The famous Armenian poet Avetik Isahakyan left behind a huge literary heritage, which at the beginning of the 20th century became available to Russian-speaking readers in translations of A. Blok, V. Bryusov, I. Bunin and B. Pasternak. Of no less interest is the story of his life, which during the years of the existence of the USSR was presented to the public in a carefully edited form. In particular, as early as 20-30 years ago, even in Armenia itself, few knew that the Stalin Prize laureate of the first degree in 1921 took an active part in organizing the operation "Nemesis".
Avetik Isahakyan: biography (childhood)
The poet was born in 1875 in Alexandropol of Erivan province (Russian Empire, now Gyumri, Republic of Armenia). His father - Sahak Isahakyan - was the son of immigrants from the Old Bayazet, who in 1828 were forced to leave their home and leave with the retreating Russian troops in the Shirak Valley.
As a child, little Avo was brought up by his grandmother and mother Almast. As he often noted later, they embodied for him the ideal of an Armenian patriarchal woman, infinitely devoted to her family and ready to endure any deprivation for the sake of her welfare. It was from them that he heard many tales of the legend, which became the basis of the best of his works.
Studying at the seminary
Avetik Isahakyan began to write his first poems at age 11. Soon his family went on a pilgrimage to St. Echmiadzin, where he met with students of the famous Gevorgyan seminary throughout the Christian East. Although the teenager’s knowledge allowed him to pass the entrance exams, the leadership of the educational institution demanded to submit 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 Etchmiadzin in 1889, he was immediately accepted to the 3rd grade of the seminary.
Like the other 150 pupils who came from different parts of Eastern and Western Armenia, in 1891 Avetik Isahakyan took part in student unrest. One of the demands of young people who refused to attend lectures was to free them from the vow of world renunciation, which forbade communication with strangers, with the exception of rare visits with relatives. Having not achieved their goal, many middle-school students, including the future famous poet, left the seminary.
Studying abroad
The knowledge gained at the seminary, where besides theological subjects was paid great attention to teaching foreign languages, helped Avetik Isahakyan on his trip to Europe, during which from 1892 to 1895 he studied philosophy and anthropology at the University of Leipzig. Then the young man traveled to Geneva, where he attended the lectures of G.V. Plekhanov, which made a great impression on him.
Joining the ranks of “Dashnaktsutyun”
Returning to Eastern Armenia, Avetik Isahakyan decided to devote himself to political struggle. With this, he joined the ranks of one of the oldest Armenian political parties, “Dashnaktsutyun,” 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 sent 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 a local university. However, Isahakyan could not stay far away from his homeland, 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 sent to Metekh Prison for 6 months along with representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia.
Life in exile
After making sure that Isahakyan was not amenable to “re-education”, 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 World War I, he was extremely concerned about the plight of the Armenians in Turkey, whom the government of this country suspected of supporting Russia. At the same time, even residents of regions that were thousands of kilometers from the front line were subjected to persecution and pogroms.
In order to prevent the massacre, Isahakyan, together 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 the massacre were unsuccessful, 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 government "triumvirate" Talaat Pasha, to death, most of them lived well in Europe. In 1919, a group of Dashnaktsutyun members embarked on a retaliation plan. They developed the operation "Nemesis", involving the physical destruction of the organizers of the genocide. Isahakyan Avetik Saakovich took an active part in it.
According to the surviving written evidence, he not only tracked down high-ranking Turkish criminals hiding in Germany, but also volunteered for the role of the second shooter, who was supposed to shoot Talaat Pasha if Soghomon Teyleryan missed. The assassination of the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Turkey took place on March 15, 1921 in Berlin. At the same time, Isaakyan’s intervention was not required, and the German court, which turned into a kind of Nuremberg trial of Young Turk criminals, acquitted the Armenian avenger.
Return from exile
In the second half of the thirties of the last century, the Soviet state began to show great activity in the return to the USSR of prominent representatives of the intelligentsia. Among those who were promised full support at home, was Avetik Isahakyan, who repeatedly spoke in the European press in support of many of the initiatives of the young state. He returned to Yerevan in 1936 and was elected Chairman of the Union of Writers of the Armenian USSR, Academician of the Republican Academy of Sciences and 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 poetry about the Motherland, about the difficult share of the ordinary worker and his desire for freedom. A lot in the work of the poet and lyric works, where the love of woman and mother is glorified.
The poetic paraphrases of legends written by him, for example, “The Heart of the Mother” (“Pestilence”), deserve attention. Avetik Isahakyan in this work tells about a young man from whom a cruel beauty demands his mother’s heart as a sign of love. After much hesitation, the distraught young man fulfills her lover's request and kills the 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, will you not get hurt?”
Now you know what a difficult life Avetik Isahakyan lived. The poems in Armenian created by him are heard in all schools in his homeland, and help boys and girls learn the centuries-old wisdom of their people, clothed in poetic form.