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Abstract: Many known results on finite von Neumann algebras are generalized, by purely algebraic proofs, to a certain class of finite Baer *-rings. The results in this paper can also be viewed as a study of the properties of Baer *-rings in the class . First, we show that a finitely generated module over a ring from the class splits as a direct sum of a finitely generated projective module and a certain torsion module. Then, we define the dimension of any module over a ring from and prove that this dimension has all the nice properties of the dimension studied in [W. Lück, J. Reine Angew. Math. 495 (1998) 135–162] for finite von Neumann algebras. This dimension defines a torsion theory that we prove to be equal to the Goldie and Lambek torsion theories. Moreover, every finitely generated module splits in this torsion theory. If R is a ring in , we can embed it in a canonical way into a regular ring Q also in . We show that is isomorphic to by producing an explicit isomorphism and its inverse of monoids that extends to the isomorphism of and . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]