Dagestan Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet

founded in Makhachkala in 1950. In 1971 the branch included institutes of physics, geology, and the history of language and literature and sections of economics and biology. It has become the scientific center of the Dagestan ASSR.

The main research trends of the Dagestan Branch are the physics and chemistry of semiconductors, physical thermodynamics, and physical and technical problems of power engineering and geophysics; the study of contemporary geological movements of the earth’s crust and of seismicity in the republic; the study of thermal flows on dry land and in the sea; the study of the problems of the history, archaeology, and ethnography of Dagestan and the history and contemporary development of literatures and literary and unwritten languages of the peoples of Dagestan; and the creation of long-range plans for the development of the economy of the republic.