On the picture Viktor Hambartsumyan, Nikita Khrushchev, Yakov Zarobyan and Anton Kochinyan at the Byurakan Observatory.
1961.
Viktor Hambartsumyan's activities in the Armenian SSR.
In 1943, at the height of the war, the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR was created in Yerevan. Hambartsumyan agreed to work there and move to Yerevan. Soon he was elected a full member of the Academy and appointed its vice-president. By the way, by that time he was already a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Victor Hambartsumyan was sure that astronomical personnel should be trained in Armenia. In 1944, under his leadership, the Department of Astrophysics was created at Yerevan University. But the university observatory, which was located within the city limits, in a park between the university and the Polytechnic Institute, was in a very miserable state. This meant that a new and modern one had to be built. The Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory was opened in 1946 on the outskirts of the village of Byurakan, 36 kilometers from Yerevan. The observatory is located on the southern slope of Mount Aragats at an altitude of 1490 meters above sea level. Hambartsumyan became its first director and continued to lead it until 1988. Here, in Byurakan, he lived most of his life - 53 years. In 1947, Hambartsumyan was elected president of the Armenian Academy of Sciences and remained in this post until 1993, after which he became its honorary president.
