Mkrtich Harutyunyan ( hy, Մկրտիչ Գրիգորի Հարությունյան), known by the pen name Mkrtich Armen ( hy, Մկրտիչ Արմեն; December 14, 1906 in

Alexandropol Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

– December 22, 1972 in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

) was a Soviet and Armenian writerBibliomonde
/ref> and poet.

Biography

He was born in Alexandropol (modern-day

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

) to a family of artisans, and studied at the

Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (russian: Всероссийский государственный институт кинематографии имени С. А. Герасимова, meaning ''All-Russian State Institute of Cinemat ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. He wrote novels and short stories that made him famous in his native Armenia and in the wider

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. His

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

is the 1935 novel ''Heghnar aghbyur'' (''The Fountain of Heghnar''), which was later made into a film. He fell out of favor with the authorities, was deported to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, and later released. He published an account of camp life in 1964 and died eight years later in

References

1906 births 1972 deaths 20th-century Armenian novelists 20th-century male writers Soviet novelists People from Gyumri Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Armenian male novelists Armenian novelists {{Armenia-writer-stub