The beginnings of the university can be traced to 1937, with Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute's opening of the School of Foreign Languages. In 1940, the Azerbaijan Communist Party decreed that a separate Institute of Foreign Languages be formed, but the outbreak of World War II caused the new Institute to quickly fold back into Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute. After the war, the government of Azerbaijan SSR created the Azerbaijan Institute of Foreign Languages in 1948, but it was folded into the Azerbaijan Institute of Russian Language and Literature in 1959.