Bəhmən Axundov
Bahman Yusif oghlu Akhundov was born on December 28, 1910 in the city of Iravan, Iravan province, in a worker’s family. After the death of his father in 1917, the situation of the family worsened. In 1918, due to the aggravation of the conflict in Iravan, their family (mother, three brothers, one sister) moved to the Yenije village of Sharur.
Being the eldest child of the family, Bahman Akhundov had to start working early. At the same time, he continued his education and after graduating from the Yenije village school, he entered the Nakhchivan Agricultural Technical College. Then he continued his studies at Tashkent Central Asian State Planning Institute. After graduating from high school in 1934, he worked at Azerbaijan State University. A short time later, B.Akhundov entered the post-graduate course of the Moscow Planning Institute named after Krijinovsky in Moscow and in 1939 defended his candidate’s thesis under the scientific guidance of the famous scientist Stanislav Gustovovich Strumil.
B.Akhundov was the first scientist among Azerbaijanis to receive a degree in economic sciences.
B.Akhundov worked for some time in the central office of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR, at the Moscow Oil Institute named after Gubkin. He was on the front line during the Second World War.
B.Akhundov returned to Baku in 1942 and continued his activities as a teacher at the Azerbaijan State University (currently BSU), and as a senior researcher at the Institute of Party History of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, gave lectures, and devoted all his energy to the training and education of the young generation.
In 1947, B.Akhundov was sent to Moscow for a three-year doctoral course. His doctoral work was supervised by S.G. Strumilin. In order to complete the defense of his doctoral thesis, he applied to then president of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Academician Y. Mammadaliyev. At that time, there was a change in the administration of the academy, and the newly appointed president, Academician M. Aliyev, issued an order to extend the duration of the doctoral studies by one year. In 1951, B.Akhundov successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the scientific council of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the former USSR on the topic “Monopolistic capital in the pre-revolutionary Baku oil industry”. The publication of this work, which is the product of intense work, in the form of a monograph in Moscow, in a short period of time, made the scientist known throughout the Union.
In 1952–1956, B.Akhundov, who was the first doctor in the field of economics, was a professor of the political economy department at Azerbaijan State University, and in 1966–1974, vice-rector for scientific affairs of the Azerbaijan Institute of National Economy named after D. Bunyadzade (now UNEC), 1974- He worked as a professor of political economy department of that Institute until the end of his life. In addition, he was a member of the editorial board of the economic section of the “Azerbaijan Communist” and “News” magazine of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, and the editor-in-chief of the “Scientific works” magazine of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education.
In 1961, the book “Socio-economic outlooks of M.F.Akhundov and H.B. Zardabi” by Professor B.Akhundov, Doctor of Economic Sciences, was published in Russian. The contribution of the scientist in writing the economic part of the three-volume “History of Azerbaijan” book is significant.
B.Akhundov was awarded the title of “Honored Economist of Azerbaijan” in 1967, and in 1968 he was elected a corresponding member of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. He was the first scientist among republican economists to be elected to this prestigious scientific center.
B.Akhundov has done great work in the field of researching the history of economic ideas and current problems of political economy in Azerbaijan along the lines of the Coordinating Council of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan.
The social-political, scientific-pedagogical activity of the outstanding scientist B.Akhundov was highly appreciated by the state. He was awarded a number of government awards, including the medals “For Valor of Labor”, “For the Defense of Moscow” and the silver award of the Exhibition of National Economic Achievements of the USSR.
Professor B.Akhundov, the first corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan on economics, the first doctor of economic sciences, died on October 2, 1980.
