Yeghishe Charents (; March 13, 1897 – November 27, 1937) was an
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
poet, writer and public activist. Charents' literary subject matter ranged from his experiences in the First World War,
socialist revolution
Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...
, and frequently
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
and Armenians.
[ Aghababyan, S. ''«Չարենց, Եղիշե Աբգարի»'' (Charents, Yeghishe Abgari). ]Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia
The ''Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia'' ( hy, Հայկական սովետական հանրագիտարան, ''Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran''; ASE) publishing house was established in 1967 as a department of the Institute of History of the Armen ...
. vol. viii. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) ( hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետության գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիա, ՀՀ ԳԱԱ, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri az ...
, 1982, pp. 670-672. He is recognized as "the main poet of the 20th century" in Armenia.
An early proponent of
communism and the
USSR, the futurist Charents joined the
Bolshevik Party
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
and became an active supporter of
Soviet Armenia, especially during the period of
Lenin's
New Economic Policy (NEP). However, he became disillusioned with direction of the Soviet Union under
Joseph Stalin. He was arrested by the
NKVD during the 1930s
Great Purge, and was killed or died in 1937. However, after Stalin's death, he was exonerated in a 1954 speech by
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik an ...
and was officially
rehabilitated by the Soviet state in 1955 during the
Khrushchev Thaw.
Biography
Early life
Yeghishe Charents was born Yeghishe Abgari Soghomonyan in Kars (Eastern Armenia, then a part of the Russian Empire) in 1897 to a family involved in the
rug trade. His family hailed from the Armenian community of
Maku,
Persian Armenia. He first attended an Armenian elementary school, but later transferred to a Russian technical secondary school in Kars from 1908 to 1912.
He spent much of his time in reading. In 1912, he had his first poem published in the Armenian periodical ''Patani'' (
Tiflis). In 1915, amid the upheavals of the
First World War and the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through th ...
in the
Ottoman Empire, he volunteered to fight in a detachment on the
Caucasian Front.
Political and literary development
Sent to
Van
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
in 1915, Charents was witness to the destruction that the Turkish garrison had laid upon the Armenian population, leaving indelible memories that would later be read in his poems.
He left the front one year later, attending school at the
Shanyavski People's University in Moscow. The horrors of the war and genocide had scarred Charents and he became a fervent supporter of the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
, seeing them as the one true hope to saving Armenia.
[Arnavoudian, Eddie.]
Yeghishe Charents: Poet of Life as Permanent Revolution, Pt. 2
." The Critical Corner. July 11, 2005. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
Charents joined the
Red Army and fought during the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
as a rank and file soldier in Russia (Tsaritsin) and the Caucasus. In 1919, he returned to Armenia and took part in revolutionary activities there.
A year later, he began work at the Ministry of Education as the director of the Art Department. Charents would also once again take up arms, this time against his fellow Armenians, as a rebellion took place against Soviet rule in February 1921.
One of his most famous poems, ''I love the sun-sweet taste of the fruits of Armenia'', a lyric ode to his homeland, was composed in 1920-1921. Charents returned to Moscow in 1921 to study at the Institute of literature and Arts founded by
Valeri Bryusov. In a manifesto issued in June 1922, known as the "Declaration of the Three," signed by Charents, Gevorg Abov, and Azad Veshtuni, the young authors expressed their favour of "proletarian internationalism". In 1921-22 he wrote "Amenapoem" (Everyone's poem), and "Charents-name'", an autobiographical poem. Then, Charents published his satirical novel, ''Land of Nairi'' (Yerkir Nairi), which became a great success and repeatedly published in Russian in Moscow during the life of poet. In August 1934
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
presented him to the Soviet writers' first congress delegates with ''Here is our Land of Nairi''.
The first part of ''Yerkir Nairi'' is dedicated to the description of public figures and places of Kars, and to the presentation of Armenian public sphere. According to Charents, his ''Yerkir Nairi'' is not visible, "it is an incomprehensible miracle: a horrifying secret, an amazing amazement". In the second part of novel, Kars and its leaders are seen during
World War I, and the third part tells about the fall of Kars and the destruction of the dream.
In 1924-1925 Charents went on a seven-month trip abroad, visiting Turkey, Italy (where he met
Avetik Isahakyan
Avetik Sahak Isahakyan ( hy, Ավետիք Սահակ Իսահակյան; October 30, 1875 – October 17, 1957) was a prominent Armenian lyric poet, writer and public activist.
Biography
Isahakyan was born in Alexandropol in 1875. He was edu ...
), France, and Germany. When Charents returned, he founded a union of writers, ''November'', and worked for the state publishing house from 1928 to 1935.
In September 1926, on a street in Yerevan, Charents shot and slightly wounded a woman, Marianna Ayvazyan, the sister of composer
Artemi Ayvazyan, after she had resisted his advances on several occasions. He was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison for the shooting, but served just over a year of his sentence.
In 1930 Charents's book, "Epic Dawn", which consisted of poems he wrote in 1927-30, was published in Yerevan. It was dedicated to his first wife Arpenik.
[Charents. Land of fire: selected poems; ed. by Diana Der Hovanessian, Marzbed Margossian, 1986 - p. 267]
His last collection of poems, "The Book of The Way", was printed in 1933, but its distribution was delayed by the Soviet government until 1934, when it was reissued with some revisions. In this book the author lays out the panorama of Armenian history and reviews it part-by-part.
William Saroyan
William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
met him in 1934 in Moscow and thereafter described him as a courtly, brilliant man who was desperately sad.
Charents also translated many works into Armenian, including "
The Internationale."
Last years and death
Excepting few poems in journals, Charents could publish nothing after 1934 (at the same time, in December 1935 Stalin asked an Armenian delegation how Charents is).
In July 1936, when Soviet Armenian leader
Aghasi Khanjian was killed, Charents wrote a series of seven sonnets. After
Komitas's death he wrote one of his last great works, "Requiem Æternam in Memory of Komitas" (1936).
Actress Arus Voskanyan told about her last visit to Charents: "He looked fragile but noble. He took some morphine and then read some ''Komitas''. When I reached over to kiss his hand he was startled".
He became a
morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. There ...
addict under the pressure of the campaign against him and because he was suffering from colic, caused by a
kidney stone
Kidney stone disease, also known as nephrolithiasis or urolithiasis, is a crystallopathy where a solid piece of material (kidney stone) develops in the urinary tract. Kidney stones typically form in the kidney and leave the body in the urine ...
. The hypodermic needle Charents used for his habit is on exhibit in his museum in Yerevan.
A victim of the Yezhovschina, he was charged for "counterrevolutionary and nationalist activity" and imprisoned during the
Great Purge. He died or was killed on November 29, 1937 under unclear circumstances. It is unknown where his body was buried. All his books were also banned. Charents' younger friend
Regina Ghazaryan buried and saved many of his manuscripts.
Personal life
His first wife was Arpenik Ter-Astvadzatryan, who died in 1927. In 1931 Charents married Izabella Kodabashyan. They had two daughters,
Arpenik and Anahit (b. 1935).
Legacy
Rehabilitation
After Stalin's death,
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik an ...
called for the rehabilitation of Charents in a speech in Yerevan on 11 March 1954.
The speech preceded
Nikita Khrushchev's "
Secret Speech
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
" by two years and set the stage for Charents' official rehabilitation on 9 March 1955, as well as Mikoyan's behind-the-scenes rehabilitation efforts with Soviet Armenian leaders.
Charents' home at 17 Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan was turned into the
Yeghishe Charents House-Museum by Soviet Armenian authorities in 1975. The Armenian city
Charentsavan
Charentsavan ( hy, Չարենցավան), is a town and urban municipal community in the Kotayk Province of Armenia. It was founded in 1947 as ''Lusavan'', and renamed in 1967 after the poet Yeghishe Charents. According to the 2011 census, the p ...
was named after him.
After his rehabilitation, Soviet authorities also issued a commemorative stamp of 40
kopecks honoring Charents in 1958. Another commemorative stamp of 150
Armenian dram
The dram ( hy, դրամ; sign: ֏; abbreviation: դր.; ISO code: AMD) is the currency of Armenia, and is also used in the neighboring unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. It was historically subdivided into 100 luma (). The Central Bank of Arme ...
s as well as a commemorative coin of 100
Armenian dram
The dram ( hy, դրամ; sign: ֏; abbreviation: դր.; ISO code: AMD) is the currency of Armenia, and is also used in the neighboring unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. It was historically subdivided into 100 luma (). The Central Bank of Arme ...
s were issued by the Republic of Armenia in 1997. The new Republic of Armenia currency denomination for 1000 drams carried on one of its two sides the photo of Charents and a famous quotation in Armenian of one of his poems: (
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
) "Ես իմ անուշ Հայաստանի արեւահամ բարն եմ սիրում" (''I love the sun sweet taste of Armenia'').
Pope Francis during his visit to Armenia in 2016 recited a passage from that poem of Charents.
Pope Francis recites Charents at Armenian presidential palace
/ref>
Translations, tributes, critical works
Charents' works were translated by Valeri Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...
, Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
, Arseny Tarkovsky
Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky (russian: link=no, Арсений Александрович Тарковский; 27 May 1989) was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He was predeceased by his son, film director Andrei Tarkovsky.
Biograph ...
, Louis Aragon, Marzbed Margossian, Diana Der Hovanessian, and others. William Saroyan
William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
wrote a short story about Charents in his 1971 book, ''Letters from 74 rue Taitbout
''Letters from 74 Rue Taitbout or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody'' is a book of short stories in the form of letters by William Saroyan. The stories often recollect meetings, relationships, observations, ask questions and wond ...
or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody''.
The first monograph on Charents was published by Simon Hakobyan (1888–1937) in 1924 in Vienna. Among the other researchers of Charents' poetry during that period were Paolo Makintsyan, Harutyun Surkhatyan, Tigran Hakhumyan. After his death, both Charents' works and scholarly works on him were banned for 17 years. In 1954, Norayr Dabaghyan (who previously attacked Charents in the 1930s) published the monograph ''Yeghishe Charents''. In the following decades, research on Charents was published by Hakob Salakhyan, Suren Aghababyan, Garnik Ananyan, Almast Zakaryan, Anahit Charents, David Gasparyan and others.
A chapter in Marc Nichanian's ''Writers of Disaster: Armenian Literature in the Twentieth Century'' focuses on the question of mourning in the poetry of Charents. The edited book ''Charents: Poet of the Revolution,'' co-authored by Nichanian and Vartan Matiossian, includes a collection of scholarly articles about different aspects of Charents' poetry. Krikor Beledian
Krikor Beledian ( hy, Գրիգոր Պըլտեան, born Beirut, 1945) is a prolific Armenian poet, novelist, and literary critic living in France.
After graduating from the Armenian Lyceum Nshan Palandjian of Beirut, he moved to Paris in 1967, w ...
's ''Haykakan futurizm'' (Armenian Futurism, 2009) includes Charents in the study of the development of Futurism in three major centers of Armenian communities: Constantinople from 1910 to 1914; Tbilisi from 1914 to 1923; and Yerevan from 1922 to 1924.
Works
*"Three songs to the sad and pale girl...", poems (1914)
*"Blue-eyed Homeland", poem (1915)
*"Dantesque legend", poem (1915–1916)
*"Soma", poem (1918)
*"Charents-Name", poem (1922)
*"Uncle Lenin", poem (1924)
*"Country of Nairi" (''Yerkir Nairi'') (1926)
*"Epical Sunrise", poems (1930)
*"Book of the Way", poems (1933–34)
See also
*Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through th ...
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
Yeghishe Charents House-Museum in Yerevan
Charents Izabella Movsesovna, wife Yeghishe Charents (rus)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charents, Yegishe
1897 births
1937 deaths
20th-century Armenian writers
20th-century Armenian poets
Armenian communists
Great Purge victims from Armenia
Soviet rehabilitations
People from Kars
Armenian male poets
Russian military personnel of World War I
Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War
Soviet poets
Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union