Biography
Yeghishe Charents (March 13, 1897 - November 27, 1937) was an Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents was one of the most outstanding poets of the twentieth century, touching upon a multitude of topics that ranged from his experiences in the First World War, socialism, and, more prominently, on Armenia and Armenians.
An early champion of communism, Charents joined the Bolshevik party, but as the stalinist terror began in the 1930s, he gradually grew disillusioned with Stalinism and was executed during the 1930s purges.
His works were translated by Valeri Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Arseny Tarkovsky, Louis Aragon and others.
His home at 17 Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan was turned into a museum in 1975. The Armenian city Charentsavan was named after him.
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 P. Makintsyan, H. Surkhatyan, T. Hakhumyan. After the Stalinist terror in 1937 charentsology was banned for 17 years. In 1954 N. Dabaghyan (who previously attacked Charents in the 1930s) published "Yeghishe Charents" critical monograph. Researches on Charents were published by H. Salakhyan, S. Aghababyan, Almast Zakaryan, Anahit Charents, D. Gasparyan and others. ..
