Birth of Gevorg Emin (September 30, 1919)

This year is the hundredth birth anniversary of Gevorg Emin, one of the fine names of the poetry of Armenia in the second half of the past century, along with Hamo Sahian, Hovhannes Shiraz, Silva Kaputikian, Hrachia Hovhannisian, and especially Paruyr Sevak, who took the mantle after the death of Yeghishe Charents during the Stalinist purges.

He was born Gevorg Muratian on September 30, 1919, in the town of Ashtarak. He was forced to adopt the name Karlen in the 1930s, at a time when there was the so-called “Communist baptisms.” In 1940 he graduated from the school of Hydrotechnics of the Polytechnic Institute “Karl Marx” of Yerevan (now the State Engineering University of Armenia). However, he soon shifted to literature and in the same year published his first book of poetry, Initial Path, in 1940, which he signed Gevorg Emin. He worked from 1940-1942 at the Matenadaran and in the district of Vardenis. He was wounded during his participation in World War II from 1942-1944.

Emin went to study at the studio of Armenian writers, which was attached to the Literary Institute of Moscow, from 1949-1950. He returned to Armenia and became the Yerevan correspondent of the Moscow literary weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta (1951-1954). In 1951 he won the State Prize of the Soviet Union for his collection New Road, published two years before. In 1954 he was back to the Soviet capital and studied until 1956 in the higher literary courses adjunct to the Writers Union of the Soviet Union.

In the Stalin years, Emin had started finding his own voice amid ideological restraints and criticism. His poetry, where the reflections on humanity, his people, and the homeland were matched with a more free style in composition, gained critical attention from the 1960s. Between 1968 and 1972 he was the editor in chief of the monthly Literaturnaya Armenia, published by the Writers Union of Armenia in Russian. Afterwards, he entered the Institute of Art of the Academy of Sciences as a senior researcher. In 1976 he won the State Prize of the Soviet Union for the second time after the publication of his book Land, Love, Century, and in 1979 he won the prize “Charents” in Armenia.

Besides a steady flow of poetry, published in some two dozen books, Emin was also a prolific author of essays, which were collected in several volumes, including Seven Songs about Armenia (1974), the most popular. The latter was derived from his script for the homonymous film, shot in 1967 by Grigor Melik-Avakian, which earned prizes in festivals in Yerevan and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). He was a prolific translator and gathered his best works in Book of Translations (1984). At the same time, his poetry was translated into many languages, including English (Land, Love, and Century, 1988).

Gevorg Emin was always a non-conformist writer, and his essays published in the twilight of the Soviet regime and in the first years of independence brought new elements to understand the immediate past. He passed away on June 11, 1998, at the age of seventy-eight.

Birth of Vakhtang Ananian (August 8, 1905)

Vakhtang Ananian’s name is not the first that comes to mind when talking about Armenian literature in the twentieth century. But he was and is still a very popular writer, especially in Armenia, as the founder of the genre of adventurous literature. His novels instilled love for nature, especially among children and teenagers.

Ananian was born on August 8, 1905, in the village of Poghoskilisa (later Shamakhian), which now has been incorporated into the area of the town of Dilijan. He spent his childhood at the village, where he got his elementary education. At the age of ten he entered the parish school of Dilijan, but he could not afford the tuition and, after two years, he had to leave. He remembered years later: “My period of studies ended. After that, I did not see a real school ever again. My school was mother nature, in whose lap I grew up.”

He would fill the lack of formal education with self-education. At the age of twenty-one, in 1926, Ananian moved to Yerevan. In 1927 he published his first story and in 1930, his first short novel. He worked at the editorial offices of the periodicals Machkal and Sotsialistakan giughtuntesootyoon, and edited the newspaper Kolkhoznik from 1930-1935. He became a member of the Writers Union of Armenia in 1934. From 1941-1945 he fought in World War II.

His stories about Armenian nature, especially hunting, had already attracted the attention of readers. In 1934 he had published a collection of short stories, Prey, followed by Hunting Stories , a series in six volumes (1947-1966). However, he became famous with a novella of adventures, On the Shore of Lake Sevan (1951), which would be translated into more than ten languages. Another of his best works in the genre of young adults was the novella The Prisoners of Hovazadzor (1956). Both On the Shore of Lake Sevan and The Prisoners of Hovazadzor won the “Best Book” award in the all-Soviet contest for the best children’s book, and became the source for the films The Secret of the Mountainous Lake (1954) and The Prisoners of Hovazadzor (1957). Ananian also wrote The Fauna of Armenia, published in four volumes between 1961 and 1966. He combined here his deep knowledge of the subject and his talent as a writer to offer a work of great interest even for scientists.

In the last years of his life, the writer earned several high marks of recognition. In 1968 he was recognized as Emeritus Worker of Culture of Soviet Armenia, and two years later he won the State Prize for the ensemble of his works for children and teenagers. In 1974 he won the annual prize of the Communist Youth of Armenia. He would also be decorated with several medals.

Ananian passed away on March 4, 1980. A middle school in Yerevan bears his name and a stamp honored him in 2006, on the centennial of his birth.