Avetik Isahakyan: biography and creativity

The well-known Armenian poet Avetik Isahakyan left behind a huge literary heritage, which in the early 20th century became available to Russian-speaking readers in the translations of A. Blok, V. Bryusov, I. Bunin and B. Pasternak. Of no less interest is the history of his life, which in the years of the existence of the USSR was presented to the public in a carefully edited form. In particular, even 20-30 years ago, even in Armenia itself, very few people knew that the laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree in 1921 took an active part in the organization of the operation "Nemesis".

Avetik Isahakyan: biography (childhood)

The poet was born in 1875 in Alexandropol, Erivan province (Russian Empire, now Gyumri, Republic of Armenia). His father, Sahak Isahakyan, was the son of settlers from the Old Bayazet, who in 1828 were forced to leave their home and leave with the retreating Russian troops to Shirak valley.

As a child, little Avo was brought up by his grandmother and mother Almast. As he often noted later, they personified for him the ideal of an Armenian patriarchal woman, endlessly devoted to her family and ready to tolerate any deprivation for her welfare. It was from them that he heard many fairy tales, which became the basis of the best of his works.

Studying in seminary

Avetik Isahakyan began to write his first poems at the age of 11. Soon his family went on a pilgrimage to St. Etchmiadzin, where he met with students of the seminary known throughout the Christian East Gevorgyan. Although the knowledge of the adolescent allowed him to pass the entrance exams, the management of the school required the presentation of documents on primary education, which Isahakyan did not have. Then his parents were advised to send his son for a year to school at the Archinsky Monastery. There Avetik showed great diligence, and, returning to Echmiadzin in 1889, was immediately enrolled in the third form of the seminary.

Like other 150 pupils who arrived from different parts of Eastern and Western Armenia, Avetik Isahakyan took part in student riots in 1891. One of the requirements of young people who refused to attend lectures was to release them from the vow of renunciation, forbidding communication with strangers, except for rare visits with relatives. Not having achieved its goal, many middle-class students, including the future famous poet, left the seminary.

Studying abroad

The knowledge gained in the seminary, in addition to theological subjects, was given great attention to the teaching of foreign languages, helped Avetik Isahakian on his journey through Europe, during which from 1892 to 1895 he studied philosophy and anthropology at the University of Leipzig. Then the young man visited Geneva, where he attended lectures of GV Plekhanov, who made a huge impression on him.

Entry into the ranks of "Dashnaktsutyun"

Returning to Eastern Armenia, Avetik Isahakyan decided to devote himself to political struggle. With this, he joined the ranks of "Dashnaktsutyun", one of the oldest Armenian political parties, illegally operating on the territory of the Russian Empire. His active work did not go unnoticed, and in 1896 the poet was arrested and spent a year in Erivan prison, after which he was deported to Odessa.

Having obtained permission to go abroad, he went to Zurich, where he attended a course of lectures on literature and the history of philosophy at the local university. However, Isaakyan could not stay away from his homeland for long, and, returning to Alexandropol in 1902, again became involved in the revolutionary struggle against tsarism. She demanded his presence in Tiflis, where the poet was again arrested in 1908 and sentenced to six months in the Metekhi prison together with representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia.

Life in exile

Convinced that Isahakyan refuses to "re-educate", the authorities decided to expel him from the territory of the Russian Empire. In 1911, the poet was forced to leave the country and settled in Germany. At the beginning of the First World War, he was extremely concerned about the plight of the Armenians in Turkey, whom the government of the country suspected of supporting Russia. In this case, even residents of the provinces who were thousands of kilometers from the front line were subjected to persecutions and pogroms.

In order to prevent the massacre, Isahakyan, along with Johannes Lepsius and Paul Rohrbach, organized the German-Armenian society, which was to draw the attention of the Western public to the plight of Eastern Christians. However, all attempts to prevent massacres did not have any success, and in 1915 the allies of Germany, the Young Turks, successfully realized one of their main tasks-the liberation of Western Armenia from the indigenous population through its genocide.

Avetik Isahakyan: role in operation "Nemesis"

Although after the end of the First World War, Turkey itself condemned the organizers of the massacre of Armenians and sentenced some, including one of the members of the governmental "triumvirate" Talaat Pasha, in absentia to death, most of them lived well in Europe. In 1919 a group of members of the "Dashnaktsutyun" started to implement a plan of retribution. They developed the operation "Nemesis", which presupposes the physical destruction of the organizers of the genocide. Isaakyan Avetik Saakovich took an active part in it.

According to the surviving written testimonies, he not only tracked the high-ranking Turkish criminals who were hiding in Germany, but also volunteered for the role of the second shooter who had to shoot Talaat Pasha if Sogomon Teileryan missed. The murder of the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Turkey took place on March 15, 1921 in Berlin. In this case, Isaakian's intervention was not required, and the German court, which turned into a kind of Nuremberg trial of the Young Turkic criminals, justified the Armenian avenger.

Return from emigration

In the second half of the thirties of the last century the Soviet state began to show great activity in the return of prominent representatives of the intelligentsia to the USSR. Among those who were promised full support at home, was Avetik Isahakyan, who repeatedly appeared in the European press in support of many initiatives of the young state. He returned to Yerevan in 1936 and was elected Chairman of the Union of Writers of the Armenian Soviet Union, Academician of the Republican Academy of Sciences and a deputy of the Supreme Council. The poet died in 1957 and was buried in the city Pantheon of Yerevan.

Creation

The main thing that Avetik Isahakyan is known for is poems about the Motherland, about the heavy share of the ordinary worker and his desire for freedom. Quite a lot in the poet's work and lyrical works, where the love for the woman and mother is glorified.

Attention deserve written by him poetic retelling of legends, for example, "Mother's Heart" ("Mor sirt"). Avetik Isahakyan in this work tells of a young man from whom a cruel beauty demands the heart of his mother as a sign of love. After a long hesitation, a distraught young man fulfills a beloved's request and kills a woman who brought him into the world. When he hurries to his chosen one, he stumbles, and the mother's heart in his hands exclaims: "My poor boy, have you hurt yourself?"

Now you know what a difficult life lived Avetik Isahakyan. Verses in Armenian, created by him, sound in all schools in his homeland, and help boys and girls to learn the age-old wisdom of their people, clothed in a poetic form.