Formation and Creation of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijani SSR (1920–1945) in the Works of Azerbaijanian and Foreign Scientists

Abstract

In this article the author examines the historiography on the problem of formation and creation of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1920-1945. The aim is to summarise the available literature on the subject, to analyse the works on the history of the foundation and the first years of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan and to show the development of the research interest in this field. This article examines the works of Russian, Soviet, and international historians of science. Soviet historiography was based on communist methodology. Soviet publications were characterised by the use of a large number of published documents and statistical materials. The issues of the development of science, the scientific intelligentsia, scientific personnel, research work; the activities of public organizations of the intelligentsia; the organization of science in various branches and periods of the development of Soviet society were actively studied. Particular attention was paid to the system of Party and state management of science, policy in the field of its organisation, the attitude to the old scientific intelligentsia, the composition of scientific employees and the conditions of their work were analysed, and changes in their socio-political position were noted. During the Perestroika and post-Soviet periods, the tasks of studying the history of the organisation of science in the USSR expanded, new documents were introduced into academic circuit, many facts, events and names were restored, and the methodology and methods of research were improved. The author shows that post-Soviet Azerbaijani historiography of the formation and establishment of the Academy of Sciences, although it inherits the Soviet one, in many ways offers not only new approaches to understanding the history of its foundation, but also a new research topic. By the quantity and quality, time range, geography of publications by Azerbaijani, Russian and international historians, it can be argued that the problem of the formation of the Academy of Sciences is one of the areas of Azerbaijani historical scholarship.