU) was founded. As in the whole country, education at the university was in the service of Soviet ideology. Aleksandr Gulyayev, a philosopher and logician who graduated from the history and philosophy department of Kazan University in 1923 and a professor at Baku State University since 1920, was appointed rector of ASU.
In the statutes adopted in 1923, it was decided to conduct all compulsory courses and exercises in Russian in the other faculties of the university, except for the Oriental Faculty. The beginning of this process at the university was not received unambiguously: professors and teachers of other nationalities considered it a threat to their interests and claimed that the intellectual level of the Turkish nation was low.
In 1926, the first rector of Azerbaijan, Taghi Shahbazi, was appointed. However, in 1929 he was expelled and the Russian scientist Vladimir Yelpatyevsky was appointed rector.
In June 1930, by the decision of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR, the activities of Azerbaijan State University were suspended and new independent institutes were created based on its separate faculties.
However, the ruthless repressions of the 1930s did not escape the national-spirited collective of the university. During this period, hundreds of teachers, professors, workers and students were labeled as “enemies of the people”, Turks, Turanists, Pan-Turks, Pan-Islamists. Our unforgettable intellectuals, such as A. Nazim, A. Bukshpan, A. Gubaidullin, V. Khuluflu, B. Chobanzade, T. Shahbazi, H. Shakhtakhtinsky, M. Alekbarli, who were victims of brutal Stalinist repressions in those years, were exiled to Siberian prison camps or were shot.
In 1937, two deans, two vice-deans, four heads of departments, the director of the library, the scientific secretary, the head of a special department, the heads of the Party and Komsomol organizations, eight professors and four intellectuals of our nation who became rectors of the university (Taghi Shahbazi, Magsud Mammadov, Mammadkazim Alakbarli), Bala bey Hasanbayov) were sentenced to death.
During the Second World War, the university was able to maintain its pioneering position in the country, despite the acute shortage of teachers and professors who went to war. In 1945, university scientists provided special services in the organization of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences.
World War II had a negative impact on the life of the university, the teaching process became difficult. On June 22, 1941, the first day of the war, the rector of the university Jabrayil Agali oglu Alasgarov went to the front, which called the entire team of teachers and students. In the 1940-41 academic year, all university graduates and 200 students went to the front.
In 1969, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Azerbaijan State University the Order of the Red Banner of Labor on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its foundation.
The University Press, which was suspended in 1961, resumed its activities in the 1980s. During this period, great importance was attached to the development of the University Library. In 1974, this library, considered the methodological centre of the Republican libraries, was granted the status of a “Scientific Library” due to the breadth and richness of the scope of its collection.
In 1989-1993, the rector of ASU was changed five times. In 1993-1996, the rector of ASU was Murtuz Najaf and Alasgarov, in 1996-1998, Misir Jumayil and Mardanov.
By decree of President Heydar Aliyev on June 13, 2000, the university was granted the status of self-government (autonomy) and has since then been operating according to its statutes.
In 1991, Azerbaijan State University was named after M.A. Rasulzadeh, who took an active part in the establishment of this higher education institution. Finally, since 2001, the university has been approved as Baku State University, as it was first established.
President of Baku State University Ilham Aliyev According to the decree of June 21, 2017 “On the reorganization of Baku State University and Azerbaijan State University of Economics”, it received the status of a public legal entity under the Ministry of Education (now the Ministry of Science and Education). Due to the implementation of this order, the autonomous status of Baku State University was canceled.
