Armenian writer and activist (1875?1957)
Avetik Sahaki Isahakyan
(
Armenian
:
?????? ?????? ?????????
; October 30, 1875 – October 17, 1957) was a prominent
Armenian
lyric poet, writer and public activist.
Biography
[
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]
Isahakyan was born in
Alexandropol
(present-day Gyumri, Armenia) in 1875. He was educated at the
Gevorgian Seminary
in
Etchmiadzin
, and later at the
University of Leipzig
, where he studied
philosophy
and
anthropology
. He started his literary as well as political careers in his early youth. Upon his return from
Leipzig
in 1895 he entered the ranks of the newly established Alexandropol committee of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
. Through his activities he supported armed groups and financial aid sent to
Ottoman Armenia
from Alexandropol. He was arrested in 1896 and spent a year in
Yerevan
’s prison.
Later Isahakyan went abroad, attending literature and history of philosophy classes at the
University of Zurich
. He returned to his homeland in 1902, and then moved to
Tiflis
(modern-day Tbilisi).
Together with 158 other Armenian intellectuals, he was arrested in 1908 and after spending half a year in Tiflis's Metekha prison (just like
Hovhannes Tumanyan
), he was freed on bail. Staying in the
Caucasus
was no longer possible, and by 1911 Isahakyan had emigrated.
Isahakyan did not believe the promises made by the government of the
Young Turks
regarding self-government and autonomy of Ottoman Armenia. Assured that the danger of
Pan-Turkism
(which he believed was aimed at the total extinction of Armenians) could be prevented by
Turkey
’s supporter,
Germany
, Isahakyan went to Berlin. There, together with a number of German intellectuals, he participated in the German-Armenian movement, and edited the group’s journal
Mesrob
and co-founded
German?Armenian Society
. The start of
World War I
and the horrifying massacres confirmed his gruesome predictions about the annihilating nature of the Young Turks government's policies. After the war and the
Armenian genocide
, Isahakyan described through his compositions the Armenians' sorrowful destiny and their heroic struggle for freedom. The poet put forward the genocide accusations, the worst part of which had taken place between 1915 and 1922, in "The White Book". During that period, Isahakyan expressed his ideas mainly through his social and political articles, in which he discussed the topics of the Armenian cause, reunification of Armenia and the restoration of the Armenian government. The images of the massacres are persistent in his poems, such as "Snow has Covered Everything...", "To Armenia...", and "Here Comes Spring Again".
Korney Chukovsky
met him in
Kislovodsk
in 1926 and wrote in his diary:
I've just had a visit from four Armenians, one of whom, Avetik Isaakyan, is a well-known poet. I can't tell you what a nice man he is: modest, quiet, completely unaffected. He spent a fortnight here without anyone's knowing who he was. Yet his fame is such that when I mentioned him to our Armenian barber, he immediately beamed and started reciting his poetry in Armenian. The shoeshine man had the same reaction: "Avetik! Avetik!" He has a sad, absent look about him. They say the regime (which pays him a small pension) won't let him visit his family abroad. I was surprised to find that he was unable to recite even four lines of his verse in Armenian when I asked him to: he's forgotten everything. And when we had an Armenian evening and his poems were read from the podium he just sat there in the audience, hunched forward, his hands over his face. He refused to go out on the podium or utter a single word.
[1]
Isahakyan again went abroad in 1930 and lived in
Paris
, but returned permanently to the
Armenian SSR
in 1936, where he was elected to the
Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR
in 1943 and president of the
Writers Union of the Armenian SSR
in 1944. He was awarded the
Stalin State Prize
in 1946, served as a member of the Soviet Committee for Protection of Peace, and was a deputy of the II-IV Supreme Soviets of the
Armenian SSR
.
He was awarded the
Order of Lenin
twice and decorated with other medals.
Seeing that Gyumri's famous satirist
Poloz Mukuch
did not have a tombstone twenty years after his death, Isahakyan ordered one, with the side of the tombstone reading "To Poloz Mukuch (Mkrtich Ghazarosi Melkonyan); and the other side: "A memento from the poet Avetik Isahakyan."
[2]
Avetik Isahakyan died in
Yerevan
in 1957. He is buried at
Komitas Pantheon
, which is located in the city center of Yerevan.
[3]
Works
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]
Upon his release from the prison, 1897, he published first compilation of his poems "Songs and Wounds", however soon was arrested again for his activities "against Russia's Tsar" and sent to
Odessa
. The lyricism, emotional charge and melody of his poems earned him immediate popularity. His best works are filled with sorrow and lament meditations about the fate of the humanity, injustice of life. His compositions are penetrated with love to one's motherland and people.
Between 1899 and 1906 he wrote "The Songs of Haiduks", a compilation of poems that became the first creation within classical Armenian poetry dedicated to the Armenian freedom struggle.
A symbolic story portraying the Armenian politics and Armenian cause of the 19th early 20th centuries must have been "Usta Karo", an unfinished novel, the work on which had accompanied the writer through all his life. "Usta Karo will be done on the day when the Armenian cause is resolved", the master himself used to say. Ishakyan could not get used the idea of a dismembered Armenia. With a deep emotional pain and bitterness in his heart he continued to believe that a time would come when the Armenian people would return to their native shores.
Isahakyan returned to the
Soviet Armenia
in 1926 where he published a new collection of his poems and stories (e.g. "A Pipe of Patience" - 1928). Between 1930 and 1936 he lived abroad where he acted as a friend of the
Soviet Union
. He later had finally moved back to Armenia where he continued his enormous social work. Among his works of that time are famous "Our historians and Our Minstrels" (1939), "To my Motherland" (1940), "Armenian Literature" (1942) or "Sasna Mher" (1937).
His poems are those of love and sorrow. One of his best known works is the philosophical poem "Abu-Lala Mahari" (1909?1911), while his other well-known works include "Songs and Novels" and "The Mother's Heart". Being a romantic, Isahakyan was best known for his verse "On the Bridge of Realto" dedicated to his first love. During the
Second World War
of 1941?1945, he wrote patriotic poems like "Martial Call" (1941), "My Heart is at the Mountains' Top" (1941), "To the Undying Memory of S. G. Zakyan" (1942), "The Day of the Great Victory" (1945) and many other. The
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
characterized his creative work as "filled with
humanism
, and a great respect for human dignity" and "deeply connected with the history and culture of the Armenian people, embracing the best traditions of
Russian
and world literature." The Russian poet
Alexander Blok
characterized him as a "first class poet, fresh and simple, whom one, perhaps, cannot find in
Europe
anymore."
[5]
Isahakyan's works have been translated in many languages and his poems have been used as lyrics for songs.
Legacy
[
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]
One of the busiest streets of Yerevan, stretching for 1.1 km from Nalbandyan Street to
Baghramyan Avenue
in Yerevan's
Kentron district
, is named after Isahakyan.
[6]
The bronze-granite statue of Avetik Isahakyan by sculptor
Sargis Baghdasaryan
and architect Liparit Sadoyan was opened in 1965 in
Yerevan
Circular Park
[7]
The
first public library of Yerevan
opened on Amiryan Street in 1935 was named after Avetik Isahakyan in 1955, on his 80th birthday.
Isahakyan's portrait appears on the Armenian 10,000
dram
bill. It was also featured on an Armenian postage stamp in 2000 and a Soviet postage stamp in 1975.
See also
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
Kornei Chukovsky,
Diary, 1901-1969
(Yale University Press, 2005:
ISBN
0-300-10611-4
), p. 234.
- ^
Jallatyan, Karen (2010-12-28).
"Flashing Gyumri before my eyes - a look into my birthplace"
.
Armenian Youth Federation
. Archived from
the original
on 2021-01-30
. Retrieved
2021-01-30
.
On the one side of the gravestone is carved 'To Poloz Mukuch (Mkrtich Ghazarosi Melqonyan); on the other side, 'A memento from the poet Avetik Isahakyan.'
- ^
Isahakyan's memorial tombstone at Komitas Pantheon
- ^
"Monuments of Yerevan"
.
Yerevan Municipality
. Retrieved
2021-01-30
.
Avetik Isahakyan, scul. S. Baghdasaryan, arch. L. Sadoyan Bronze, granite, 1965
- ^
Исаакян Аветик Саакович
in the
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
, 1969?1978 (in Russian)
- ^
"On Yerevan Streets: Isahakyan"
.
Public Television Company of Armenia
. Retrieved
2021-01-30
.
One of the busiest streets of Yerevan starts from Nalbandyan Street and ends in Baghramyan Avenue.
- ^
"Monuments of Yerevan"
.
Yerevan Municipality
. Retrieved
2021-01-30
.
Avetik Isahakyan, scul. S. Baghdasaryan, arch. L. Sadoyan Bronze, granite, 1965
Further reading
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External links
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