Three professors from the University of Leningrad, who will be the first to visit Harvard under a faculty-exchange program proposed three years ago, have applied to the State Department for visas.

Notified of the Soviet action Friday, Edward L. Pattulla, assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, also announced that James H. Billington, assistant professor of History, will lecture at Leningrad in March. Billington in an eighteenth century Russian historian, currently studying in Finland on a leave of absence.

The Soviet professors will arrive at the end of February and spend three weeks to a month lecturing or consulting privately with their American colleagues, Pattullo said. He praised the diversity of fields represented by the Russian scholars--law, history, and physics.

Traveling to the United States under the Lacey-Zarubin agreement will be S.A. Malinin, an expert in international law; V.V. Mavrodin, an eminent Soviet historian; and J.V. Navoshilov, a physicist specializing in quantum mechanics. Pattullo expressed hope that more of the nine invited professors will come to the University.

Others to Visit Leningrad

Two other Harvard professors besides Billington will lecture at the University of Leningrad this pring. Kenneth T. Bainbridge, professor of Physics, noted for his work on the mass spectroscope, and Paul D. Bartlett, Erving Professor of Chemistry and researcher in organic reactions, will leave in April for the Soviet Union.

Pattullo termed the arrival of the Russians "an effort by the Soviets to meet the new Kennedy administration in a spirit of good will."

Three other American universities. Columbia, Indiana, and Yale, are participating in the program with their "sister Institutions," Moscow, Tashkent, and Kiev. Columbia may be the first to follow Harvard in the exchange. Four of its professors will lecture at the University of Moscow and an equal number of Russians will visit the Columbia campus later this year.